Salem Film Fest
2018 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Massachusetts | Mass Reality Check college documentary shorts program at SFF 2018 | Watch Online Now | Jury Award Winner
The Field
Passion, strength, and dedication in every field.
2017 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Massachusetts | |
Praying For Change
A documentary on homelessness and the journey of Leroy Bailey who’s God-appointed mission is to walk the perimeter of the United States, raising awareness and money to build shelters and hope centers across the country for the homeless.
2017 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Massachusetts | |
Pan-
A video portrait of Christina Nealis talking about her sexual orientation, including the journey of self-discovery and struggles of being pan-sexual.
2017 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Massachusetts | |
The Sisters
An intimate portrait documentary about a woman who runs an antique shop in downtown Boston.
2016 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Massachusetts | Watch Online Now |
The First Thought
A mother learns to let go of her son who is addicted to heroin.
2016 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Massachusetts | |
Going the Distance
At the 121st annual Penn Relays track meet in Philadelphia, three runners prove that age is just a number as they compete in a 75-and-older 100m dash.
2016 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Experimental | Massachusetts | Watch Online Now |
Memorial
Craftsmen are dwarfed by giant, abstract sculpture in Memorial, an experimental documentary. Monumental sculptures appear first as silhouettes, emphasizing their geometric purity and reminding us that cinema itself is act of reduction and representation. Human craftsmen provide scale, and the eyes through which we perceive the work. Crawling about and even soaring, God-like, over the rusty plates and tubes, they simultaneously humanize and deify this inanimate work. Archival footage introduces a sense of temporality, and asks us to consider how the scales of time differ for humans and our creations.
Memorial chronicles the complete lifecycle of its steel subject, but leaves the biggest question—why must it be destroyed?—to the audience. In considering this, we confront our own mortality and choices to express ourselves through art, even if it will not outlast us.
2016 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Maine | Vermont | | Audience Award Winner
Dunk Tank Clowns
Three men work as dunk tank clowns in carnivals across the north-east. The job requires quick wit, a thick skin and physical stamina. It was once easy money – but times have changed.
We learn the tricks of the trade – how to lure the suckers, how to work the crowd.
Tom has a “Sunday school” game – good-natured and witty. Terry pushes the boundaries of taste – and the crowd gets ugly in response. Kenny, the veteran, just seems a bit tired. They blame dwindling interest on “political correctness.”
2016 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Massachusetts | Watch Online Now |
Portle
Matt Portle and I started off as strangers. This narrative documentary is about how we became friends.
2015 Online New England Film Festival | Salem Film Fest | Documentary | Massachusetts | Watch Online Now | Jury Award Winner
Curley: A Historiophoty by Billy Palumbo
Through a series of looping, black and white shots, the life and legacy of Boston’s notorious James Michael Curley is interrogated, alongside the traditions of history-telling, utility of the past, and commodification of memory. Just as James Michael Curley challenged and redefined the dominant politics of early 20th century Boston; just as Curley’s legacy has been simplified and sanitized; just as history in general blunts and sculpts facts to meet an end; Curley: A Historiophoty by Billy Palumbo challenges narrativization, chronology, linearity, and objectivity in history-telling not in a search for truth but a quest for questions.