Fest Info

Jury and Audience Awards, both sculpted by Mik Augustin. Photo by Christine Michelini

On Sunday night the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded its Best Picture Oscar to The Hurt Locker – a film about the Iraq War – and made Kathryn Bigelow, that film’s director, the first female recipient of its Best Director honor.

Shortly before the Oscar ceremonies began, Salem Film Fest announced its 2010 Jury and Audience winners, and they proved somewhat prophetic. The Audience Award balloting ended in a dead heat between two documentaries by female directors and its Jury Prize went to Severe Clear – a first hand account of the Invasion of Iraq. (more…)

Severe Clear producer Kristian Fraga and First Lieutenant Mike Scotti. Photo by Dinah Cardin

Severe Clear is the winner of the 2010 Salem Film Festival Jury Prize. The film will soon be shown in New York and L.A. and Salem is proud to have had these guys here first.

Severe Clear features the video shot by First Lieutenant Mike Scotti, capturing the chaos and complexity of war during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Read a previous post to learn more about the Salem screening and the audience reaction.

Severe Clear Opening:
March 12th: NYC, Angelika Theater & San Diego, Gaslamp Stadium

March 19th: LA, Laemmle Music Hall

The Audience Award winner will be announced at Sunday night’s Oscar Party.

Following the final film screenings tonight, we’ll gather in the CinemaSalem Cafe for a Wrap Party, sponsored by Art Throb.

This is where we’ll hear the Jury Prize winner chosen by our esteemed panel of judges.

The audience award, it has just been announced, will be tallied following tonight’s screenings and announced during the Sunday night Oscar Party.

It’s been a fantastic week of films, looong Q and A discussions of an hour or more, panel discussions, parties, concerts, events, after-film drinks and on and on. The Salem Film Festival is now undoubtedly one of the most exciting things to happen in Salem. Planning will begin next week for SFF 2011.

Look for information on the award winners and in the future, for intimate taped interviews with filmmakers to be posted at salemfilmfest.com.

To find out more about Art Throb, watch this great short film by filmmaker and Salem Film Fest co-founder Joe Cultrera.

By Dinah Cardin

At least one art car rolled into Salem this morning in honor of this afternoon’s screening of AUTOMORPHOSIS. Howard Davis drove his bright red telephone up from the South Shore and strolled into Caffe Graziani to have breakfast with his buddy, the filmmaker Harrod Blank, who features the phone car in his film. (more…)

The music continues today following last night’s packed rock concert at Victoria Station, which featured Graham Whitford, the son of a member of Aerosmith. At the waterfront restaurant and bar, locals and filmmakers gathered and some inspired dancers took to the floor.

Today, catch Erinn Brown and Steve Peabody at 3:30 p.m. in between films at CinemaSalem. The  duo have been playing all around the area and last night, were up in New Hampshire. Brown has long been known for her bluesy, smoky vocals and Peabody is a laid, back, smiling ear to ear drummer.

Next week, saxophonist and Berklee College grad Jason Miele will be up on March 2 at 7:10 p.m.

On March 3 at 7:30, catch Brian Donnelly on sax, minus his Legion of Super Clowns. (There isn’t time or space at the cinema.) Although you never know who these musicians will bring along with them.

Saturday morning, Feb. 27, join several accomplished filmmakers at the new Salem Theatre Company space for a  FREE panel discussion to hear their adventures in documentary filmmaking. Learn about the filmmaking process and get extra insight into some of the films at this year’s festival.

Filmmakers scheduled to appear: Les Blank (ALL IN THIS TEA, BURDEN OF DREAMS, THE BLUES ACCORDING TO LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS, GARLIC IS AS GOOD AS TEN MOTHERS), Rosie Dransfeld (BROKE), Jeremy Levine (GOOD FORTUNE, WALKING THE LINE), Bari Pearlman (SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS, DAUGHTERS OF WISDOM) and Kristian Fraga/Mike Scotti (SEVERE CLEAR).

Event begins at 10 a.m. The STC’s new space is at 90 Lafayette Street.

The projector room at CinemaSalem. Photos by Dinah Cardin

By Dinah Cardin

The magic of the projector room seems universal. One one hand, it’s romantic, where teenaged cinema employees should be making out amid the whir of the giant projector, incandescent light reflecting back onto the young lovers. However, it also seems the perfect locale for a slasher movie, blood splattering onto the actual film as it revolves around the huge spool. (more…)

CinemaSalem owner Paul Van Ness, Clinton Williams, Tianny Marmolejos, Bryan De Leon and Chris Gaines of the Real to Reel Film School.

By Dinah Cardin

Ten impressive shorts were screened before an enthusiastic audience last night as part of the 2010 Five-Minute Student Film Contest, sponsored by CinemaSalem and Film North, a regional organzation of professional filmmakers.

Following the one hour screening, several audience members with film backgrounds mentioned that they were amazed at the quality of filmmaking. (more…)

By Chris Connelly

SALEM — From the Texas Blues to the revolutionary sounds of Jamaican Reggae, and from a square sixties youth group to new audio art — seven of the 34 documentary films featured in the Salem Film Fest 2010 focus on music.

courtesy photo

But even before the films start showing, starting at 6:10 Friday, Feb. 26, there will be live music in CinemaSalem’s main theater. In what may be a prophetic prelude to the 7 p.m. showing of ROCK PROPHECIES, Guitar Center King of the Blues finalist Graham Whitford, 18, of New York City is scheduled to perform. Whitford is the son of Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford. (more…)

Want to catch a glimpse of the future of filmmaking? Some of the best Massachusetts high school short films of the year will be presented for free TONIGHT at CinemaSalem when the winners of the 2010 Five-Minute Student Film Contest are announced.

“The films span the range of genres, from suspense to comedy to thoughtful documentary, and exhibit the joy and exploratory spirit of youthful filmmakers. From a technical perspective, many of the films are exceptionally sophisticated,” commented one of the contest judges, Paul Van Ness, co-owner of CinemaSalem. (more…)