NewEnglandFilm.com

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Note: As Publisher and Founder of NewEnglandFilm.com, I wanted to post that I have recently resigned from the AIVF board which I was elected to over a year and a half ago.  Feel free to get in touch with me directly at michele@newenglandfilm.com if you have questions.

On May 3rd, a new group, the Massachusetts Production Coalition, will hold it’s first General Meeting scheduled at the American Repertory’s new Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square, Cambridge from 6:30 – 9pm. (For directions, visit www.amrep.org/venues/zarrow/).  The meeting is designed to present MPC’s progress, provide information on planned initiatives including vital tax legislation, and to welcome input and participation from the production community at large.

Images Cinema and the Contemporary Artists Center (CAC) will present the 3rd Annual 24-Hour Goosechase and Free-For-All, which kicks off Saturday, May 7 at 11am. This free event is an opportunity for videomakers of all levels of experience to shoot, edit, and screen a video all within 24 hours. For more information, call 413-458-1039 or visit www.imagescinema.org. 

"Land of College Prophets," the comedy-fantasy from the Southington, Connecticut-based Hale Manor Productions, won top honors at the 2005 B-Movie Film Festival.  "Land of College Prophets" won five awards, including Best Picture, at the B-Movie Film Festival, a celebration of low-budget/high-imagination cinema held at the newly-restored Palace Theater in Syracuse, New York.

Robin Dawson and Laura Yellen of the Mass Film Bureau recently requested support for Senate Bill #1843 http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/st01/st01843.htm.  The bill includes tax incentives for Massachusetts filmmaking and would affirm the Film Bureau’s place as the sole film office of the state, over the Massachusetts Sports and Entertainment Commission.

Tracy Heather Strain’s film "Building the Alaska Highway" will screen on May 10, 2005 at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square and feature a Q&A with the filmmaker.  This American Experience presentation tells the story of nearly eleven thousand Army Engineers who battled freezing temperatures, ice and snow, mountains, mud, muskeg and mosquitoes to blaze a 1500-mile road through one of the harshest landscapes in North America, and take a huge step forward in defending the nation from threats in the Pacific. See www.pbs.org/amex/alaska for more information on the film.

The University of New Hampshire at Manchester presents a reading of "Dead Start," the pilot episode of a 13-episode dramatic comedy written by UNH Manchester students enrolled in Special Topics in Applied Communication: Advanced Short Scriptwriting on Tuesday, May 3rd from 12:00 to 1:00 PM. The Dead Start reading is part of UNH Manchester’s Brown Bag Lecture Series. The series features current research and work of UNH Manchester faculty, students, and staff. The reading of Dead Start is free and open to the public. UNH Manchester is located at 400 Commercial Street, Manchester, NH.

Glastonbury-based Lightpost Media LLC will be filming their second independent feature "Hire a Liar" in CT, NY and NJ. The project is shooting at various sites in Bolton, Soundview and Glastonbury.

Organizers of the First Annual Camden International Film Festival have announced the festival will take place on September 30 through October 2 and focus on the documentary form. For  more information, go to www.camdenfilmfest.org.

Boston’s Gamma Ray Digital has re-mastered "Rock & Rule," the animated cult classic featuring Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Cheap Trick, which will be re-released in a  restored DVD in June 2005.