2010 Online New England Film Festival

| | | |

God Hates…

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

God Hates…
2009 | Directed by Graham Raubvogel

God Hates… explores the Westboro Baptist Church’s visit to Vermont to protest gays, Jews, Catholics, and pretty much anyone that’s not them. Through a diverse set of interviewees, a unique contrast of experienced and youthful perspectives are offered on First Amendment privileges, social activism, and the “correct” response to this vehement hate speech.

| | | | |

Inside the Outside: A Profile of the Top Drawer Art Center

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

Inside the Outside: A Profile of the Top Drawer Art Center
2008 | Directed by Leigh Medeiros

Inside the Outside: A Profile of the Top Drawer Art Center takes a look at an innovative Rhode Island-based arts center serving the developmentally-disabled population. Understanding that the Top Drawer Art Center is a microcosm of the larger ‘outsider art’ movement, the film reflects on the artists’ place in society and in the art world at large. The immediacy of the artists’ work, their lack of self-consciousness around making it, and the experimental use of materials become a source of inspiration for the artists and the people around them. Three of the art center’s nationally-recognized artists Brian Lamora, Emmitt Estrada, and Katrina Cathcart are featured prominently. This film won 2nd place in the 2008 Providence Film Festival.

| | | |

Insurgency of Ambition

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

Insurgency of Ambition
2009 | Directed by Anya Belkina

Insurgency of Ambition was conceived in the wake of short-lived US military successes in Iraq. Using the classic icon of victory—a Triumphal Arch—as a visual metaphor, the film questions the relevance of “victory” memes at the time of globalization. Operating on a more intimate level, it ponders the cost of unrestrained personal ambition.

The short opens with Zeus’s allegorical transformation into a Triumphal Arch, during which Athena violently erupts from his head. Athena’s association with both wisdom and war is oxymoronic, for what kind of wisdom is armed with weapons? She is Zeus’s mind disease, a chimera of conquest, all too eagerly revered and induced by the mortals. Infected by the idea of outward success, the main character is lured toward the Triumphal Arch, only to face its true, frightening nature as he gets within reach.

| | | | |

Jelly Fishers

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

2009 | Directed by Steven Subotnick

A family of hungry mole-creatures is saved by the generosity of jellyfish.

| | | | |

Killing Dinner

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

Killing Dinner
2009 | Directed by Mitchell P. Ganem

“Dinner is the best form of foreplay. Especially when it leads to sex, guns and mayhem.” A special ops agent drops off the grid and into the kitchen, working incognito as a chef. When old lovers and comrades in arms come calling with guns blazing, Michael Dinner must put down his chef’s knife and pick up a gun.

| | | |

Making the Crooked Straight

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

Making the Crooked Straight
2008 | Directed by Susan Cohn Rockefeller

Making the Crooked Straight tells the story of one man’s work to save the world, one child at a time. Dr. Rick Hodes has spent 20 years in Ethiopia working with indigent children, curing illness and changing lives. He has adopted seven, and shares his home with 20 or more.

The film is an inspiring tale of interfaith tolerance and support: Dr. Hodes is an Orthodox Jew, and his children are Muslim and Christian.

A gorgeous soundtrack of indigenous music accompanies this award-winning documentary.

| | | |

Meet Your Farmer: Reed Farm

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

Meet Your Farmer: Reed Farm
2010 | Directed by Cecily Pingree & Jason Mann

A short profile of Dan Tibbetts, a dairy farmer from Windsor, Maine. As small dairy farms around New England struggle to survive in an industry that is increasingly hostile, Tibbetts has an additional worry: how to pass his farm, and his craft, on to his children.

The Meet Your Farmer project is a series of eight short films about Maine farmers. (www.meetyourfarmer.org). Executive Producer – Maine Farmland Trust (www.mainefarmlandtrust.org).

| | | |

Meet Your Farmer: Tide Mill Farm

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

Meet Your Farmer: Tide Mill Farm
2010 | Directed by Cecily Pingree & Jason Mann

Aaron Bell & Carly DelSignore run a diverse and busy farm while raising their three children, the ninth generation of the Bell family to live in Edmunds, Maine. On the coast of Whiting Bay in Washington County, the farm is breathtakingly beautiful. As they work to carve out a living selling locally-grown food in one of the poorest counties in New England, the Bell family reminds us of the quality of life that small farms provide to their communities, and what we will lose if they disappear.

| | | |

Mito-Kids: Documenting Life

1 Sep , 2010 | Posted by:

Mito-Kids: Documenting Life
2009 | Directed by Marc A. Dole

Mito-Kids: Documenting Life is a short documentary about four teenage sisters who have grown up with disabilities that stem from mitochondrial disease, a chronic, genetic disorder that occurs when the mitochondria of the cell fail to function properly. This video family history follows the Dole family as they are diagnosed with a series of diverse medical problems including diabetes, deafness, seizures, fatigue issues, thyroid problems and dementia. Frustrated by the lack of information available, they look for answers, while maintaining a focus on living their lives to the fullest. Marc Dole is the father of these four young women and the film’s producer and director.