What brings the likes of tourists, legendary filmmakers like Ken Burns and astounding new cinema to a small island off the coast of Massachusetts? Well, the Nantucket Film Festival of course.
The Nantucket Film Festival returns for its 29th year, running from June 19 to 24. Over 60 features and short films fill this year’s lineup ranging from documentaries to narratives and covering everything from climate change to romance and building scaling.
“We really want to share the films that very much excite us (and) that we think our audience is going to find very memorable,” Basil Tsiokos, senior programmer for the festival said. “(They’re) films that we want them to be buzzing about.”
What’s playing at the Nantucket Film Festival this year?
This year’s “special presentation films” include “Thelma,”"Skywalkers: A Love Story,” and “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.” “Thelma,” (directed by Josh Margolin) opens the festival on June 19, telling the story of 93-year-old Thelma Post’s (played by Academy Award nominee June Squibb) pursuit of justice after being scammed out of $10,000.
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“Skywalkers: A Love Story,” directed by Jeff Zimbalist, is this year’s “centerpiece" screening. In his documentary, Zimbalist follows the lives of “rooftoppers” Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, a couple who scale some of the world’s tallest buildings and structures — like Tom Cruise in that one “Mission Impossible” film.
“If you are nervous about heights, this film is probably not for you,” Tsiokos jokes. “If you're excited about heights, then this film is for you. It is really quite special.”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” a documentary about the life of Clark Kent directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui closes out the festival on June 24.
“It tells the parallel story of this unknown stage actor becoming this iconic figure and then also the parallel story of his tragic accident and (becoming) paraplegic (and an) advocate for Spinal Cord Injury Research,” Tsiokos said. “(It’s a) really amazing, really honest story.”
“Skywalkers” is also part of the “Next-Gen” category, a new category aimed at targeting Millennial and Gen-Z audiences (but they’re really suitable for all audiences.) Other inaugural “Next-Gen” films include “Good One” by India Donaldson, “In the Summers,” by Alessandra Lacorazza, “Kneecap,” by Rich Peppiatt and “Los Frikis” by Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson.
“It's important for us to think about that kind of next generation of cinephiles that are going to help us into our next 30 years,” Tsiokos said. “By supporting these films and falling in love with going to a film — which as we know it’s hard these days, people have lots of other opportunities and options to watch — we really want to get people in theaters to appreciate this beautiful work.”
Outside of the special presentation films, four “Spotlight” films have been selected to be screened among other notable titles, like Ken Burn's documentary “In Their Shoes.”
Burns will attend this year’s festival to screen and speak about the documentary and give Nantucket a sneak peek at his latest documentary on Leonardo Da Vinci.
For their spotlight screenings, festival staff selected two nonfiction — “Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge,” “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” — and two fiction films — “Widow Clicquot,” “Winner” all coincidentally focusing on female stories.
“I'm realizing they're all female-based, female-centered films, which is great,” Anita Raswat, lead programmer for the festival, said. “I love to see that in a lineup so I'm really excited about those titles.”
Screenwriters Kerry Ehrin (creator of “The Morning Show,") Roger Ross Williams and Meredith Scardino (creator of “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) will be honored as part of this year’s screenwriting tribute.
“Meredith Scardino has my heart for ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,’ (and) ‘Girls5eva,’” Raswat said.
Ehrin will receive the “Excellence in Television Writing” Award, Scardino will receive the “New Voices in Television Writing” award and Ross Williams will receive the “Career Achievement in Filmmaking” award.
Nantucket Film Festival tackles climate change with Green Carpet Cinema Program
You know of the red carpet, but have you heard of the green one? The Nantucket Film Festival is rolling out the green carpet for their third year, celebrating a new collection of films screening in their “Green Carpet Cinema” category at this year’s festival.
The aim of the program is not only to open the conversation about climate change and how it impacts our world but to facilitate conversations on the island of how climate change is impacting Nantucket directly.
“Nantucket can have this sort of insular feel to it and you do feel like you're actually not even in America anymore,” Tsiokos said. “...There are real world issues that I think we want the audience to remember. … Film can be escapism, but it can also be engaging and for us things like green carpet cinema is that engagement element…these are things that we can't put our heads in the sand (about). It's affecting the island.”
This year’s Green Carpet Cinema films include “Maya and the Wave” (dir. Stephanie Johnes,) “The Battle for Laikipia” (dir. Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi) and “Every Little Thing” (dir. Sally Aitken.)
The 29th Nantucket Film Festival runs from June 19 to 24. Passes and ticket packages are currently on sale with individual ticket sales beginning on May 23. To view the full festival schedule, purchase tickets and for more information, visit www.nantucketfilmfestival.org/.
Frankie Rowley covers entertainment and things to do. Contact her at frowley@capecodonline.com.
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