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.

The Salem Film Fest Audience chose to honor No. 4 Street of Our Lady and Rough Aunties with its Audience Award. No 4’s co-director Judy Maltz visited Salem to present her documentary – her first film effort, which was co-directed by Barbara Bird and Richie Sherman. Rough Aunties was directed by accomplished documentary maker Kim Longinotto, who recently had a retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The Festival will honor both films with a week’s run at Cinema Salem, with dates to be announced. The films employ very different styles but are both emotional and inspiring looks at heroic woman.

No. 4 Street of Our Lady is the story of Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish-Catholic woman who rescued 15 Jews during the Holocaust by passing herself off as a Nazi sympathizer. For close to two years, Francisca hid and fed her Jewish acquaintances in her tiny home and barn, right under the noses of German troops. In the film, three of the survivors, along with Halamajowa’s two granddaughters, reconnect on a trip back to Halamajowa’s home.

Rough Aunties is a look at are a group of women caring for the abused, neglected and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa. Internationally acclaimed director Kim Longinotto (Sisters in Law, Divorce Iranian Style) uses an observational style to follow an outspoken, multiracial cadre of women who wage a daily battle against systemic apathy, corruption and greed to help the most vulnerable and disenfranchised of their communities. The Salem Film Fest screening was the New England Premiere of Rough Aunties, which claimed a 2009 Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize for World Cinema.

The Salem Audience Award is decided by ballots collected by audience members after screenings. The audience votes on a scale of 1 thru 5 and the film with the highest cumulative score, divided by the number of attendees, is the winner.

Jury Award winner Severe Clear tells the story of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and the March to Baghdad through the eyes of first Lieutenant Mike Scotti. The film was directed and edited by Kristian Fraga. Scotti and other members of his platoon shot the film’s footage between incoming and outgoing rounds. Severe Clear is a unique and unfiltered look at this moment in history, not from the perspective of reporters or filmmakers, but from actual combat troops. The award is especially timely since the film will go into theatrical release starting this Friday in New York and Los Angeles.

In just its third year Salem Film Fest is establishing itself as one of the largest presenters of documentary films in the country and a favorite of filmmakers This week, in a statement to the festival about their Jury Award, Severe Clear director Kristian Fraga wrote, “Your enthusiasm and commitment to cinema is inspiring. We’ve traveled the world with Severe Clear and it’s been a great run…Salem had a certain energy and kindness that made it one of the best festivals by far.”

The Festival also hosted an out-of-competition screening of The Cove, which was awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary.

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.

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.

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.

Davis collects telephones, thousands of them, and this red aluminum push button number has been in his life for 25 years, since he converted a 1975 Beetle that he bought for $125.

“I asked them to send me a car phone and they sent me a phone car,” he joked.

He was just explaining how the police sometimes don’t stop him because he believes they just don’t know what to make of him, when two officers from the Salem Police Department  rolled up on Washington Street, put on their lights and walked toward the car with their camera phones.

“I’ve got to get a closer look at this,” one of them said and the officers two began to take photos of one another in front of it.

Passersby stopped on the sidewalk, clutching their morning coffee, chuckling and taking photos.

“That’s just amazing. Quite a sense of humor,” a man said.

Davis seemed used to the attention and was gracious with the gathering crowd, as he showed the Volkswagen’s engine and opened the door to reveal the interior with a real red telephone on the passenger seat.

From Sharon, Mass., Davis met Blank through a friend and said the two of them “get together here and there,” meeting up at art car shows and festivals.

AUTOMORPHOSIS screens TODAY at 1:40 p.m. in CinemaSalem’s main theater.

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.

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.

Posters from both horror movies and romantic comedies fill the walls of CinemaSalem’s projector room. But during Salem Film Fest 2010, the beautiful 1950s projectors that are “built to last,” according to manager Kereth Cowe-Spigai, will not be used.That’s because it costs about $30,000 to make a print and documentary makers often don’t have that kind of dough.

Instead, the movies at most documentary film festivals are shown on an LCD projector on big tapes that look like a larger version of the hard videotapes some of us still may still harbor in our cellars and try to off-load at yard sales.

On Thursday night, Cowe–Spigai and longtime employee Peter Horne set about checking the funtionality and sound levels and such for all 34 films to be shown at this festival.

As the rainstorm beat down outside, they were tucked away in the projector room for hours, pulling each one out of a FedEx package or a cardboard box to insert into the rented deck and test it out. For regular movie-goers, the feature film “Valentine’s Day” was just ending on the big reel a few feet away. Their goal was to have everything set by 4 p.m. today when the festival screenings begin.

Just down the hall in a storage closet is a makeshift interview room where a team of videographers, film lovers and SFF board members will be whisking away visiting filmmakers for taped interviews. Nearby is a lavatory marked “Inglorious Bathroom,” no doubt a take on the film “Inglorious Bastards.”

As the two of them worked away, Cowe-Spigai said that the projector used in the festival has a brighter light than most LCD projectors, making for a higher quality picture.

“A lot of filmmakers last year said they were impressed with how their film looked,” she said. “We are total film freaks here and we want them to look the best.”

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.

The 50 contentestants were whittled down to 10 finalists from high schools in Danvers, Marblehead, Salem,the Landmark School and Triton Regional High. The three chosen winners, who took home cash prizes of up to $100, were from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School and the Real to Reel Film School at Raw Art Works.

The evening was kicked off by an entertaining five-minute film on how to make a five-minute film. The third place winner was called “Koeun & Russel” by Bryan De Leon of Real to Reel about his brother and friend who are both artists. In sped up time, the two collaborate on a large piece of art as they put into words how making art helps them focus and relax.

The second place winners were Jason Nelken and Liang-Shun Lim of Acton. Shot in black and white with fantastic cinematography, “Rehearing the Future” showed Lim go back and forth between playing a grand piano and masterfully shuffling a deck of cards and performing slight of hand tricks.

Lim was not there to receive the award as the magician was in a competition in Las Vegas. His father attended the screening and said his son and Nelken, who grew up next door to one another, have made several films together over the years. This one was originally made for a Nikon contest to show your life in 140 seconds.
A driving classical score was composed by someone the boys knew in the area.

First prize went to Tianny Marmolejos and Clinton Williams of the Real to Reel Film School for “My story,” which was a philosophical look at Marmolejo’s search for her own story. The film follows her and her thoughts around downtown Lynn to Revere Beach and finally to a park bench in Boston Common where she has a conversation with a bronze sculpture. The candid story flowed out of her own writing in class, said Marmolejos, when her film teacher Chris Gaines encouraged her to expand the theme into a short film.

She said she was “in shock” that she and Williams made something with the appeal of this “video diary.”

“We’ve been shuffling it to festivals and it’s been winning,” said Williams, who had another picked finalist in the show.”I learned that if you want to make a film, you have to give your all to it.I’m really impatient sometimes and now I have patience.”

Marmolejos said “Words are words, but if you put them together and add pictures with them, it’s even better.”

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.

Whitford plays again at Victoria Station in Salem at 9:30 p.m. Friday with local musician Grateful Ted. This concert is sponsored by Salem Sounds.

In its third year, the Salem Film Fest, Feb. 26 to March 4, kicks off with legendary documentary film maker Les Blank, who will be on hand to show his newest work ALL IN THIS TEA, but the festival also features his classic 1969 portrayal of a Texas blues legend, THE BLUES ACCORDING TO LIGHTIN’ HOPKINS.

It includes performances at an outdoor barbeque and a black rodeo; and a visit to Lightnin’s boyhood town of Centerville, Texas. The rich 16mm photography, calm camera moves and editing, as well as the unobtrusive filmmaking became Blank’s signatures and influenced generations of documentary film makers.

In ROCK PROPHECIES director John Chester explores photographer Robert Knight’s amazing career. Knight’s photos chronicle bands like Zeppelin and the Stones before they became famous and Chester follows him on his quest to help the bands of today become the rock legends of tomorrow. When Knight stumbles upon Tyler Dow Bryant, a 16-year-old Texas guitar phenom, he’s convinced he may have found the next Stevie Ray Vaughan. Knight risks his reputation and career and takes a chance on Bryant.

Director Luciano Blotta’s RISEUP is a journey into the heart of Jamaica and the worldwide cultural phenomenon of Reggae. In a society where talent abounds and opportunity is scarce, three distinct and courageous artists fight to rise up from obscurity and write themselves into the pages of history. With music and appearances by legends Lee “Scratch” Perry, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, and a slew of soon-to-be superstars, RISEUP follows artists in the dangerous streets, back alleys and crowded dancehalls of Kingston and the countryside. These artists demonstrate the raw power of hope and courage in a land which is largely unseen, but certainly not unsung.

TRIMPIN: THE SOUND OF INVENTION is an amusing journey through the sonic world of a wildly eccentric creative genius. Producer Peter Esmonde’s film follows artist/inventor/engineer/composer (and MacArthur genius) Trimpin as he designs and builds a 60-foot tornado of more than 500 automatic electric guitars; constructs an ensemble of huge marimbas that converts real-time earthquake data into music; collaborates with the Kronos Quartet on an outrageous world premiere with toy instruments…and that’s just for starters.

FOOTSTEPS IN AFRICA from director Kathi von Koerber is an exciting visual narrative accompanied by a diverse musical score. Shot during a road trip in the Sahara Desert of Mali, Kiahkeya performers and a camera team lived with the nomadic Tuareg/Kel Tamashek tribes and visited Tuareg festivals. The film captures the people in their element, investigating their music, their dance, their survival skills and the rituals that the Tuareg carry within to keep their culture and heritage alive.

GIRLS ROCK from directors Arne Johnson and Shane King, is band camp like you’ve never seen it before. At Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp, girls from eight to 18 are taught that it’s OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and that “it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are.” The girls are taught lessons of empowerment from self-defense to anger management by “indie” rock chicks such as Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney. At the end of the week, all the bands perform a concert for over 700 people.

SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY is the true tale of the squeaky clean, smile-drenched singing phenomenon, Up With People. Over the course of 40 years, the group emerged from a religious cult with a mission to counter the counter-culture. Backed by corporate America, they performed an upbeat ideology to 20 million worldwide and at four Super Bowl half-times, and eventually became a pop culture joke parodied on The Simpsons and South Park. Kitschy archival footage and the honest reflections of former members reveal what can happen when ideology, money and groupthink converge to co-opt youthful idealism.

For dates, times and locations that these all the other documentary films will be shown check the festival schedule.

“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.

The finalists of the contest will be presented in Top Ten format at the event, with the Third Place, Second Place, and First Place films winning cash prizes of $25, $50, and $100.

More than 50 filmmakers entered films in the contest, which is open to all Massachusetts high school students. The contest is co-sponsored by CinemaSalem and Film North, a regional organization of professional filmmakers.  Additional promotion was provided by the Video Educators of New England, a consortium of production teachers and professors at the high school and college level.

The finalists hail from many local schools and arts organizations, including Danvers High School, Salem High, Marblehead High, Landmark School, Triton Regional High School, Acton-Boxborough High School, and the Real to Reel Film School, part of Raw Arts of Lynn.

The presentation of the winning films is an unofficial kickoff to the Salem Film Fest, which runs from Friday, Feb. 26, through Thursday, March 4.