Chesapeake Film Festival (CFF) announces the kick-off of CFF REEL GEMS, a pilot Winter/Spring film series that will screen selected films from the CFF film library. This first series highlights standout films and filmmakers from past Chesapeake Film Festivals since its inception in 2007. CFF REEL GEMS in supported by the Talbot County Arts Council. Films will be screened in Oxford, St. Michaels and Easton, MD.
The Oxford Community Center launches the CFF series with a set of films whose filmmakers who live, or have lived, in Oxford. The Center is located at 200 Oxford Road, Oxford, MD 21654. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased online at ChesapeakeFilmFestival.com or at the door.
March 16, 2018
Arc of Light: A Portrait of Anna Campbell Bliss
5:30- 7:00 p.m.
ARC OF LIGHT: A Portrait of Anna Campbell Bliss is about an artist, architect and designer who has devoted her life to the creation of works of art that explore the complex intersections between art, technology, science, nature, poetry, mathematics, and architecture. The film looks at the astonishing range of Bliss’s work, from small painterly and digitally based studies of color and light to architectural site commissions of immense scale. It also puts her work in art-historical context and traces her Modernist influences, including the Bauhaus artists of the 1920s. The film includes compelling interviews with the artist’s husband, architect, and furniture designer Robert Bliss; filmmaker Judy Hallet; and professor of architecture Stanley Hallet.
Filmmaker, Cid Collins Walker in attendance. Cid is the founder of Black Opal Productions and is a resident of Oxford. Her husband Richard wrote the screenplay for ARC OF LIGHT. The film received its East Coast premiere at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC in March 2012 as part of the Environmental Film Festival. It was further screened at many museums in the U.S. and ultimately was televised on PBS.
March 22nd
Flash of Genius
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
When college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns (Greg Kinnear) develops an intermittent windshield wiper, he believes he, his wife (Lauren Graham) and their children will be set for life. Though the invention is a big hit with automakers in 1960s Detroit, Kearns finds himself forced out of the picture. Determined to collect the recognition and financial reward due him, he wages an arduous legal battle with the auto industry.
Filmmaker Tim Kearns in Attendance. Tim Kearns is the son of Robert Kearns who is the featured subject of the film. The Kearns family reside in Oxford and provide a wonderful Q&A about the actual invention as well as the making of the film.
April 20, 2018
Swimmers
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
Swimmers is a 2005 American independent drama about Will Tyler who struggles to hold on to his livelihood on the Chesapeake Bay. He and his wife suffer from the financial woes of a poor fishing season, the sudden loss of Will’s boat and Will’s fierce pride in not having to ask for handouts.
Filmed in Oxford, Swimmers premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2005, and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best New American Film from the Seattle International Film Festival. The title and theme of the film were inspired by the Latin name for the Chesapeake Bay’s indigenous Maryland blue crab – Callinectes sapidus – Callinectes translates as “beautiful swimmers.”
Filmmaker Doug Sadler will be present. Born and Raised in Oxford, son of Ken and Sarah Sadler, Doug filmed this movie in Oxford and sold the rights to Netflix to enjoy a successful career as filmmaker and as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins/MICA.
April 27, 2018
TRI
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
Natalie, an ultrasound tech with a history of not finishing things, is inspired by a cancer patient to sign up for a Triathlon. Natalie is introduced to the strange (and aerodynamic) world of triathletes and meets a colorful cast of characters as she trains for the Nation’s Triathlon. With the support of her new teammates, she digs deep to discover just how far she can push her mind and body.
Filmmaker in Attendance: Co-Producer and Casting Director Kimberly Skyrme will be in attendance.
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The Oxford Community Center, Inc., is a 501-c-3 nonprofit organization, whose mission is to enrich community life by fostering educational, cultural, and social opportunities. Event proceeds benefit future programming at the Center. Visit us on Facebook at Oxford Community Center, Inc. or at oxfordcc.org
The Chesapeake Film Festival (CFF) is the only film festival on the Eastern Shore to bring together filmmakers and diverse audiences of film enthusiasts for an annual weekend festival in Easton, MD and throughout the year in its series, REEL GEMS. CFF offers educational opportunity through cinematic presentations, lectures, and panel discussions of CFF initiatives. Visit us on Facebook or at www.chesapeakefilmfestival.com