Boardwalk Film Festival Comes To The Saint & JSAC
Film Industry Professionals Provide Platform For Well Told Indie Features
A new annual film festival with a platform that concentrates on the well told story launches this month at The Saint and the Jersey Shore Arts Center [JSAC] in Ocean Grove.
Boardwalk Film Festival [BFF] is a nonprofit collaboration of film industry professionals from New York and New Jersey. Their inaugural event scheduled for Sept. 17 and 18, will feature 59 films in a variety of genres, organizers said.
“We’re very excited about this collection of films,” Founder and Festival Director Kevin McLaughlin [at right] said. “After combing through 1100 entries from more than 70 countries, I can confidently say that we have a roster that really exemplifies the best that the indie film world has to offer.”
On the bill are local features as well as films from around the country and the world, including submissions from Iran, Spain, the Netherlands, France, and the UK. Many of the films will be having their World Premieres, and most of them will be having their first New Jersey screening, organizers said in a written statement.
Each screening is expected to have at least one filmmaker in attendance for an audience Q & A after the film. The featured films had to meet festival’s criteria of displaying extraordinary story-telling without relying on excessive violence for dramatic energy.
Headlining are the state premieres by NYC directors Maggie Surovell and Shari Berman [shown below, respectively].
Surovell’s Last Pickup, starring Nicholas Luna and Chuck English, is a dark comedy that follows a team of low-level mobsters through a wild night of mishaps and mayhem.
Berman’s Sugar!, featuring actors Leah Barker, Robert Clohessy, and Tony-winning Alice Ripley, is a mix of humor and pathos that follows protagonist Leslie through a midlife crisis, resulting in a secret she’s keeping from her conservative husband is unveiled on the internet.
Documentaries include the world premiere of Quiet Please…, by Long Branch filmmaker Jeffrey Scott Gould. This film introduces audiences to the strange and difficult world of Misophonia, an aversion to sound. Gould brings empathy and humanity to the struggles of those tortured by ordinary everyday sounds.
Also screening in the documentary category is Daddy Don’t Go, from Asbury Park native Keryn Thompson [at right]. Along with executive producers Omar Epps and Malik Yoba, director Emily Abt, Thompson produces this two-year-long vignette of the struggles four urban fathers face in attempting to break stereotypes and do right by their children.
In addition to feature, documentary, short and student films, the BFF has lined up series of LGBTQ films, being screened 2 p.m. Sept. 18 at The Saint.
Their Future Features genre showcases works that represent a larger vision by their filmmakers. In some cases, this means short films that hope to one day become feature films, and in others the entry is a TV pilot intended to show programmers an idea for a series.
The weekend lineup of events includes a 10 p.m. Saturday bash at The Beach Bar on the boardwalk and Sunday’s Closing Night Party following the festival’s 8 p.m. Awards Ceremony at The Saint. Both events will feature live entertainment.
The inaugural BFF is sponsored locally by Johnny Mac’s House of Spirits, Tim McLoone’s Restaurants, and Red Bank Sleep Shoppe.
Fro more information and advance tickets – $75 all access or $30 day pass, visit www.BoardwalkFilm.com.
[Individual photos courtesy of filmmaker’s social media post]
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