The Maryland Film Festival takes place annually in Baltimore, usually on the Mother’s day weekend from the opening night party on Thursday to the closing night party on Sunday. It will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year and has grown to a very well-respected event with a nice selection of new local Maryland productions, other interesting short and feature-length films, documentaries, classic cinema and also a few international submissions.
Every year John Waters presents his film-choice which included very interesting, honest and down to earth films such as Dog Days and Head-On from Germany or Porn Theatre from France. Traditionally this festival also presented a classic movie in 3D and a silent film accompanied by a live score performed by the Alloy Orchestra in the past few years. I hope they will continue this tradition–these events always have been some of my personal festival highlights.
The Maryland Film Festival is a great event…not as huge and famous as Cannes, Sundance or others but it’s not as small as a random small-town college film-festival either. It keeps the perfect balance. You not only get to see a nice selection and wide variety of local, national or international films…but also a chance to chat with film-makers, guests, cast members, or have a drink with them at Club Charles or Tapas Teatro. It’s a festival with a world-class feel that at the same time managed to remain personal and open enough to offer a unique intimate experience.
Although I wish great financial success for this festival I hope it doesn’t grow to become anonymous one day. It is its warm personality that I find most enjoyable. And besides all that it is within walking or biking distance which makes it just perfect for us.
One of the sponsors of the festival is a program named Friends of the Maryland Film Festival. As a member you get free admission to the Friend of the Festival screenings, sneak-previews and premieres throughout the year. We once followed the entire course of a great documentary film series at MICA’s Brown Center including Don’t Look Back hosted by director D.A. Pennebaker, Imelda hosted by director Ramona Diaz, Brother’s Keeper hosted by Bruce Sinofsky, Capturing the Friedmans hosted by editor Richard Hankin and more. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to fit the screenings of 2006 into our schedules, but I hope we can reserve some time this year.
The following is a list of the films I have seen at the Maryland Film Festival in the past few years, mostly just as a reminder to myself. It was impossible to watch everything we were interested in, so we tried to fit as much as possible into our festival schedule without having to leave a screening early. One day I have to catch up on some of the films we missed. I enjoyed all the films, but I tried to mark some of my special festival favorites in bold.
Seen in 2002 (my first year)
- Con Man
- Cyberman
- House of Wax
- Owned
- Shorts 3
FATER (dir. Danny Meltzer, Brooklyn, NY) 21 minutes, 35mm
BORN LOSER (dir. Stan Mendoza, NY, NY) 22 minutes, 35mm
AFRO DEUTSCH (dir. Ayassi, Germany) 13 minutes, 35mm
BURN (dir. Reynold Reynolds & Patrick Jolley, NY, NY) 6 minutes, 35mm
TIME OUT (dir. Robbie Chafitz, NY, NY) 7.5 minutes, 35mm,
DIRT (dir. Chel White, Portland, OR) 4 minutes, 35mm - Black Maria Touring Film Festival of Shorts
1000 MARYS (dir. Christina Gruppuso, Seekonk, MA) 3 minutes, 35mm
COPYSHOP (dir. Virgil Widrich, Austria) 12 minutes, 35mm
COUNTERFEIT FILM (dir. Brett Simon, Oakland, CA) 3 minutes, 35mm
DREAM WORK (dir. Peter Tscherkassky, Austria) 12 minutes, 35mm
STRANGE INVADERS (dir. Cordell Barker, Canada) 8.5 minutes, 35mm
FEAR OF BLUSHING (dir. Jennifer Reeves, Brooklyn, NY) 6 minutes 16mm
NUCLEAR FAMILY (dir. Dana Plays, LA, CA) 22 minutes, 16mm
OR CLOUD (dir. Fred Worden, Silver Spring, MD) 10 minutes, 16mm
SUBCONSCIOUS ART OF GRAFFITI REMOVAL (dir. Matt McCormick, Portland, OR) 16 minutes, BetaSP
Seen in 2004
- Baadasssss!
- The Best Thief in the World
- Big City Dick
- Dog Days
- Jim Sheridan Conversation
- Monster Road
- Narrative Shorts Program #3
AGORA – Chris Newberry (7:30)
CRABWALK – Jeremy Saulnier (17:00)
THE GOOD LIFE – Ryan Piotrowicz (16:00)
HITCH – Hannah Fruchtman & Jenna Friedenberg (12:00)
INTERMISSION – Laura Cayouette (12:00)
THE PARK – Paul Booth (9:00)
WOMAN HOLLERING CREEK – Scott Keckan & Joy Lusco Kecken (14:00) - Comedy Shorts Program
CLIMACTIC DEATH OF DARK NINJA – Peter Craig (12:00)
FISH BURGLARS – Gideon Brower (25:00)
L’INVITATION – Nick Prevas (8:00)
METHOD FOR SELF-DEFENSE AGAINST SCORPIONS – Tanner Almon (14:00)
PERILS IN NUDE MODELING – Scott Rice (10:00)
SOMEONE & SOMEONE, INC. – Rohit Colin Rao (7:15)
WORDS, WORDS, WORDS – Mary Szmagaj (8:00)
THE FIVE STAGES OF UNEMPLOYMENT – Dan Turek (10:00)
WHO’S YOUR DADDY? – Matthew Ehlers (3:18) - Travellers and Magicians
- Traveling Sideshow: Shocked and Amazed
- Hair High
- Documentary Shorts Program #2
LOVE AND A ’61 – Nick Prevas (22:00)
GROWIN’ A BEARD – Mike Woolf (30:00)
MOLE IN THE GROUND – Charles Cohen (15:00)
Seen in 2005
- Euphoria
- Swimmers
- After the Apocalypse
- The Dying Gaul
- The Edukators
- Gorilla at Large in 3D
- Livicated
- Male Fantasy
- Palindromes
- Porn Theatre
- Comic Twist Shorts
Blake’s Junction 7 – Ben Gregor, 15:00, 35mm, U.K.
Broadcast 23 – Tom Putnam, 7:00, 35mm
Pee Shy – Deb Hagan, 15:00, 35mm
Tap Heat – Dean Hargrove, 14:00, 35mm
West Bank Story – Ari Sandel, 22:00, 35mm - Animated Shorts
Awkward – Cesar Kuriyama, 3:00, BetaSP
Bid ‘Em In – Neal Sopata, 2:10, 35mm
Biopathy III – Justin Hellickson, 2:23, DVD
A Buck’s Worth – Tatia Rosenthal, 6:00, video
Decision – Freddy Maskeroni, 4:30, DVD
Egg – Benh Zeitln, 9:00, 16mm
The Fan and the Flower – Bill Plympton, 7:00, DVD
Handshake – Patrick Smith, 4:30, 35mm
Learn Self Defense – Chris Harding, 5:00, DVD
The Meaning of Life – Don Hertzfeldt, 12:00, 35mm
9 – Shane Acker, 11:00, 35mm
Ryan – Chris Landreth, 14:00, BetaSP, Canada
Surface (Terra Primus) – Stephen Brandt, 7:00, DVD
TS120504 – BenniiD, 3:16, DVD - Blackmail
Seen in 2006
- Opening Night Shorts
Copenhagen Cycles, Director: Eric Dyer
Hiro, Director: Matthew Swanson
Never Live Above A Psychic, Director: Steve Gentile
The Package, Director: B. Radical
Ride Of The Mergansers, Director: Steve Furman
Hold Up, Director: Madeleine Olnek - Aurora Borealis
- The Call of Cthulhu
- Cocaine Angel
- The Eagle
- The Guatemalan Handshake
- Hamilton
- Head-On
- LOL
- The Mad Magician
- Comedy Shorts
Closing Time, Director: Chris Brandt
The Problem With Fiber Optics, Director: Greg Jardin
One Sung Hero, Director: Samantha Kurtzman-Counter
K-7, Director: Christopher Leone
Nevel Is The Devil, Director: Peter Craig
Oh My God, Director: John Bryant
Momma’s Boy, Director: John Bryant - Narrative Shorts: Duality
Barely Visible, Director: Jody Dwyer
The Death Of Salvador Dali, Director: Delaney Lee Bishop
Once And Future Asshole, Director: Spencer Parsons
The Saviour, Director: Peter Templeman
Worms, Director: Kori Bundi - Narrative Shorts: Tales of the Fantastic
Assumption, Director: Christopher Keller
Before Dawn, Director: Balint Kenyeres
Monster, Director: Jennifer Kent
No Ordinary Sun, Director: Jonathan Brough
Scorn, Director: Raul Cerezo
