Green Mountain Film Festival 2008

• Saturday, March 24 10:00 am

Unitarian Church vestry
The insightful and entertaining Kenneth Turan is a film critic for National Public Radio, and has been reviewing films for the Los Angeles Times for more than ten years. He is also the author of several books, including From Sundance to Sarajevo and Never Coming to a Theater Near You. He will be joined by GMFF Programmer Rick Winston for an informal and wide-ranging movie conversation. Sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council.

NOTE - this is a free event but tickets are strongly recommended to ensure a seat.

You can hear an interview with Kenneth Turan on the Friday edition of All Things Considered on Vermont Public Radio beginning at 4 o’clock.

• Saturday, March 17 2:00 pm

Hayes Room, Kellogg-Hubbard Library
With the advent of digital video technologies, webcasting and the commercial box office success of several broadly distributed works in recent years, documentary filmmaking is undergoing a renaissance. This has provided opportunities and challenges to documentary filmmakers: they must still find provocative subjects, gain the trust of the people they film and shape the film through editing, but now must also select an screening showcase - or target an audience - with the plethora of venues made possible by the internet and new media. Four filmmakers discuss contemporary documentary filmmaking in this panel hosted by Kenneth Peck (host of Vermont Public Television’s Reel Independents) and sponsored by the Vermont Film Commission as part of the annual Filmmakers Forum series.

• Saturday, March 17 10:00 am

City Hall Arts Center
Vermont filmmaker Meredith Holch will show some of her colorful and captivating animated shorts and will demonstrate stop-motion animation techniques. In the featured 28-minute film NO PLACE LIKE HOME, images made from translucent, layered tissue paper accompany the voices of refugees as they relate their experiences of resettling in Vermont. PICTURE PERFECT (8 minutes) is an inventive and poignant look at Vermont’s changing landscape. Sponsored by The Black Door Bar & Bistro. Total program length: approximately 90 minutes.

• Thursday, March 22 6:30 pm

City Hall Arts Center
Why do so many old films fail the test of time while a few are rediscovered by each generation of moviegoers? GMFF programmer Rick Winston will discuss some of the elements of those classics from Hollywood’s “Golden Age” - writing, acting, direction, cinematography - and illustrate with clips from some favorites. He’ll explore the silent genius of Buster Keaton, the grace of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the technical bravura of Orson Welles, the wit of Preston Sturges, and more. Sponsored by The Black Door Bar & Bistro. Approximately 105 minutes.

• Tuesday, March 20 6:30 pm

City Hall Arts Center
In a unique program, specially devised for this year’s festival, Rob Mermin, an accomplished mime and founder of Circus Smirkus, traces the development of pantomime acting in silent movies from histrionic melodrama to emotionally sophisticated dramatics, from knockabout slapstick to superbly subtle comedy. Rob has complied “a dazzling array of film clips” featuring the great silent stars: Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Ramon Navarro and many more, including rarely seen clips from European silent cinema. Approximately 105 minutes.