The Manchester International Film Fest is ready for the big screen
How to make a film festival
The Manchester International Film Festival, year one
By Katelyn Sahagian
The Rex Theatre will again become a venue for a weekend of movies with the inaugural Manchester International Film Festival, happening over the course of three days from Friday, Aug. 12, through Sunday, Aug. 14.
Some of the movies are from New England-based filmmakers, while others are cult classics, like An American Werewolf in London (R, 1981) and Slap Shot (R, 1977).
Festival director Warren O’Reilly said that it was important to him to highlight not just the established film world but the growing filmmaking scene in the Granite State as well.
“There’s a lot of exciting filmmaking happening in New Hampshire,” O’Reilly said. “We’re happy to be a place [where] people … can actually have their movie shown on the big screen.”
Four of the featured films are directed by New Englanders — two of whom are Granite Staters, O’Reilly said, adding that that number was approximately a third of the blocks of movies.
“Like the three legs of a stool, a third of the stuff that we’re showing is international, a third of it is cult and stuff that people recognize from their childhood, and then a third of it is New England-based filmmakers,” he said.
With exposed brick walls, a large stage, thick carpeting, a bar and the balcony from its original iteration as a theater, the Rex seats about 300 people. Perhaps the biggest highlight is the digital 4K wall along the back of the stage — the main reason for the film festival in the first place, O’Reilly said, as plans had been in the works to hold the event before the pandemic hit.
“It opened and then Covid hit and it closed down,” he said. “This was the first year that everything had reopened long enough for us to put out the feelers for the festival.”
Manchester International Film Festival
Where: The Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester
When: Friday, Aug. 12, through Sunday, Aug. 14; films are screened at various times throughout each day
Cost: $20 for a one-day pass ($10 for students), or $50 for a weekend pass
Visit: palacetheatre.org/film
Making movie magic
O’Reilly, who has worked in the film industry in both Los Angeles and Massachusetts, said that it was easy getting submissions. He even has friends who work around the world — that’s how he received submissions of independent international films, like Alice? (Short 2020) from New Zealand.
A total of 970 film submissions were received — of those, a panel narrowed it down to 400, and only a handful of those will be shown over the three-day event. David Humphreys, a film professor at Southern New Hampshire University, said that it’s extremely common for filmmakers to submit whatever they have to any festival, even if it doesn’t align with the event.
“You have to start with weeding out the ones that aren’t a good fit for whatever reason,” Humphreys said. “You can be running a documentary film fest and you’ll get fiction films.”
Pat Kalik and Ross Fishbeins, the co-chairs of the New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival, said that they will go through watching at least 60 movies for their festival which will end up showing about a dozen movies.
“I never decide what will be in the festival until I’ve seen at least 40 [films],” Kalik said.
Their festival primarily focuses on movies made by Jewish filmmakers for Jewish audiences.
“You need to balance everything,” Kalik said. “You can’t have too many movies about the Holocaust, but you also can’t have too many movies that are comedies.”
Kalik said that the Jewish Film Festival differs from the Manchester International Film Festival in that it doesn’t have a home theater for showing movies. Instead, they partner with small theaters across New Hampshire. In the future, Kalik hopes to partner with the Rex to show movies during their own festival. One of the movies cut from their program, Haute Couture (2021), directed by Sylvia Ohayon, will be shown at the Manchester International Movie Festival on Sunday.
Despite the long hours of movie watching, note taking, debating and decision making, Fishbeins said he was excited to start.
“It’s a great community activity for me … and I love films,” he said. “Everyone loves to go to the movies and talk about it after.”
For the love of movies
While O’Reilly wasn’t the mastermind behind the idea of the festival, he said he definitely was a driving force in getting it launched this year — a new event to match the growing artistic vibe of Manchester.
“This is an exciting time for downtown Manchester,” O’Reilly said. “There’s a bunch of new people moving into town and people want to go out and see movies. It’s the perfect recipe for a film festival.”
In addition to the film screenings, the festival will have conversations and Q&A sessions with directors and crew members who worked on different films. Local comedian Jimmy Dunn will also provide commentary on the 1977 sports comedy film Slap Shot on Friday, while Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor John Lithgow will host a conversation about his career at the Palace Theatre on Saturday.
Humphreys, along with his colleague Vincent Corbo, a Southern New Hampshire University psychology professor, will also be part of the festival’s live entertainment. The two professors run the podcast “A Dark Impression,” in which they dive into the psychology behind horror movies.
After Saturday’s screening of An American Werewolf in London (1981 R), Humphreys and Corbo will host a live recording of their show.
“The stage will be a new location for me,” Corbo said, adding that he believes most people seeing the cult horror classic “will want to see it and have that theater experience.”
The experience is what makes a film festival, Humphreys said. According to him, festivals are meant to be events in which people take in a film and then discuss it either amongst themselves or with the filmmakers.
“You go and share this space with other people,” Humphreys said. “I think that [is] something we’re losing with Netflix and home streaming, is having a conversation about the movies afterward.”
Corbo agreed, saying that those conversations are what makes film festivals so important.
“It enhances that personal and emotional experience,” Corbo said. “It’s much richer from the moviegoer perspective.”
Featured films
Film descriptions and times are according to the schedule at palacetheatre.org/film.
Friday, Aug. 12
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Directed by Buster Keaton
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, putting his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend’s father’s pocket watch. (The screening will include live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis). 5:45 p.m.
The Egg (Short 2021)
Directed by Terrence Fitzgerald Hayes
Days into a pandemic, Tristan sets sail to escape a world wrought with violence, racism and greed in search for a fresh start. The film is “a story of torment, isolation and introspection.” Shorts program, 6 p.m.
Four Pins (Short 2022)
Directed by Matthew Beltz
A young man named Tommy Graves spends his days tending to the declining lanes of the local bowling alley. In this place time feels stuck, as does Tommy. Shorts program, 6 p.m.
Slap Shot (1977)
Directed by George Roy Hill
Coach Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) lets his failing mill town minor-league ice hockey team play their own distinct brand of violent hockey, in hopes of drawing a big crowd. 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 13
Shrek (2001)
Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson
A mean lord exiles fairytale creatures to the swamp of a grumpy ogre, who must go on a quest and rescue a princess for the lord in order to get his land back. Noon.
The Last American Colony (2019)
Directed by Bestor Cram
The Last American Colony traces the life of Juan Segarra, who graduates from Harvard and sets off on a treacherous path to fight for Puerto Rico’s independence — a struggle that he rightly assumes will lead to either jail or death. 2 p.m.
Man (Short 2018)
Directed by Oksana Artemenko
A little boy is scared of using the toilet. His father, a military soldier, taught him, “A real man should pee in the toilet, not the pot.” The father goes to war and doesn’t come back home. “Son should become man now.” Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Thunder (Short 2022)
Directed by Orest Smylanetz
This film was shot during the air raid on the 77th day of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Marsh Clouds: The Oysters of Harris Neck (Short 2022)
Directed by Kevin Mannens
The Timmons family has been picking oysters in Harris Neck, Georgia, for more than 100 years. The land they call home has a tragic history. Marsh Clouds tells “a story of trauma and racism — and the perseverance to overcome against all odds.” Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Alice? (Short 2020)
Directed by Grace Hood-Edwards
A starry-eyed plus-size teenager actively reimagines the world around her as she experiences first love and first heartbreak. Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Conservative Horses (Short 2022)
Directed by David Manitsky
In the mid-1950s, a Los Angeles television show that does weekly interviews with B-list celebrities goes to Vermont to interview Hollywood’s premiere horse trainer, Richard Turgidson (Jack Barron), and his wife, Kitty (Delaney Spink). Shorts program, 4 p.m.
About Him (Short 2015)
Directed by Rick Dumont
Adapted from the short story by New Jersey author Adele Schwartz, this dark comedy tells the story of a lonely woman trying to find her soulmate in the personal ads of newspapers. Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Finding Sandler (2022)
Directed by David Seth Cohen
Director David Seth Cohen embarks on a quest to find Adam Sandler and finally have that beer Adam asked him to have back in 1998. Will David find Adam Sandler? Will they have that drink? 6 p.m.
An Evening with John Lithgow
At the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester (tickets for this event are separate from the Saturday pass).
Join the Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor for a heartwarming conversation to reflect on his life on stage and screen from his decades-long career. 7:30 p.m.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Directed by John Landis
Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists. (The screening will be followed by a live podcast recording with the hosts of the local podcast A Dark Impression.) 9 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 14
Spin (Short 2021)
Directed by Lisa Marie Tedesco
When the curtain descends on their final performance of Romeo and Juliet in drama club, high school seniors Abigail and Sky bid a fair adieu to the stage they loved while letting their deepest desires for one another surface at the cast party.
Whale Fall (Short 2021)
Directed by Katie McNeice
“A glimpse beneath the surface of a relationship bonded by books, whales and love.”
Parrot (Short 2021)
Directed by Kyle B. Thompson
A drag queen protects a child during a crisis as prejudices reach a breaking point.
Love is Strange (2014)
Directed by Ira Sachs
While struggling with the pain of separation, Ben and George are further challenged by the intergenerational tensions and capricious family dynamics of their new living arrangements.
Haute Couture (2021)
Directed by Sylvia Ohayon
Instead of calling the police on the girl who stole her handbag, Esther decides to pass on her skills, the craft of dressmaking. Presented in partnership with the New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival. 2p.m.
Summer (Short 2020)
Directed by Nick Czerula and Anna Belmonte
Following the death of their father, a set of siblings find a figurative skeleton in his closet and must find a way to discreetly dispose of it, so as not to tarnish their family’s good name. 4 p.m.
Filmmaker Q&As
Meet the directors behind some of the festival’s films
By Hannah Turtle
David Seth Cohen, Director of Finding Sandler (2022)
The biggest premiere of the festival, Finding Sandler has an interesting backstory. In 1998, director David Seth Cohen was working as a production assistant on the Adam Sandler film Big Daddy. While tasked with dropping off a suit to Sandler’s hotel one day, Cohen was invited by the actor himself to have a drink with him — an offer Cohen declined, as he was running on a busy schedule. Years later, while living in his grandmother’s basement with his filmmaking dreams cast aside, Cohen began to wonder if his life might have been different had he gotten that drink with Adam Sandler. He set out to finally get that drink, getting a small film crew together in search of Adam Sandler and making friends along the way.
In your own words, can you tell me a little bit about the film?
Well, when I went to drop off the suit, it was rushed. I had to double park in Manhattan, and I left another [production assistant] named Autumn with the car. If you’ve ever double parked in Manhattan, you’ll know that’s an emergency situation. At the time, in 1998, I was a poor 22-year-old kid with no cell phone, so I really had to hurry. I went upstairs and knocked on the door, and he [Sandler] started messing with me through the door. … You know how he yells in his movies? He yelled at me like that: ‘Who is it? What do you want?’ I tell him who I am, [and] he opens the door and has a big smile on his face. He invites me in to come have a drink and hang out. I froze. There were all these thoughts going through my head, like, ‘Autumn’s in the car, you’re double parked, you have no way of contacting her, if you leave her there, you’re totally fired and you’ll never get a job in the movie industry again.’ The other part of my brain was saying, ‘Stay, he’s your hero, this is the opportunity of a lifetime to hang out with your hero.’ The angel part of my brain won and told me to leave and do the right thing. So, I left. … Fast forward years later, [and] I was tossing and turning in my bed at night, wondering what might have happened if I had stayed with Adam Sandler. Would he have given me advice, or would something he said have triggered me to take a different path? … Finally, one night, I had this dream where I went to California and went looking for Adam. … Somehow in my dream I found him, and when I woke up, right then, I decided I had to do something about this whole thing, or I’d regret it for the rest of my life. That’s where the idea came from.
How long did it take from the inception of the idea to the creation of the film?
As soon as I had the idea, I knew I had to call my business partner. At the time, I was working at a Catholic TV station … but I also had a small production company where I did videos for sporting events, and I called [my business partner] at 6 in the morning, all amped up, and said, ‘Dan, I want to make a movie. Can you help?’ He responded with, ‘It’s 6 in the morning, can we talk about this later?’ … So I got up, got dressed, went to the TV station, and told my production assistant, Vinnie, about the idea. He said he was in, and the whole day I was telling people, and some were interested, and some said it was the stupidest idea they had ever heard. But it really just took off from there. … The film got held up for a number of years in the editing room, going through revisions, and I never quite liked it … but finally we got an edit I really liked, and at the beginning of 2022 we completed it.
What were you planning to do if you couldn’t end up finding Adam Sandler?
I was hoping that, no matter what, it would inspire people to follow their dreams. At the end of the day, there’s that line from The Rolling Stones: ‘You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.’I always wanted to make a movie, so I knew that no matter what, if I finished the movie, I’d achieve a goal.
Throughout the journey of making this film, were there any unexpected moments that made the film what it is?
Tons. When we first started making this thing, we didn’t really know what was going to happen. It’s a documentary, so nothing was set up. It was a lot of just seeing what happened. The first cool thing was that we found out Emeril Lagasse, the celebrity chef, was doing a book signing right by where we lived. So we decided to go and ask Emeril to cook appetizers for the drink with Adam. Then we found out that Billy Joel was heading to the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, so we decided to find him and ask if he’d play the piano while we had this drink, and so all these crazy things were popping up, all these surprises along the way. … When we went to Manchester, we decided we wanted to get into the school to talk to his [Sandler’s] teachers. At the time, I called the principal about six times, and every time I got the same assistant, and she wouldn’t let me talk to the principal. So when we went to Manchester, we weren’t hopeful that we would be able to get into the school. … When we got there, we went to the Red Arrow Diner and had the Adam Sandler Burger, and learned a little bit about him from the people there. Then we went to the Puritan Backroom, and we were just talking to random people there, and we ran into Jane Clayton, who, at the time, was a gym teacher at Manchester Central [High School]. She heard our story and made some calls, and then all of a sudden we got to go in and talk to everyone at the school. … It was just a ton of unexpected stuff, like throwing a bunch into the wind and seeing what catches.
So, did you end up getting a drink with Adam Sandler?
You’ll have to come see the movie to find out. What I want to ask is, how can we lure Adam Sandler back to come to the film festival?
Matthew Beltz, Director of Four Pins (Short 2022)
Four Pins is a short film that follows a young man, Tommy Graves, as he works at a bowling alley in western Massachusetts. At the same time, Walter, an older man experiencing memory loss, comes in to play a game with his grandson. When his grandson doesn’t come, the two men reckon with their lives and their futures as they bowl together. Matthew Beltz, the film’s director, has worked as a production assistant on Ghostbusters (2016), and Black Mass (2015), and as a location manager for The Purge: Election Year (2016), as well as the television miniseries Dexter: New Blood and, most recently, HBO’s Julia, about acclaimed chef and cookbook author Julia Child.
What led you to this story?
My partner Jimmy Luc and I had just done another short film together, and we wanted to try our hand at another. We were working on a TV show at the time, and there was this great bowling alley close by. It was one of the oldest candlepin bowling alleys in America. It really started with this great location. Mostly it was born of that, and [because] Jimmy and I wanted to keep working together, to sort of keep the ball rolling.
What were some of the challenges you faced along the way?
Every project has its own unique challenges. The biggest challenge for this project wasn’t even in the filming of it, or in pre-production. The real challenge was in post-production, [and] in how to best tell the story we were trying to tell. We were very cognizant of wanting to ‘show’ and not ‘tell,’ so [during] the editing process we had all this footage to whittle down, to best get across the idea that our main character, Walter, is in the early stages of dementia without any of the characters coming out and saying that. It was really about finding the rhythm of the story in the editing room, and figuring out how to best tell this story.
What do you hope the audience gains from your film?
With any project, you hope that first and foremost … [they] enjoy it. I hope that anyone who sees it, when they walk away, doesn’t say to [themselves], ‘Well, that was time wasted.’ That’s definitely the first priority. I think that’s the only thing I can really hope for. Everyone sees a project in a different way, and everyone takes something unique away from every movie they go to see, and if something resonates with them, or if they connect with something, I would love that.
What’s next for you?
We’ve got another project that’s currently in post-production … called Nuclear. It’s a short film about a father and a son during the Cuban Missile Crisis, [and they are] dealing with a death in the family. They get brought together again because of a cartoon turtle. We’re hoping to release a trailer for that in September on our website, [which is] gonfalonpictures.com.
Nick Czerula and Anna Belmonte, Directors of Summer (Short 2020)
Summer, a short film shot on location in Concord, follows two siblings as they clean out their father’s apartment after his death. Their father, a pillar of the community, has a proverbial skeleton in the closet. To protect their father’s reputation, the siblings have to dispose of the item without anyone in town finding out. Czerula also owns Cz Video Productions, based in Concord.
Can you talk a little bit about the process of getting this film off the ground?
Belmonte: We had the script ready to go in early 2020, and we had planned to have a 30-person crew — hair, costumes, makeup, grips, lighting, all of it. We were planning to bring people in from New York, and then Covid hit, so we had to put it on hold. Then, later, when things were a little bit better, we decided to make this safely, and cut the crew down to five people on set maximum at a time. There was a funeral scene that was originally supposed to have as many extras as possible, but we had to cheat some camera angles and make everything with a fraction of what we originally planned.
What was it like shooting in Concord?
Czerula: Filming with locations in New Hampshire offered a very unique experience and opportunity for us. It’s not spoiled like other places. We’d call businesses and say, ‘We want to film there, [but] not during business hours,’ and they’re much more receptive to it than somewhere that has that happen all the time. It went very smoothly. … For example, we had this scene where we had the actors loading a body into a car off the street, and we had to tell the Concord police in advance what was going on, and they were very understanding. The whole thing was kind of a pleasure.
Belmonte: Everywhere we went, everyone was so eager to be a part of it. We went to a hardware store, and they offered to let us stay after hours, and invited their whole staff to come and watch, and everyone was not only accommodating but really went above and beyond. There was a lot of enthusiasm.
Aside from the Covid elephant in the room, were there other challenges you faced in the filming of this project?
Czerula: We were really blessed as far as locations were concerned, and the crew was great, so we had a pretty smooth process. A lot of it came down to making it work with what we had, so for the funeral scene, since we couldn’t have a ton of extras, we really had to step back and think, and we came to the conclusion that the funeral scene doesn’t really add a ton to the story. … So we changed it to a post-funeral scene, and it really worked.
Belmonte: Well, the biggest challenge was probably the doll [a large doll that gets carried around through the majority of the film]. It was honestly like having another actress. Tripping over her, bending her arms back into place, brushing her hair, [and] shoving shoes on her rubbery, wiggly toes.
Czerula: A funny story is that we lost this eyeball for the doll, and I was trying to buy eyeballs everywhere I could that would match, but none of them did. I ended up finding a doll dealer in Texas who had an assortment of eyeballs in stock. I had to call this guy and ask him to send me a whole bunch of eyeballs to try. But I wasn’t really being forthcoming about what we were doing, since at the time we were keeping the idea pretty close to the vest. So I had to make up a story about why I needed eyeballs.
What are you hoping audiences gain from your film?
Czerula: Acceptance. But really, just to laugh. At a time when there’s not a whole lot of fun happening in the world, I just hope people can laugh at it and forget everything else for a little while.
Belmonte: It’s really about family bonding through unexpected, silly obstacles. But especially having been made during Covid, [the film] will be a little microcosm of levity in a rough time.
Rick Dumont, Director of About Him (Short 2015)
About Him follows Corrine on her search to find her soulmate through a personal ad in the paper. After escaping an abusive relationship, she recruits a friend on a search for the right kind of partner. The film is based on a short story by Adele Schwartz. Director Rick Dumont runs Sweaty Turtle Entertainment, a production company based in Madbury.
So, a personal ad?
It’s kind of old-school. … It’s a period piece, or a period-ish piece, set in the pre-internet days. Back then, personal ads were the thing — the original dating app, if you will. Today’s ways of connecting with a partner have changed so dramatically. It’s not necessarily less personal than an ad in the paper, but it has definitely changed.
What was the process like of getting this made?
We shot it in about four days, four very long days, [during] one of which we went to Portsmouth to shoot a restaurant scene. We shot at a place called Massimo, and we wrapped there after midnight. Then we had to immediately pack up and go to Salem to shoot another scene. But we had a great crew and a great cast, and it was a lot of fun to do.
What are you hoping audiences get out of this film?
Mostly, I hope people are entertained, and maybe it gives them a little bit of thought about how we interact with each other … but I don’t like telling people what they should think. I remember the second feature I did. A reviewer reached out to review my film, and after he watched it, he asked, ‘What was I supposed to think?’ … and I said, ‘Exactly that.’ That’s what you felt, so go with it. I would say go see the film [and] see what you think. It’s a great thing, the festival. It’s a chance to see the work of great artists in the area. I think it’s important to support artists, especially the ones in our community who are really working hard to create something beautiful and intriguing. Sometime in the future, we might be able to say, ‘I saw the new Scorcese’s first film at the Manchester International Film Festival.’
Where did the name ‘Sweaty Turtle’ come from?
It’s an homage to my wife. … People are always confused when I say that. Several years ago, I had called my wife ‘My Sweet Eternal,’ and she is a very talented artist, but also a little kooky, and she says, “Did you just call me a sweaty turtle?” … So, she became my sweaty turtle, and later on, when I started my company, it became my honorarium to her.
Featured photo: Finding Sandler. Courtesy photo.
