BIFF-text-color-1
Originally Posted And Written By bifilmfest.org
August 23, 2023
View The Original Announcement
August 23, 2023, BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA – The Bainbridge Island Film Festival has announced the primary lineup of films for its inaugural fest, taking place September 21st – 24th. The festival, which will feature over 40 films, includes both fiction and documentary features and shorts, Q&As, panels, and special events, and will take place at several venues across the island, including the Historic Lynwood Theatre, Bainbridge Cinemas, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, and Island Center Hall. In addition to screening the latest in independent cinema from around the country and beyond, BIFF will also showcase features and shorts from local filmmakers as well as films shot on and around Bainbridge Island. Of the 12 feature films included, 6 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, screening at the Historic Lynwood Theatre. The film world-premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. 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 Bainbridge-based filmmaker, Rachel Noll James, and was shot entirely on Bainbridge Island.
The festival will close with the fiction feature FANCY DANCE, directed by Erica Tremblay. The film premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and stars Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) and was co-written by Seattle based screenwriter, Miciana Alise.
Other notable screenings include the documentary feature FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK, which showcases archival photography from Bainbridge-based photographer Linda Wolf. The screening will be followed with 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 Bainbridge-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 Bainbridge Island from the 1950’s. Also free to the public is a talk on disaster movies from film critic Robert Horton, entitled This is the End: How Movies Prepare Us for the Apocalypse, co-presented by the Bainbridge Public Library, Library U, and Humanities Washington.
The Bainbridge Island Film Festival is founded by Bainbridge-based filmmaker and educator, Charles Poekel, and is fiscally sponsored by Arts and Humanities Bainbridge, an official 501c3 organization. “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.”
A more detailed program can be found at: www.bifilmfest.org
Passes are currently on sale, as well as standalone tickets for pass-holders, and stand-alone tickets for the Opening Night Celebration. Individual screening tickets go on sale Tuesday, August 29th.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
OPENING NIGHT:
Director: Zach Ingrasci, Chris Temple
Producer: Carrie Weprin, Jenna M. Kelly, Martine Phelan-Roberts
Cast: Glauber Contessoto, Senay Kenfe, Kayla Kilbride
USA. 88 min
Glauber Contessoto gambles his life savings on a joke cryptocurrency. Two months later, he becomes “The Dogecoin Millionaire” and an internet legend. While it might seem easy to get rich online, it’s even easier to lose it all.
Thursday, September 21st, 7:00 PM
Saturday, September 23rd, 2:00 PM
ISLAND SPOTLIGHT:
Director: Rachel Noll James
Screenwriter: Rachel Noll James
Producer: Sienna Beckman, Rachel Noll James
Cast: Rachel Noll James, Christopher Clark, Johnny Ferro
USA. 118 min
A woman who can move between parallel realities loses her husband tragically and must overcome past trauma to travel the multiverse once again and find her way into a reality where he is still alive.
Saturday, September 23rd, 6:30 PM
Sunday, September 24th, 12:00 PM
CLOSING NIGHT:
Director: Erica Tremblay
Screenwriter: Erica Tremblay, Miciana Alise
Producer: Heather Rae, Tommy Oliver, Ninna Yang Bongiovi, Deidre Backs, Erica Tremblay
Cast: Lily Gladstone, Isabel Deroy-Olson, Ryan Begay
USA. 90min
Since her sister’s disappearance, Jax has cared for her niece Roki by scraping by on the Seneca-Cayuga Reservation in Oklahoma. Every spare minute goes into finding her missing sister while also helping Roki prepare for an upcoming powwow. At the risk of losing custody to Jax’s grandfather, Frank, the pair hit the road and scour the backcountry to track down Roki’s mother in time for the powwow. 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.
Sunday, September 24th, 7:00 PM
FICTION FEATURES:
CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT
Director: Thomas Gomez Bustillo
Screenwriter: Tomas Gomez Bustillo
Producer: Gewan Brown, Amanda Freedman
Cast: Mónica Villa, Horacio Marassi, Pablo Moseinco
Argentina. 84 min
In the tiny town of Santa Rita lives Rita, an elderly chapel keeper. She and the women in her church group are in constant competition to see who is the most saintly. But no matter how many times she polishes the chapel floors, her effort is always overlooked. One day, in one of the back rooms, she stumbles upon the town’s beloved statue of Santa Rita, believed to have been stolen decades ago. Seizing the opportunity, she stages a “miracle” that will finally anoint her as the most admired woman in town. With the reluctant help of her neglected husband, Rita finds that the road to sainthood is not exactly glamorous, while the world around her has been brimming with strange magic all along.
Friday, September 22nd, 7:00 PM
Saturday, September 23rd, 11:30 AM
Director: Al Warren
Screenwriter: Michael Bible
Producer: Babak Khoshnoud
Cast: Al Warren, Angela Trimbur, Dylan Redford
USA. 84 min
Alan, a balding film director, loses his fiancé’s dog at a gender reveal party on the morning of an important shoot. A critic named Nick gives candid observations on a series of incomplete shorts that Alan has spent his own money making. 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.
Saturday, September 23rd, 4:15 PM
Sunday, September 24th, 2:00 PM
Director: Babak Jalali
Screenwriter: Carolina Cavalli, Babak Jalali
Producer: Laura Wagner, Marjaneh Moghimi, Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff
Cast: Anaita Wali Zada, Jeremy Allen White, Gregg Turkington
USA. 92 min
Donya, a former Afghan translator for the U.S. government, lives alone in Fremont, California. When she’s promoted to writing the fortunes at her job at a fortune cookie factory in the city, Donya’s loneliness and longing drive her to send a message out in a cookie, unsure where it may lead. Tenderly sculpted and lyrically shot in black-and-white, Babak Jalali’s FREMONT is a wry, deadpan vision of the universal longing for home.
Sunday, September 24th, 12:00 PM
Sunday, September 24th, 7:30 PM
Director: Katherine Propper
Screenwriter: Katherine Propper
Producer: Andres Figueredo Thomson, Juan Carlos Figueredo Thomson
Cast: Suave Sidle, Syanda Stillwell, Micro TDH
USA. 95 min
Set to a lo-fi, genre-bending soundtrack, “Lost Soulz” follows a young rapper as he leaves behind his surrogate family and sets out on an expedition across Texas, contemplating new and old friendships.
Friday, September 22nd, 7:30 PM
Saturday, September 23rd, 7:00 PM
Director: Buster Keaton
Cast: Buster Keaton
USA. 45min
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. Preceded by The Story of Bainbridge, a Rotary Club-produced travelogue from the 1950’s (12min).
Saturday, September 23rd, 3:30 PM
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES:
ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (DADIWONISI) (WE WILL SPEAK)
Director: Schon Duncan, Michael McDermit
Producer: Laura Heberton, Keli Gonzales
USA. 94 min
The Cherokee language is deeply tied to Cherokee identity; yet generations of assimilation efforts by the U.S. government and anti-Indigenous stigmas have forced the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a State of Emergency for the language in 2019. While there are 430,000 Cherokee citizens in the three federally recognized tribes, fewer than an estimated 2,000 fluent speakers remain– the majority of whom are elderly. The covid pandemic has unfortunately hastened the course. Language activists, artists, and the youth must now lead the charge of urgent radical revitalization efforts to help save the language from the brink of extinction.
Saturday, September 23rd, 1:30 PM
Sunday, September 24th, 2:45 PM
Director: Bobbi Jo Hart
Producer: Bobbi Jo Hart, Robbie Hart
Cast: June Millington, Jean Millington, Alice de Buhr
Canada. 92 min
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 LP with a major label. Adored by David Bowie, the band’s groundbreaking impact in music has been lost in the mists of time… until now. Fifty years later, bandmates reunite with a new record deal and a second chance to right the wrongs of history.
Saturday, September 23rd, 11:30 AM
Sunday, September 24th, 4:15 PM
Director: Gary Matoso, Cameron Zohoori
Producer: Gary Matoso
USA. 91 min
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.
Saturday, September 23rd, 4:00 PM
Sunday, September 24th, 5:00 PM
STEWART UDALL: THE POLITICS OF BEAUTY
Director: John de Graaf
Producer: John de Graaf, Zélie Pollon
USA. 78 min
A film biography of Stewart Udall, America’s most famous Secretary of Interior, who was also a fighter for racial justice, peace, the arts and environmental protections. Filled with fascinating history, remarkable archival footage and photos.
Friday, September 22nd, 4:45 PM
Saturday, September 23rd, 7:30 PM
SHORT FILMS:
KITSAP SHORTS
Friday, September 22nd, 4:45 PM
Sunday, September 24th, 2:00 PM
Director: Gabe Nathan
USA. 8min
A broke and discouraged telemarketer dreams of escaping to Hawaii. His obnoxious boss offers him an opportunity that could change everything.
Director: Andre Chaisson
USA. 15min
A tenderly assembled documentary portrait of the filmmaker’s relationship with their father surrounding his passing.
Director: Bobby Roe
USA. 21min
Filmed under the social distancing and self-isolation requirements of the COVID-19 outbreak, Bobby Roe’s ‘Seattle’ segment from the omnibus horror film, Isolation, follows two siblings alone in a post-apocalyptic world searching for their parents and a mysterious ship that may lead them to safety.
Director: Andrew Wright
USA. 10min
Each summer as you drive along the waterfront between Orchard and Bremerton you see a string of floats bobbing in the waves, the tale tale sign of tribal gill nets filling with king salmon. TV news stations and local papers routinely cover the dwindling salmon populations and its effect on orca whales and other sea life. So, if salmon are on the decline, then why are there gill nets harvesting fish before they have a chance to spawn in Gorst Creek? Interviews with Suquamish tribal fishermen, hatchery managers, recreational fishermen, and Kitsap Poggie Club volunteers will tell you why.
Director: Kai James Uyekawa
USA. 2min
A trip through the history of Japanese Americans and its presence on Bainbridge island.
Director: Andrew Taylor
USA. 15min
Chaos ensues when a young entrepreneur’s steakhouse runs out of steak.
PLEASE NOTE: Fiction Shorts, Nonfiction Shorts, and Midnight Shorts programs will be announced the week of August 30th.
For more information, please contact
CHLOE PR:
Charles Poekel