2014 Online New England Film Festival

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DUÆL: Lee + Man

Sep 2014

2014 | Directed by Anthony Sherin & Tabitha Vevers

The dynamics of the stormy love affair between legendary artists Man Ray and Lee Miller are expressed through the varying rhythms of two metronomes bearing images of their eyes. When in sync the dual eyes appear as those of a single face—at other times the pendulums become swords sparring with each other. Drawing on Man Ray’s Object to be Destroyed and photographs they took of each other, DUÆL: Lee + Man captures Man Ray’s lifelong obsession with Lee Miller as it was expressed through the dozens of metronomes he created of her.

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The Last Irene; Where Did All the Water Come From?

Sep 2014

2013 | Directed by Teo Erik Zagar

A collaborative effort between Vermont Institute of Science and Professor Cathleen Geiger, a geoscientist at the University of Delaware, who resides in West Hartford, VT, this film profiles Tropical Storm Irene and its impact on Vermont. The film demonstrates how Irene was both major environmental event and a major life event for Vermonters, and in doing so, offers a “teachable moment” for explaining the science of extreme weather events.

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Empyrean

Sep 2014

2013 | Directed by Sophia Savage

Death makes us want to hold on. Empyrean is about finding the grace in letting go. Sadie’s father, Jim, is dying of brain cancer. It’s only been two months since the diagnosis but he’s already lost his sense of reality – his mind and memory are slipping away even faster than his body. It’s Sadie’s turn to help her mother care for Jim as he runs out the time on the days or weeks that he has left, but the beautiful, rugged landscape that they call home has become a threat as his behavior grows more erratic.

Sadie tries to maintain her strength, but the approach quickly deteriorates throughout restless nights and hazy days as she realizes the peace she hoped to make with her father now seems out of reach — it’s too late for goodbyes and apologies – there’s just the here and now, and the comfort to be found in seeing her father as a man who needs to be released from this world as gently as possible, even if it breaks her heart.

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The Perfect Buddy

Sep 2014

2013 | Directed by Michael Parks Randa

In an effort to cure his loneliness, a retired scientist goes back to the lab for one last experiment: to create the perfect buddy.

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Epilogue

Sep 2014

2014 | Directed by Dylan Allen

At the end of his greatest adventure, Skillman has vanquished his nemesis, recovered the priceless artifact, and saved his latest lover from certain doom. But as he struggles to figure out what comes next, his lady begins to realize her confident, capable man hasn’t the first clue what to do once the guns are down.

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The Silly Bastard Next to the Bed

Sep 2014

2014 | Directed by Scott Calonico

JFK handles a scandal over some pricey bedroom furniture in the last summer of his presidency.

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Far From C3

Sep 2014

2014 | Directed by Michaela O'Brien

Far from C3 is a documentary short which traces the story of Paw Wah, an ethnic Karen woman who was forced from her village by Burmese soldiers to a refugee camp in Thailand. Woven together with archival footage of the Mae La refugee camp where Paw Wah spent seven years of her life, the film highlights her memories of relocation to Worcester, Massachusetts and deals broadly with the experiences of alienation and isolation often times felt by displaced people building lives far from their native countries.

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Toby MacNutt: Body of Work

Sep 2014

2013 | Directed by Ashley DeLucco & Elizabeth Rossano

In this short documentary, a Vermont fiber and dance artist demonstrates how self-expression and personal adversities are inextricably bound. What do her two forms have in common? Her self-described “New England work ethic” has something to do with it.

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Here and Now

Sep 2014

2013 | Directed by Julian Higgins

Over the course of a summer weekend, a young married couple contemplate the future of their strained relationship, reflecting back on the times when they were most in love. Starring Abigail Spencer (Rectify, Mad Men, Suits) and Josh Pence (The Social Network, The Dark Knight Rises, Draft Day), Here and Now was selected by Ron Howard as the winner of Canon’s “Project Imaginat1on” Contest.

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Monsura is Waiting

Sep 2014

Monsura is Waiting
2014 | Directed by Kevin Newbury

Down-and-out middle-aged sisters Betty and Dot have spent the past fifteen years performing a vaudeville act inspired by classic 1960’s Japanese horror movies. As the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur, Dot longs to escape the world of ‘The Two Tiny Beauties of Infant Island,’ while Betty begins to believe that Monsura is actually coming to save her.