'Start-up energy': Martha's Vineyard film fest returns with a lot of 'new' and diverse voices

WEST TISBURY — After two years of virtual festivals, The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival will return Wednesday, in person, in a new home in a new town and with a new leader.

And new staff. And a new parent company. And a new mission. And a new residency program. And even a new chef.

“We keep repeating that sense of it over and over … ‘Boy, this is a lot of firsts, a lot of new,’” said Brian Ditchfield, longtime programming director who became artistic and executive director a year ago, with a laugh. “I’m thrilled about it. It’s kind of starting all over again in a way. After 22 years, it sort of feels like we’re infused with this start-up energy again, which is pretty exciting.”

'We struck gold': Comics Lenny Clarke, Jimmy Tingle play brothers for short film in Chatham

MVFF dates and events

The May 18-22 festival will include 17 feature films; youth programming; Q&As with visiting filmmakers; 10 community discussions; live music, theater and dance; and a sneak peek of works in progress. There will be an unprecedented six programs of short films, as a way to include more voices and the work of young filmmakers, Ditchfield said.

A running theme in chosen films is diverse voices and situations around the world — with films spotlighting important issues in Brazil, Ukraine, Russia and other countries plus new work by artists staying in the festival’s first-ever residency program at nearby Slough Farm.

Siobhan Growing Elm Brown, a theater artist and member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Ty Defoe, a filmmaker from the Oneida and Ojibwe Nations; and storytellers from the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah will create and present a theatrical and film experience featuring the stories of Indigenous people.

Also in residence will be Emmy Award-winning director Daresha Kyi, who will show her opening-night film “Mama Bears” (about conservative, Christian mothers who have become fierce advocates for LGBTQ+ people) but also give a work-in-progress screening of her new “Black Voters Matter.”

A new start: Martha's Vineyard Film Festival leases Grange Hall theater for year-round arts center

All of the films and events are being presented by the newly formed Circuit Arts nonprofit announced last month, dedicated to “building community through meaningful and inclusive experiences around film and the arts, year-round and across the Island.”

Summer drive-in theater

The new umbrella organization was needed, Ditchfield said, because the organization also now has the summer drive-in theater at the YMCA in Oak Bluffs, has a filmmaking component, presents programs in the schools, and wants to invite in theater, music and community events.

“We want to show that with all those departments, we are really focusing on the community and that we are year-round and all-island,” Ditchfield said. “It’s an important message that we're not just a festival for five days in the spring. We are a year-round arts organization.”

22 in '22: Challenges facing Cape Cod this year, strategies for success

Couches help create community

But that festival is what will be centerstage next week and the staff has been kept busy setting up the previously Chilmark-centric event at the new home in the Grange Hall’s upstairs theater, leased year-round from the Vineyard Preservation Trust. That historic space has been outfitted with state-of-the-art projection and sound equipment — as well as the festival’s trademark comfy couches (that also work as social-distancing pods).

Creating a campus feel, the nearby First Congregational Church of West Tisbury and the Old West Tisbury Library on Music Street will also be used for screenings, with the first floor of the Grange Hall offering movie-goers food and live music.

“We want to feel like a community living room, a community gathering space where everyone is welcome,” Ditchfield said.

Minah Oh, the new head of film programming, added: “We have a great partnership with the preservation trust … and we have a lot of collaboration within the neighborhood and the town, and it just feels like we’re coming home. We’ve come to a place that we feel welcomed, but we’re also welcoming our community back year-round.”

On the Cape: Director Luca Guadagnino, Jenny Slate, Bowen Yang to be honored at Provincetown film fest

The festival’s programming committee has doubled in size to eight members, including more people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, with Ditchfield and Oh praising each other in a joint phone interview for what those points of view have meant to the storytelling offered this year. The film festival and related arts programs are trying to reach and reflect the people in the community, Oh said, whether it's Brazilians or Indigenous Wampanoags, summer or year-round residents.

With the choice of movies, “I think we're trying to provide a lens for our community that are here and also provide that parallel to what's happening in the world. The (festival) really wants to showcase stories that are here and everywhere,” Oh said. “All of the stories … have a common thread of showcasing what the problem is and letting the viewer understand what the problem is and then asking and challenging them ‘How do we fix this?’ Because once our audience and our community can understand and truly see what the problem is and we let them decide, now we have a deeper level of what cinema is: It’s storytelling. Everyone has a story.”

And it’s important to tell those stories in person, she and Ditchfield said, so they felt finally holding the festival on site without a virtual component was important — with COVID-19 safety precautions in place down to snack choices.

“We’ve all been kind of tucked away and isolated for two years at home and this is a chance for a community to safely come together and experience the magic of cinema,” Oh said. “Part of watching a movie is just getting the audience reaction and I think it's a perfect time for us to open our doors and create that kind of feeling of being back home, but in a theater. … It’s nice to feel like you're a part of something.”

The films at the festival

Work by diverse voices “exploring culture and resilience” to be shown at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival will include Egyptian-American filmmaker Dina Amer in attendance with her “You Resemble Me,” about two Muslim sisters who are torn apart; “From the Hood to the Holler,” about a campaign by Charles Booker (who will attend) to win the Democratic primary and unseat Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky; “Klondike,” about expectant parents trying to navigate the 2014 war in Ukraine (with all ticket sales donated to a Ukrainian charity); the documentary “Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust,” about women from rancher communities defending their Los Angeles land; “The Territory,” which follows the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous Surveillance Team as they defend their land against a network of Brazilian farmers intent on colonizing their territory; and “Our Worlds Collide” about five teenage spoken-word poets navigating their final year of high school in Los Angeles.

On Nantucket: Summer revealed by Nantucket film fest, Cape Rep Theatre & Cyr honored for arts help

Feature narrative films will include the unconventional love story “Cha Cha Real Smooth”; the comedic drama with Emma Thompson “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”; the sci-fi action adventure family drama “Everything Everywhere All At Once” with Michelle Yeoh; and the drama about a desperate homeless man “892,” with John Boyega and the late Michael K. Williams.

Other feature documentaries will include “Nothing Compares,” about singer Sinéad OʼConnor; “Navalny,” about the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the attempt on his life; “Make People Better,” the inside story behind the world’s first genetically designed babies and their creator; and “On the Divide,” about three Latinx people living in Texas.

Information on the festival and tickets for events: https://tmvff.org/

Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @KathiSDCCT.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Martha's Vineyard Film Festival: new home, leadership, diverse voices