Montclair Film Festival – thank you!
May 7th, 2012 by Mr. C
– IT’S SUNDANCE. ONLY JERSIER.
The 1st Annual Montclair Film Festival from May 1st-6th came and went just like the urban legend of the Jersey Devil but not without leaving a lasting impression, though. Due to scheduling conflicts, we were only able to attend four screenings including 3 documentaries: Lemon, Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. The Movie, and The Atomic States of America. The fourth film was Robot and Frank. The collective unconscious here at Planet Chocko will write a report on these movies shortly but in the meantime, we wanted to just acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of the organizers of the Montclair Film Festival by throwing down a machismo Morton Downey Jr. inspired loudmouth-shoutout and standing ovation to the organizers of the Film Festival including the Festival Directors: Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen. Apparently this unsung duo have run other fine screening events such as the Toronto International Film Festival, the Stranger Than Fiction series at the IFC in NYC, and DOC-NYC at IFC! Other honourable hero mentions of the Festival must go out to all the volunteers. Their enthusiasm, smiles, and politeness in creating order was much appreciated. Last but not least, I was taken aback to see how much pride, love, heart, & soul the community of Upper Montclair & Montclair had shown the festival goers in preparation for this event. Many storefronts and public spaces were adorned with decor – all to the theme of the film festival! You would find King Kong signs, film reels, paper mache retro film cameras, and even film wrapped around all the parking meters by Bellevue Theater! The energy set forth by the businesses and residents of Montclair certainly injected a sense of art, culture, & community pride to this whole event. Having gone to Montclair State College in the early 90’s and I probably shouldn’t admit to this, but I’ve also worked at the Clairidge Triple Cinema for some time during my tenure at MSC – I’m NOT surprised that Montclair finally stepped forward with creating a Film Festival of its own because the city has always had an amazing cultural diversity and has always shown its appreciation for the arts as well. My only question is: What took you so long?
A very last bit of kudo droppings to the film organizers and the town of Montclair for providing those shuttle trolleys along with the friendly drivers to bus everyone back and forth between the venues. It certainly made for a stress-free way to get to all the screenings on time without shuffling the car. We hope to get invited back to the 2nd Annual Montclair Film Festival next year!
We wanted to just leave you with a few photos that we took during our travels at MFF 2012! Hope to see you all next year!
Tags: montclair film festival 2012
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