NewEnglandFilm.com

This year marks the fifth year of the Online New England Film Festival. In five short years, the festival has grown from a selection of 19 films from 6 partner festivals, to over 30 films from 12 partner festivals. The Online New England Film Festival brings together filmmakers from around New England showcasing films shot around the world — all on our site for free for 45 days! You can laugh, you can cry, you can gasp, you can cheer, and you can do it all in your pajamas if you want to.

For the 2013 festival, we’re bringing you films from 12 amazing local film festivals: Boston International Film Festival, Boston Student Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, KahBang Film Festival, Maine International Film Festival, New Hampshire Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Somewhat North of Boston Film Festival, Vermont International Film Festival, WAM! Boston Film Festival, and Woods Hole Film Festival. Each film festival selected some of their favorite New England films to present, and the result is a breathtaking range of heartfelt dramas, edge-of-your-seat suspense, thought-provoking experimental films, absurd comedies, eye-opening documentaries, and stunning animation.

Drama

From inner worlds to outer space, this year’s dramas range from the baseball diamond to the next great tech company. Norman Lang’s Subscription (Woods Hole) asks what happens to our privacy when entrepreneurs are chasing the next Facebook. Meanwhile, Patrick Jerome’s Day By Day (Boston International) heads to devastated post-earthquake Haiti to follow two boys searching for their family. Peter Ferris Rosati’s Le Blue Stella (Boston Student) brings to life the inner world of two boys in a spaceship trying to escape the real world’s harsh realities. Talin Avakian’s Demi Pointe (SNOB) also explores the inner world of a girl who loves of dancing and fears speaking. In Bob Lucas’s The Perfect Day for a Picnic (Rhode Island), Howard must face the strange changes in his bedridden wife. For Jean-Marc Le Doux’s The Save (New Hampshire), the bases are loaded and it’s the bottom of the ninth, but, for the pitcher on the mound, ‘this was never about a game.’

Action/Suspense

Get your adrenaline pumping with this year’s film noirs, drug deals gone wrong, and mysterious murderers. To start with, Hitler, clowns, and monsters come together when a comic book artist’s drawings start coming to life in Andrew Wood’s Sketch (Boston Student). In Alexander Christof Mackowiak’s The Wild (Green Mountain), a heroin addict’s revenge turns out “much worse and more bizarre than he imagined.” He could certainly relate to what happens in Liam O’Connor Generaux’s Get a Life (Green Mountain), which puts a “dark, slightly surreal twist on the traditional ‘Genie-granting-wishes’ tale.” Jake Bann’s Good Taste (Boston International) is an appetizing black comedy about a dinner date filled with dark secrets. Meanwhile, Derek Dubois’s Fallout (Rhode Island) explores the relationship between two brothers stuck in a fallout shelter, post apocalypse. William Peters’s Exit 7A (SNOB) asks what would you do if you picked up a hitchhiker bent on murdering someone. And in Tim Joy’s Steel Rendezvous (Vermont), an unconventional private eye finds himself heading for a trap.

Experimental

Our two experimental films both examine painful relationships. Daphna Mero’s Cotton Candy (WAM!) “combines elements from Video-art, Video-dance and fictional-cinema” to paint a haunting picture of what it is like to experience an assault. Geoffrey King’s A Descending Man (Boston Student) asks its main character to choose between “mutual infidelity and a true chance at love, or misplaced loyalty and unhappiness.”

Comedy

The 2013 comedies blend the absurd and the relatable for a bizarre comic cocktail. Tyler Spindel’s Love and Germophobia (New Hampshire) forces David to come to terms with his worst fear: a germy girlfriend. Meanwhile, Mike Robida’s Vanilla (Maine) asks Chuck to choose between his medical condition and his new love “with an impulsive, foul-mouthed thespian.” Kyp Pilalas’s Date? (SNOB) asks the eternal question, was that a date or not?

Michael Panenka’s mockumentary Flippy Day (KahBang) celebrates the crazy characters of the roller rink. Richard Griffin’s A Date With Your Family (Boston International) turns the 1950s informational film on its head. Aidan Rea Payne’s Filmmaking (Woods Hole) poses deep questions about the nature of art and filmmaking in under a minute. And William Peters’s The Checkup (SNOB) introduces us all to the medical malady: “baby genitals.”

Documentary

This year’s documentaries offer a fresh perspective on everything from adoption to creativity, accessibility to sexuality. Eric P. Gulliver’s Constraints (Camden) explores ‘the tenuous line between ‘art’ and ‘pornography” in the story of a former nude model looking back on her internet career. You can’t call Marnie Crawford Samuelson’s Selina Trieff Will Not Stop (Woods Hole) a career retrospective, though, because the 79-year-old ‘fearless American artist’ refuses to stop painting. Sky Sabin’s Art is a Verb (Woods Hole) asks what it means to be creative and what advice that creative people have to offer. Erin Murphy’s Something Different (Maine) brings us to the lone water-powered grain mill in an electric world. And Michael Havey’s Trails For Everyone (SNOB) introduces the Crotched Mountain, a unique network of fully accessible nature trails.

Several documentaries head overseas. Jeffrey Lin’s Raising Emma (Boston Student) profiles the life of Emma, who left the orphanages in China behind to grow up as an Asian American. Edward Nef’s Mongolia — Mining Challenges a Civilization (Vermont) may have changed the fate of Mongolia with its hard look at traditional, rural Mongolia’s future in the world of industrial mining.

Animation

These four fantastic animation films showcase four completely different styles and subjects. Steven Subotnick’s Fight (Rhode Island) draws on 19th century almanacks and posters to create a stunning “showdown between two motley characters.” Yoni Goodman’s The Story of Cholera (Vermont) brings the danger of cholera to life in a vivid tale that’s been seen in over 190 countries. Shamus Alley’s music video Back Around (KahBang) meanders through the “non-linear landscape” or Portland, Maine. And Golden Sweet’s You Are Meow (WAM!) takes on issues of plastic surgery and body image with one cat, one Barbie doll, and less than 60 seconds.

At this year’s festival, there’s truly something for everybody. And your views count — in October, we’ll be announcing the Audience Award for the film in each category with the most views. So get back in your pajamas and watch away!