Join us for the first day of the 2022 Chesapeake Film Festival with a fantastic VIP Reception where you can mingle with filmmakers and sponsors at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center followed by an evening of environmental films at the Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD.

Gifts of at least $125 gain one person entrance to the VIP Reception and the entire 3-day LIVE Festival! The evening of environmental films is $25. Tickets can be purchased online at chesapeakefilmfestival.com or at the door of the Avalon Theatre starting at 4 pm.

The environmental films that open the LIVE Festival include the World Premiere of The Search for Cooper River: A River Hidden in Plain View by local favorites Dave Harp and our own VP Sandy Cannon-Brown. The second film, Upstream, DownRiver by Maggie Stogner recognizes the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Clean Water Act.  Environmental photographer and filmmaker Michael O. Snyder caps our opening night program with a documentary about the preservation of marine life in the Arctic called Into the Dark.

NOTE: If you’ve already made a contribution for VIP tickets, please come to the Eastern Shore Conservation Center and give your name to our volunteers. They will check you off the list and give you a VIP pass for entry into the reception and ALL films of the LIVE festival.

Don’t miss our exciting opening night!

For more information, please go to ChesapeakeFilmFestival.com or contact Executive Director, Nancy Tabor at 443-955-9144.

The VIP Reception (4:30-6:00 pm) is at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center, 114 South Washington St, Easton

The Environmental films on Friday, September 30 (6:20-8:45 pm) are at the Avalon Theatre, 40 East Dover St, Easton

Don’t wait a minute more! Visit the Chesapeake Film Festival today at chesapeakefilmfestival.com to find out everything about our upcoming festival which kicks off September 30.

The Chesapeake Film Festival marks its 15^th anniversary with a hybrid, 10-day celebration of films and filmmakers from around the world. Predominant themes for 2022 include the environment and films by and about women.

The LIVE Festival, at the Avalon Theatre and the Ebenezer Theater in Easton, MD, begins Friday, Sept. 30 and continues through Sunday Oct. 2.  The LIVE Festival brings films, filmmakers and film lovers together for screenings and lively discussions.

The FREE VIRTUAL Festival follows, with 48 additional jury-selected films available for home viewing Oct. 3 through Oct. 9.

Tickets are NOW for sale on our website. Tickets start at $15 per film, $25 for Friday night and Sunday afternoon and $125 for our exclusive VIP reception on Friday night which also includes all festival films, panel discussions and the Awards Ceremony.

Also, at chesapeakefilmfestival.com are previews of all of the films that will be available for our FREE VIRTUAL festival starting October 3. We have something for everyone this year, as we feature environmental shorts and features, narratives, student shorts, animations, and documentary films.

We are honored to announce the festival award winners of 2022:

Best Environmental Short: Into the Dark, directed by Michael O. Snyder.

Battling subzero temperatures and forty-foot seas, a team of scientists embark on a perilous winter expedition into the darkest regions of the Arctic. This short can be seen during the LIVE festival on Friday, September 30.

All other award winners below can be seen during the FREE VIRTUAL festival starting October 3 and running through October 9.

Best Environmental Feature: Trashy: A Zero Waste Film, directed by Heather Gustafson.

Follow the film’s director over the course of a year as she gives up trash for 365 days.

Best Documentary Short: The Long Shore, directed by Tyler Ford.

Exploring the challenges faced by generations of maritimers and how the Maritime Museum is both preserving and celebrating this piece of American culture and way of life

Best Documentary Feature: Resisterhood, directed by Chery Jacobs Crim.

This is a film about the power of women, hope and resistance in modern American politics.

Tied with:

Best Documentary Feature: The Other Boys of Summer, directed by Lauren Meyer.

It is narrated by the legendary Cicely Tyson and features exclusive, never-before-seen interviews with the men and women who played alongside of Jackie Robinson and changed baseball and America forever.

Best Narrative Short: Noisy, directed by Cedric Hill.

Sometimes you need a noisy place to have a quiet conversation.

Best Narrative Feature: Nowhere, directed by David and Franscisco Salazar.

ViewerDiscretion Advised, Contains Adult Content. Facing immigration issues, a couple must confront fears of rejection or risk losing each other.

Best Animated Film: Yellowstone 88 – Song of Fire, directed by Jerry van de Beek and Betsy De Fries.

The cosmos turns from one season to another and another and life in the park begins anew.

Best Student Short: Stop Pebble Mine, directed by Mason Mirabile.

A short documentary about the Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay Alaska with interviews from the World Wildlife Fund, United Tribes of Bristol Bay and Trout Unlimited.

Best Director: Harold Jackson, III, Last Night

A woman’s (Sky) last night in Washington, DC before she moves to North Carolina with her partner, is sidetracked by a chance meeting with an attractive stranger

Jury’s Prize, The Automat, directed by Lisa Hurwitz.

From the perspective of former customers entertainer Mel Brooks, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Horns, the Hardarts, and key employees – we watch a business climb to its peak success and then grapple with fast food in a forever changed America.

Many of our nation’s waterways are much cleaner than they were 50 years ago thanks, in part, to the Clean Water Act of 1972.  Yet today, nearly half of U.S. streams, lakes and underwater aquifers are so polluted that they are not safe for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life, including some in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Learn more about water quality in Maggie Burnette Stogner’s new film Upstream/DownRiver, on the opening night of the 2022 LIVE Chesapeake Film Festival, September 30 at the Avalon Theatre in Easton.

Two of Stogner’s earlier films, Unbreathable – The Fight for Healthy Air and In the Executioner’s Shadow – were award winners in past Chesapeake Film Festivals.

Stogner, with more than 30 years of experience in documentary filmmaking, is the Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking and a professor of Film and Media Arts at American University. During her nine years at National Geographic, she produced, directed and wrote numerous documentaries, and was senior producer of the award-winning weekly programs Explorer and Ultimate Explorer. She also has produced immersive media for world-touring cultural exhibitions for National Geographic, the Smithsonian, LucasFilms, and others. Her award-winning work in that arena includes two King Tut exhibitions; The Greeks; Real Pirates; Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures; Indiana Jones and Adventure of Archaeology; and Roads of Arabia.

UpStream/DownRiver follows the world premiere of a film by Sandy Cannon-Brown and Dave Harp.  The Search for the Cooper: A River Hidden in Plain View follows a historic expedition of four teens and their leaders up the Cooper River that runs through Camden, NJ. The explorers kayak, hike and bushwhack their way along the 17-mile river to discover its secrets and find its source.

Capping the evening of environmental shorts is a captivating film, Into the Dark, by director Michael Snyder. Battling subzero temperatures and forty-foot seas, a team of scientists embark on a perilous winter expedition into the darkest regions of the Arctic. Their mission: to understand how trace amounts of light may be radically altering the mysterious world of the polar night. What they discover has implications for the global climate and the future of the Arctic.

The prevalence of environmental films continues Oct. 3 through Oct. 9 in the VIRTUAL Chesapeake Film Festival which is FREE to the public. From the 3-minute short, Green Nettle from South Africa, to the mesmerizing 90-minute feature from France, Mediterranean Life Under Siege, audiences around the world can experience these and other amazing documentaries. Green Nettle reveals how local farmers are producing sustainable material from large stinging nettles on the beautiful slopes of Mount Kenya.  Mediterranean Life Under Siege is about the animals and plants that have survived the growing impact of human activity.

Other environmental films in the VIRTUAL Festival include a spellbinding short from India, In Search of the Stars, which shows the profound relationship between the night skies and the life beneath them.  Viewers can challenge themselves with the provocative environmental feature Trashy: A Zero Waste Film. Follow director Heather Gustafson over the course of a year as she gives up trash for 365 days. It’s possible!

For more about these and other films in the 2022 LIVE and VIRTUAL Festivals, visit chesapeakefilmfestival.com or contact Executive Director, Nancy Tabor at 443-955-9144.

Women of Impact is the dominant theme of the 2022 Chesapeake Film Festival in honor of women who make films and women about whom films are made.  The CFF hybrid festival is LIVE September 30 through October 2 in Easton, MD, and VIRTUAL October 3 through 9 for FREE for audiences around the world.

“Women have been making great films since the advent of the movie camera in the late 1800s. We proudly include their achievements, past and present, in our 2022 Festival,” said CFF Festival Director Cid Collins Walker.

The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache, by filmmaker Pamela Green (6:30 p.m. Saturday, October 1 at the Avalon Theatre) tells the story of the first female director.  From 1896 to 1906, Guy- Blaché, was likely the only female filmmaker in the world.

“I was first moved to begin production on this film,” Green said in an interview in Women in Hollywood, “as I was watching AMC and discovered a show called ‘Reel Models’ about pioneering women in cinema, including Alice Guy-Blaché, and I was surprised that I had never heard of her. I asked several people and I realized that they too had never heard of her. I just kept asking, ‘How could such an important figure in the birth of cinema be unknown?’ It became clear I had to tell her story.”

Until The Untold Story, Green specialized in title sequences for films, creating more than 100 title sequences for major Hollywood Studios. Inspired by the Guy- Blaché, story, she continues to focus on telling inspiring stories that bring overlooked figures to the forefront via film, television and audio.

The Chesapeake Film Festival, now in its 15^th year, prioritizes films that focus on the environment and social justice. This year, films that address those issues are the heart of the LIVE Festival and prevalent in the VIRTUAL Festival. Many of them were produced and directed by women.

A documentary short co-directed by CFF VP Sandy Cannon-Brown and photographer Dave Harp launches the 2022 LIVE Festival.  Search for the Cooper River (6:30 p.m. Friday, September 30 at the Avalon Theatre) follows area youth as they kayak, hike, and hack their way through overgrowth along the neglected Cooper River that runs through Camden, NJ.

Cannon-Brown’s award-winning work as an environmental filmmaker has taken her around the world, but most of her recent work focuses on issues facing the Chesapeake Bay.  Films by Cannon-Brown, Harp, and writer Tom Horton address climate change, erosion, rising seas, shellfish management, and struggling communities including Smith Island and San Domingo, MD. Cannon-Brown and Harp also collaborated on A Voice for the Rivers, about the riverkeepers of ShoreRivers. All these films were featured in the Chesapeake Film Festival, aired on MPT and other PBS stations, and screened at discussed at multiple festivals, including the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital.

The second film of the LIVE Festival, Upstream/DownRiver (7:00 p.m., Friday, September 30 at the Avalon Theatre) was produced and directed by Maggie Burnette Stogner, a professor and executive director for the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at American University.  The film recognizes the 50^th anniversary of the Clean Water Act with a discouraging assessment of progress. Nearly half of U.S. Streams, rivers and lakes are so polluted that they are no longer safe for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.

Burnette Stogner produced, directed and wrote numerous documentaries for National Geographic, where she was senior producer of the award-winning series EXPLORER. In 2005, she launched the independent media company Blue Bear Films. She has created numerous documentaries and outreach campaigns that inspire and inform, including In the Executioner’s Shadow, which was screened and discussed at CFF 2018, and Unbreathable – the Fight for Healthy Air, which was awarded Best Environmental Feature in CFF’s VIRTUAL Festival in 2020.

A film from France is one of the most stunning environmental films in the VIRTUAL Festival. Mediterranean: Life Under Siege, co-directed by Fabienne Berthaud and Fred Fougea, reveals the wonders of an astonishingly rich yet very fragile living world. At sea, on land and in the air, it is a fascinating journey through the world of animals and plants that survive in the Mediterranean despite the growing impact of human activity.

Co-director Berthaud is a French writer, actress, screenwriter and director, winner of the Prix Françoise-Sagan. In 2005, she directed her first feature film with Diane Kruger. In 2010, she directed Pieds nus sur les limaces, based on her own novel. In 2019, she directed Un monde Plus Grand, a feature film about Mongolian shamanism.

Before the current war in Ukraine, Russia was conducting bizarre irrigation experiments in Southern Ukraine that devastated farming and fishing. Return Sasyk to the Sea, by Andrea Odeznyska, reveals this eco-disaster.

Regardless of genre, Odeznska’s films have celebrated ordinary women doing something hard and succeeding. In 2018-2019, she won a U.S. Fulbright Scholar grant to research and film Return Sasyk To The Sea. Past grants include NEA The National Endowment for the Arts, NYSCA The New York State Council on the Arts, and the Robert Wise Foundation. In 2016, Odeznska wrote a feature-length narrative comedy, Greenpoint.  She holds an MFA in Directing from AFI, and a BA in Theater from Bennington College, Bennington, VT.

Among the films addressing social issues in the 2022 Chesapeake Film Festival is Resisterhood (VIRTUAL Festival, October 3-9), by Cheryl Jacobs (CJ) Crim. Beginning at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, DC, the film follows six diverse Americans as they fight for social justice on the streets and in the halls of power.  Over the course of two years, we watch as they work to protect our rights and inspire others to join this peaceful and historic movement. Resisterhood was produced, directed, filmed, and edited by women.

Resisterhood is her first feature film, but Crim has been producing, directing and editing award-winning specials for more than 30 years. She produced for WCPO-TV in Cincinnati and New Jersey Public Television. She directed the first national series dedicated to women’s sports for ESPN. While living in Liverpool, England, she produced throughout Europe. Now in Maryland, her passion is creating films that make a difference. Her many awards include 12 Regional Emmy Awards for outstanding documentary and entertainment programs, including two awards for individual achievement in directing and editing.

For more information about the 2022 Hybrid Chesapeake Film Festival visit chesapeakefilmfestival.com or contact Nancy Tabor, Executive Director at 443-955-9144.

Celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the Chesapeake Film Festival with a weekend of provocative, insightful, and innovative films at our LIVE Festival, followed by a week-long VIRTUAL Festival.

The LIVE Festival begins Friday, September 30 with a VIP reception at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center followed by an evening of environmental films, and continues through Sunday, October 2 at Easton’s Avalon Theatre with outstanding films and conversations with the filmmakers.

But the excitement doesn’t end on Sunday. From Monday October 3 through Sunday, October 9 our Festival continues VIRTUALLY with an amazing array of films in diverse categories and genres.

The environmental films that open the LIVE Festival include the World Premiere of The Search for Cooper River by local favorites Dave Harp and our own VP Sandy Cannon-Brown. The second film, Upstream, Down River by Maggie Stogner recognizes the 50^th anniversary of the 1972 Clean Water Act.  Environmental photographer and filmmaker Michael O. Snyder caps our opening night program with his new project The Coming Coast about the rising tides of the Chesapeake Bay and a documentary about the preservation of marine life in the Arctic called Into the Dark.

On Saturday, we honor Women’s Achievements in Independent Cinema. The two exceptional features that evening are The Glorias starring Julianne Moore directed by Julie Taymor about the life and work of Gloria Steinem, and Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache directed by Pamela Green about a little-known female studio head who directed close to a thousand films in the 1890s.

Our focus on Women’s Achievements continues Sunday afternoon with a screening of the documentary Directed by William Wyler directed by Aviva Slesin and produced by his daughter Catherine Wyler who will present the film and answer questions. Before the documentary, CFF will screen one of Wyler’s classic films, Roman Holiday. William Wyler was nominated for 12 Academy Awards for best direction, more than any other director, and won three times.

All of this needs your support to happen. Gifts of at least $125 gain one person entrance to the VIP Reception and the entire LIVE Festival! Tickets to individual screenings at the LIVE Festival will be available for $15.

Our VIRTUAL Festival is FREE, but we encourage donations upon registration to cover our costs.  Our deadline for submissions is June 5.  We’ll announced the films in the VIRTUAL Festival as soon as we’ve made our final selections.

Ticket sales for the screenings, and more details about the 2022 Film Festival will be forthcoming.

The Chesapeake Film Festival (CFF) announces part two of our bi-monthly series, “Making Imagination Reel,” showcasing outstanding films featured in the 2021 Festival. Part 2 recognizes Black History Month 2022 and extends the celebration through March with five great films and interviews with their filmmakers. The virtual series is free on chesapeakefilmfestival.com

“By popular demand, we’re making selected films from 2021 available on our website,” said Cid Collins Walker, CFF Festival Director. “Every two months, we’ll bring you exceptional films that won CFF awards and/or were most popular with our virtual audience. You’ll also get extensive interviews we conducted with the filmmakers. I’m very excited to share those.”

The February and March lineup includes these films and interviews with their directors:

Chicago: America’s Hidden War – Documentary Feature – Produced and directed by Dimas & Tiffany Salaberrios. USA, TRT: 1:45 – Urgent, stunning, revealing.  Chicago: America’s Hidden War pulls back the curtain and takes an inside war-journalistic look into the violence that has plagued Chicago streets for decades.

Director: Dimas Salaberrios (AKA Daylight Supreme)

Daylight Supreme is an Afro-Latino director whose travels have taken him through 40 countries across six continents and contributed to his broad knowledge of the fine arts. Daylight is also well-versed in Greek Literature and can read Ancient Greek. The sum of these experiences lend to the distinct filmmaking style depicted in his directorial debut, Chicago: America’s Hidden War.

Director’s Statement

At the height of the crack epidemic, I regrettably wasted my teenage years entrenched in my native New York City as a drug boss. While the unfortunate horror I lived through clearly equipped me with some keen insights into Chicago’s pervasive homicidal culture, it also imbued me with a most profound hope that things could indeed change. When I communicated with active shooters in Chicago — even with a full camera crew in tow — I was afforded unusual access into exclusive gang meetings on the most notoriously dangerous streets in the U.S. At any moment, we could all be fired on by rival gangs lurking just one block away.

I see Chicago as a cautionary tale. The startling things revealed in my documentary should be thoroughly studied by social science scholars to help other crime-ridden urban communities avoid the shockingly warlike environments in Black and Latino urban communities. The disregard for human life runs so rampant that even the killing of our Black women and children has been numbingly normalized.

Liam White – Narrative Feature – USA, Produced and directed by Harold Jackson, III. – TRT: 1:27 –A novelist, given just a few months to live, fights for a second chance while facing all the people he stepped on to get to the top.

Director: Harold Jackson III

After honorably serving in the United States Marine Corps, Jackson earned an undergraduate degree in Television at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania and a Master’s degree in film and video from American University in Washington, DC.  Some of his award-winning productions include BURN: The Evolution of An American City, a documentary about Tulsa, Oklahoma and its history of Black Wallstreet and the Tulsa Race Riot; Last Night, ABFF best screenplay/audience choice winner; The HBO “Best Film” Un Armed Man, a film engulfed in social commentary when civil unrest erupts after a police officer kills an unarmed man, and the EMMY nominated series Anacostia.

Director’s Statement

“Storytelling through visualization is what drives me,” Jackson says.

Mickey Hardaway – Narrative Short – USA, Directed by Marcellus Cox. TRT: 19:23 min – A young sketch artist visits a renowned psychiatrist as his life begins spinning out of control after years of physical and verbal abuse have taken a toll on him. Rated R – material which may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17.  Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Director: Marcellus Cox

Marcellus Cox is an award-winning writer/director hailing from Los Angeles, California. As a true auteur, his style of cinematic storytelling is embossed with dark and edgy themes that are engaging and enlightening.  He brings his audience to a place of understanding and compassion for social issues and objectivity, pushing the boundaries of controversial storytelling on subjects such as race, religion, and social and political issues.

His work has screened in more than 200 international film festivals, earned more than 150 international film awards, and aired nationwide on CBS, FOX, ABC, SHORTS TV, Revolt, Crime/Investigation & PBS.

Director’s Statement

Mickey Hardaway is without question a very personal story to me, revealing how society can be our worst enemy, contributing to our downfall just because we are different. I wanted to showcase the inequities within society and the affect they have on people, especially the youth.

Othello-san – Narrative Short – USA, Produced and directed by Theodore Adams III – TRT: 20 min – A celebrated young African American actor enrolls at a prestigious theater school in Japan to play the lead role in Shakespeare’s Othello, only to find his dreams of greatness are tempered by an instructor who challenges him to question his reason for being there.

Director: Theodore Adams III

Adams is the President and Founder of Red Zeppelin Productions LLC. His first film was a feature length project, TRI, which won 12 festival awards. To date, Othello-san has won six awards in the category of best screenplay. His latest film, Tyndall Typewriters, premiered at CFF 2021, and earned his son, Theo Adams IV, CFF’s Best Actor award.

Adams III, who is fluent in multiple languages, found the inspiration for the characters in Othello-san from his studies in international schools and from extensive work on six continents. Literally a rocket scientist, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University and his MBA from UCLA. He also completed post graduate studies at the Yale-China Program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a graduate of Harvard Business School.  He also is a leader in community service, heading two non-profits dedicated to supporting literacy, arts and education and finding technical employment for people with severe disabilities. Adams embodies the Renaissance Man.

Director Statement

My goal in writing and producing films is to have the audience leaving the theater smarter than when they entered; challenged by the message; and inspired to take an action.

Saving San Domingo – Made in Maryland – A film directed by Dave Harp with Sandy Cannon-Brown and Tom Horton. TRT: 27 minutes – A 200-year-old African-American community in Maryland struggles to save its traditions and values.

Director: Dave Harp

Harp started out as the staff photographer for the Hagerstown Morning Herald and was the photographer for The Baltimore Sun Magazine during the 1980’s. He started his own photography company in 1990 and currently is the photographer for the Bay Journal and contributor to countless other magazines, including the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, and Coastal Living. He was awarded the Andrew White Medal by Loyola College of Maryland in 2004 and is past president of the American Society of Media Photographers. A retrospective of his work was on exhibition at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum throughout 2021.

Harp has published several books of photography on the Bay with essays by Tom Horton, the producer, writer, and narrator of Saving San Domingo.  In 2015, Harp added cinematography to his resume when he joined Horton and filmmaker Sandy Cannon-Brown to make six films about issues affecting the Chesapeake Bay.

Director’s Statement

I’ve spent much of my working life photographing people in their environments, pulling the camera back a little to reveal how where they live or work or play shapes who they are, and have continued this practice during the past decade making documentary films.  This was never more apparent than capturing the Quinton family making scrapple on an open fire in the small African-American community of San Domingo.  Their hope is to keep that multi-generational legacy alive during rapidly changing times.   The same goes for San Domingo.

For more information, contact Nancy Tabor, Executive Director at 443-955-9144.

The Chesapeake Film Festival (CFF) announces a new bi-monthly series, “Making Imagination Reel,” showcasing outstanding films featured in the 2021 Festival. The first program in the series, available through December 2021 and January 2022, offers three incredible short films and interviews with their filmmakers.  The series is free on chesapeakefilmfestival.com.

“By popular demand, we’re making selected films from 2021 available on our website,” said Cid Collins Walker, Festival Director. “Every two months, we’ll bring you exceptional films that won CFF awards and/or were most popular with our virtual audience. You’ll also get extensive interviews we conducted with the filmmakers. I’m very excited to share these informative and lively conversations with you.”

The December and January lineup includes these films and interviews with their directors:

Our Story: LifeTime Wells (17 minutes)

CFF Award for Best Made-in-Maryland film

Synopsis:

This powerful film follows the remarkable story of a water charity based in Denton, MD that has drilled more than 2,500 water wells in Africa to help underserved populations all over the continent.

Director: Rob Simmons

Rob is a video producer at 5:00 Films & Media, a video production company based in Washington, DC focused on non-profit video production. Rob has created films and video campaigns for many clients in the public sector including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Baltimore City Parks & Recreation, Maryland Recreation & Parks Association, and Lifetime Wells International.

Director’s Statement:

In May of 2019, I opted to skip walking across a stage for graduation, and flew 7,000 miles to rural Tanzania with a water well driller from my hometown, Ken Wood. Throughout the month-long trip capturing photo/video content in southern Tanzania, I watched a 75-year-old man, who had open heart surgery twice, drill 3-4 wells a day in grueling heat, through swarms of killer bees, all on a diet of canned tuna and Dunkin coffee that’d he’d packed from the Denton, MD Walmart. I left the trip craving the opportunity to pay tribute to his generosity and dedication. Please check out their website at lifetimewellsinternational.org

Pooch Sitter (15 minutes)

CFF Award for Best Narrative Short

Synopsis:

Pooch Sitter is about homelessness. Claire Wingham usually finds her clients by sitting on park benches, which otherwise serve as occasional beds. When fate finds her the perfect client, she floats through life with a chameleon-like creativity and unperturbed naivete.

Director:  Monda Raquel Webb

Monda is an award-winning author, filmmaker and performing artist. After graduating with a degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Rhode Island in 1990, Monda began her award-winning production career with City Cable 16 in Washington, DC. Currently, Monda combines her talents under her consulting company, Monda Media, LLC.  In 2015, Monda wrote, directed and produced her multi award-winning short film, Zoo (Volkerschau), about the last known human zoo at the 1958 World Fair in Brussels, Belgium. Zoo, like Pooch Sitter, was an official selection of the 2021 CFF Virtual Festival.

Director’s Statement:

I’m an independent storyteller dedicated to telling little known stories hidden in the crevices of history’s pages. A visual archaeologist, I’m committed to organic storytelling from a woman’s lens that elevates, educates and uplifts humanity. As a filmmaker, if I don’t make you laugh, cry or throw something at the screen, I have failed. We all deserve to feel something. Thus, I choose to tackle topics that challenge the status quo. I aim to raise the rug under which many secrets are held. The truth is refreshing. The truth frees. Truth — feels.

True North: Sailing to Salvation (19:35 minutes)

Second most-popular film in CFF 2021 Virtual Festival

Synopsis: 

This documentary short features distressed war veterans who, feeling alienated from society upon their return from duty, find healing, connection, and a sense of belonging on the Chesapeake Bay.

Director: Suzie Galler

Suzie is a documentary filmmaker with more than 25 years in production, marketing, and communications. She worked for the major television networks and Disney Studios and ran two production companies which produced specials for CBS, NBC, Lifetime TV, and other broadcast outlets.  Suzie produced her first documentary, More Loverly Than Ever: The Making and Restoration of My Fair Lady, for CBS and went on to produce other biopics before producing two independent documentaries on gender issues: I Am Beautiful and I Am My Mother’s Daughter. As a result of that work, she founded a non-profit advocacy organization for women. While Suzie settled in Maryland in 2008, she kept a global perspective and produced several international films for USAID.

Director Statement

After living in many different cities, I finally landed in a small, welcoming community on the Chesapeake Bay where I felt fulfilled in my environment and my creative life. When I realized I had found my True North here, I began to explore what that concept might mean for others. The veterans in our story exemplify that experience and provide inspiration for viewers seeking their own True North. This is the first episode of what we hope will become a True North series.

The 2021 Chesapeake Film Festival (CFF) surpassed expectations for an event in the time of COVID, with an overflow-crowd at a VIP reception, hundreds attending the live festival Oct. 1 and 2, and several thousand watching at home during the virtual festival, Oct. 3 through 10.

CFF did not host a live event in 2020 because of COVID.  But, with a mandatory proof-of vaccination requirement, audiences returned this year to the Avalon Theatre for the excitement of watching films on the silver screen, discussing the films with the filmmakers, and enjoying the camaraderie of film lovers.

The Festival kicked off Friday night with a VIP reception honoring more than 150 sponsors and major donors on a perfect fall afternoon at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center in Easton. The reception included a drawing for a solar generator donated by Enel Green Power, sponsor of this year’s environmental programming.

About 325 people attended the Friday night screenings, led by the premiere and panel discussion of Water’s Way: Thinking Like a Watershed by local filmmakers Tom Horton, Dave Harp and Sandy Cannon-Brown.

On Saturday, 225 people turned out for the narrative features, sponsored by Bluepoint Hospitality. First up was Tyndall Typewriters, by Ted Adams III, starring his son Ted Adams IV.  The younger Adams won the CFF award for best actor. The screening was preceded by a well-attended event at the Academy Art Museum featuring a hands-on experience with vintage typewriters.

“The turnout was astounding.  With COVID still a concern, we didn’t know what to expect. The great response confirms that the Chesapeake Film Festival has become a much-anticipated annual event for the community,” said Festival Director Cid Collins Walker.

While delighted to be back live, the success of the 2020 all-virtual festival convinced CFF to continue offering dozens of films for home-viewing.  This year approximately 6,400 viewers watched more than 50 films at home – for free.

“The hybrid festival seems the way to go from now on,” Collins Walker continued. “But we do want to have many more filmmakers here in person for the live festival next year.”

The Festival was pleased that films by four of its board members – Monda Raquel Webb, Harold Jackson, Cannon-Brown and Adams – were among the most viewed films in the virtual festival.  Other filmmakers represented in the virtual festival came from Los Angeles, New York, Boston and many other locations to experience CFF and explore the Eastern Shore.

Once a best-kept secret, the Chesapeake Film Festival is now a sought-after event by filmmakers as well as film-lovers.  About 300 films were submitted to the 2021 Festival.

The most-viewed film in the virtual festival was Sky So Blue, a stunning tribute to the victims of the attacks of September 9, 2011.  True North: Sailing to Salvation, a documentary short about war veterans who find healing, connection and a sense of belonging on the Chesapeake Bay was second. Two narrative shorts by Webb, Pooch Sitter and Zoo, ranked in the top ten.

“The size of the audience is only one measure of success,” stated Nancy Tabor, Executive Director. “Support from donors and sponsors is another measure and we are pleased to report that contributions from our donors and sponsors was at a record high in 2021.”

Sponsors of CFF 2021 include Shared Earth Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Prager on behalf of Bluepoint Hospitality, Enel Green Power, The Nature Conservancy, Maryland State Arts Council, Talbot Arts, Artistic Insights Fund, Richard and Beverly Tilghman, U.S. Small Business Administration, Maryland Humanities and the Ravenal Foundation.

To see a list of the 2021 awardees, listen to interviews with filmmakers, and learn about CFF events throughout the year, please go to chespeakefilmfestival.com.