The first Bainbridge Island Film Festival will take place Sept. 21-24 and include over 40 films at four venues.
The event includes fiction and documentary features and shorts, Q&As, panels and special events. The locations will be at the Historic Lynwood Theatre, Bainbridge Cinemas, the BI Museum of Art, and Island Center Hall.
In addition to screening the latest independent cinema from around the world, BIFF will also showcase features and shorts from local filmmakers as well as films shot on and around BI. Of the 12 feature films, six have connections to the island.
The festival will open with the feature documentary This is Not Financial Advice, co-directed by Bainbridge High School alum Zach Ingrasci. Following the Lynwood Theatre screening, an opening night celebration will take place at the Manor House in Lynwood Center.
The festival will also feature an “Island Spotlight” selection, singling out a feature film shot in the area with strong ties to the community. This year’s selection, Ingress, is written and directed by BI-based filmmaker Rachel Noll James.
Other notable screenings include the documentary feature Fanny: The Right to Rock, which showcases archival photography from BI-based photographer Linda Wolf. The screening will be followed by a short performance by original Fanny drummer Brie Darling.
The documentary feature Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat, directed by Gary Matoso and Cameron Zohoori, was produced by BI-based production company Vignette Creative and showcases the stories of volunteer firefighters across the country.
The festival will also include several free events, including a “Silent Saturday” screening of Buster Keaton’s 1924 classic, Sherlock Jr., accompanied by live piano, and preceded by a Rotary Club-produced travelogue of BI from the 1950s. Also free is a talk on disaster movies from film critic Robert Horton, titled This is the End: How Movies Prepare Us for the Apocalypse.
BIFF is founded by BI-based filmmaker and educator Charles Poekel and is fiscally sponsored by the nonprofit Arts and Humanities Bainbridge.
“I looked around and saw both the incredible support this island gives artists and also the amazing venues we have for exhibition,” Poekel said. “And I wanted to create an opportunity for local filmmakers to get their work in front of audiences and also meet and interact with filmmakers from around the globe.”
For tickets and details go to www.bifilmfest.org
Highlights
Sept. 21, 7 p.m., and Sept. 23, 2 p.m., This is Not Financial Advice: Glauber Contessoto gambles his life savings on a joke cryptocurrency. Two months later, he becomes “The Dogecoin Millionaire” and an internet legend.
Sept. 23, 6:30 p.m., Sept. 24, noon, Ingress: A woman loses her husband tragically and must overcome past trauma to travel the multiverse and find her way into a reality where he is still alive.
Sept. 24, 7 p.m., Fancy Dance: What begins as a search gradually turns into a far deeper investigation into the complexities and contradictions of Indigenous women moving through a colonized world and at the mercy of a failed justice system.
Sept. 22, 7 p.m., Sept. 23, 11:30 a.m., Chronicles of a Wandering Saint: Rita, an elderly chapel keeper, and the women in her church group are in constant competition to see who is the most saintly, but she finds the road to sainthood is not exactly glamorous, while the world around her has been brimming with strange magic all along.
Sept. 23, 4:15 p.m., Sept. 24, 2 p.m., Dogleg: Alan loses his fiancé’s dog at a gender reveal party. As the pursuit of the lost dog and the chaos of the short films begin to blend, Alan grows desperate for the day to be over.
Sept. 23, 3:30 p.m., Sherlock Jr.: A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend’s father’s pocket watch.
Sept. 23,, 11:30 a.m. Sept. 24, 4:15 p.m., Fanny the Right to Rock: The untold story of a Filipina American-founded, California garage band that morphed into the ferocious rock group Fanny, the first all-female band to release an album with a major label. Adored by David Bowie, after 50 years bandmates reunite with a new record deal and a second chance to right the wrongs of history.
Sept. 23, 4 p.m., Sept. 24, 5 p.m., Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat: The inspiring journey of the most remarkable neighbors whose help you hope you never need- volunteer firefighters- as they encounter heart-breaking challenges and exhilarating triumphs to fulfill a single mission: serving their community.
Sept. 22, 4:45 p.m., Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m., Stewart Udall and the Politics of Beauty: America’s most famous Secretary of Interior was also a fighter for racial justice, peace, the arts and environmental protections.
Kitsap Short Films
Sept. 22, 4:45 p.m., Sept. 24, 2 p.m.: Beautiful Place, A broke and discouraged telemarketer dreams of escaping to Hawaii. Clay’s Pond: A tenderly assembled documentary of the filmmaker’s relationship with their father surrounding his passing. Date with Self: Dating yourself is complicated. Kings of Gorst Creek: Each summer as you drive along the waterfront between Port Orchard and Bremerton you see tribal gill nets. If salmon are on the decline, why is this allowed? Interviews with Suquamish tribal fishermen, hatchery managers, recreational fishermen and Kitsap Poggie Club volunteers will tell you why. Resonance: A trip through the history of Japanese Americans and its presence on BI.
