Two film festivals will take place in Connecticut May 3 to 5, one a showcase for student filmmakers and another that shines a spotlight on indie filmmakers from around the world.
Trinity Fest
The 7th annual Trinity Film Festival at Cinestudio, on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford, begins on May 5 at 5 p.m., showing 21 short films made by college students from around the country, as well as students from Canada, Mexico and France.
All films are 10 minutes or less. Acceptance is contingent upon the filmmaker being present at the festival.
“Filmmakers this year will be traveling over 25,000 miles to get to Hartford for Trinity Film Festival, which is more than the circumference of the Earth,” says John Michael Mason, who founded the festival.
Nearly 150 films were submitted, Mason says, and social justice is a common theme. The “films approach issues such as racism, police brutality, depression, poverty, drug use. People are contemplating common issues in an intelligent way to provoke conversation.”
Local students to show their films are TJ Noel-Sullivan of Yale, with the film “Expectations”; Maggie Millian and Izzy Olgaard from Trinity, with their film “First Sight”; and Daming Xing of Trinity, with the film “Bound.”
Other films are “Euphoria,” by Wynter Rhys of Savannah College of Art and Design; “Village Boi” by Quynh Tran of San Diego Community College; “The Machinist” by Russell Brown of George Fox University in Oregon; “Sonder” by Andrew Pearce of DePaul University in Chicago; “Omphaloskepsis” by Will Berry of Brown University; “Kingsley” by Ingie Enan of New York University; “My Mom Was a Junkie Too” and “Yellow,” both by Louis Lachance and Justine Prince of Cégep de Sainte-Foy in Quebec City; “Nymphette” by Marijose Sapina from École Internationale de Création Audiovisuelle et de Réalisation in Paris; “Bored Out of My Mind” by Kayla Boyd of Auburn University in Alabama; “And Woman Will Inherit The World” by Elizabeth Rakhilkina of New York University; “Petals” by Shana Dixon of Rochester Institute of Technology; “L.A. Liquor” by Jensen Vinca of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles; “Night Out” by Pedro Bitar of Middlebury College in Vermont; “Mariposa” by Carolina Gudino of Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara in Mexico; and “GTA VI Voice Acting Documentary” by Trevor Hembling of American University in Washington. D.C.
An awards reception follows the screening. Awards categories include best picture ($1,500 cash prize), best director, best writer, best cinematographer, best sound, best acting, best editing, audience choice, screener choice (chosen by the screening panel) and the TFF alumni award, chosen by filmmakers who have competed in the festival in the past.
In connection with the festival, a panel discussion, “Design Night Out,” on May 4 at 6:30 p.m. The panel – made up of Rob King, head of original content at ESPN; George Norfleet, head of the state film commission; and filmmaker A.D. Calvo – will discuss art on the screen. The moderators are filmmaker Pedro Bermudez and poet Brett Maddux.
Admission is $15, $10 for seniors and free to students of any college or university. trinityfilmfestival.org.
New Haven Fest
The fourth annual New Haven International Film Festival features a jam-packed slate of movies on May 3, 4 and 5 at Gateway Community College, 20 Church St. in New Haven.
Twenty-eight feature-length films – comedies, dramas, thrillers, action, documentaries – are scheduled, as well more than 100 shorts in the categories of comedy, drama, regional, advertisement, music video, animation and student films. Recurring themes in the films this year are human rights, peace, social justice, LGBT, strong women, equality and injustice.
Event coordinator Tom Carruthers says that films from Connecticut and other northeastern states are a strong focus.
Screenings will be held in auditoriums N100N and N100S and lecture halls S211 and S300. newhavenfilmfestival.com.
Here’s the lineup:
May 3
10:15 a.m.: “Uranium Derby,” a doc about nuclear waste.
10:15 a.m.: “Life After Life,’ a doc about men post-incarceration.
11:30 a.m.: “Outcaste: The House that Carol Built,” a doc about a woman building a house in India.
11:45 a.m.: International shorts block.
12:45 p.m.: “Zaraab,” a drama about a family in Pakistan.
1:30 p.m.: Comedy shorts block.
2 p.m.: “Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King,’ a doc about a sculptor.
2:45 p.m.: Dramatic shorts block.
3:15 p.m.: Documentary shorts block.
4 p.m.: “Enough White Teacups,” a doc about a Danish design company that emphasizes sustainability.
5 p.m.: “Dawnland,” a doc about a Native American truth and reconciliation commission.
5:15 p.m.: “Bullitt County,” a thriller about four friends looking for buried money.
6:45 p.m.: “One by One,” a doc about a nonprofit that helps impoverished children.
7 p.m.: Comedy shorts block.
8:15 p.m.: “Route 80,” a drama, filmed in Branford, about a man who returns home after a long time.
8:15 p.m.: “P.T. Barnum: The Lost Legend,” a doc about the Bethel-born showman.
May 4
10:30 a.m.: “Never Again: Forging A Convention for Crimes Against Humanity,” a doc.
10:45 p.m.: “Smacked,” a doc about addiction in rural America.
10:45 a.m.: “Nothing Changes: Art for Hank’s Sake,” a doc about artist Hank Virgona.
11:45 a.m.: “Rasha’s Dream,” a doc about a Lebanese woman raised in a French orphanage.
Noon: International shorts block.
12:15 p.m.: “La Sargento Matacho,” an action drama about a Colombian woman bent on revenge.
1 p.m.: “Detroit Under Stress,” a doc about the Detroit Police Department’s anti-crime initiatives.
1:45 p.m.: “Hunting in Wartime,” a doc about Native American Vietnam veterans.
2 p.m.: “Valentina,” a Spanish-language kidnapping thriller.
2:45 p.m.: Dramatic shorts block.
3:15 p.m.: “LGBT Experience,” a doc about the gay community.
3:45 p.m.: “Democracy Through The Looking Glass: Politics & Media in the Post-Truth Era,” a doc.
4:15 p.m.: “After Hours Trading,” a comedy about two men rescuing a woman.
4:45 p.m.: First block of New York- and New Jersey-made shorts.
5:15 p.m.: “Rodents of Unusual Size,” a doc about nutria swamp rats in Louisiana.
6 p.m.: “Up to Snuff,” doc about W.G. “Snuffy” Walden, who wrote scores for TV shows.
6:15 p.m.: First block of Connecticut-made shorts.
6:30 p.m.: Second block of New York- and New Jersey-made shorts.
7:30 p.m.: Second block of Connecticut-made shorts.
7:45 p.m.: Third block of New York- and New Jersey-made shorts.
8 p.m.: “Shut Up, Anthony,” a comedy about a man who meets a friend from his past.
8:45 p.m.: Third block of Connecticut-made shorts.
May 5
9 a.m.: A block of advertisements, animations and music videos.
9 a.m.: “High Tide in Dorchester,” a doc about rising sea levels.
9:15 a.m.: Block of shorts by high-school students.
10:15 a.m.: Block of dramatic shorts.
10:45 a.m.: Block of shorts by college undergraduates.
10:30 a.m.: “AlphaGo,” doc about a South Korean championship for players of Go.
11 a.m.: “Dorothea’s Tears,” a doc about the closure of psychiatric facilities.
12:15 p.m.: Block of shorts by college graduate students.
12:15 p.m.: “Connection in Crisis” and “A New Chance,” two docs, one about canine first responders, the second about a no-kill animal shelter.
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