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Woods Hole Film Festival Turns Sweet Sixteen July 28-August 4
Opening night features the re-mastered seminal documentary BLUE WATER, WHITE DEATH;
2007 Filmmaker- in-Residence Les Blank to host master class

WOODS HOLE, MA–The Woods Hole Film Festival, which showcases and promotes the work of independent filmmakers from New England and shows films that are relevant to life on Cape Cod, announces the line-up of the sixteenth annual festival from Saturday July 28, through Saturday August 4. Besides the large number of New England filmmakers represented in the festival, this year’s roster of films includes an unprecedented number of films created by filmmakers from around the world.

The festival screening program will present 123 films: 33 feature length narrative films and documentaries and 9 short film programs, including several short films paired with feature length films. Many of the filmmakers will attend and answer questions after screenings. There are also several panels supported by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, master classes, music events and of course, parties. For the first time attendees can plan a personalized schedule and rate and comment on the films they’ve seen through the B-Side online community (details at www.woodsholefilmfestival.org). Highlights include:

• Opening night screening of the newly re-mastered print of BLUE WATER, WHITE DEATH, the 1971 historic documentary about an underwater team’s search for the Great White Shark that was the inspiration for Peter Benchley’s JAWS (Saturday, July 28, 7:30 PM, Redfield Auditorium). A tribute to the film’s late director, Peter Gimbel, precedes the screening at 6:30 PM. Some of the original underwater and film crew will participate in a panel discussion at Sunday, July 29, at 10:00 AM. The original crew’s aluminum cages, whose bars were bent by the sharks’ fins, will be on display at the festival.

• A master class in documentary filmmaking with 2007 Filmmaker-in-Residence Les Blank, creator of BURDEN OF DREAMS about the making of Werner Herzog’s FITZCARRALDO (Thursday, August 2, 2:00 PM). Blank will also screen his most recent film, ALL IN THIS TEA, which follows world-renowned tea expert David Lee Hoffman to some of the most remote regions of China in search of the best handmade teas in the world (Sunday, July 29, 7:00 PM, Redfield Auditorium).

• The New England premiere of STEEL TOES, a provocative exploration of racial and religious intolerance starring David Strathairn as a Jewish liberal humanist lawyer representing a Neo-Nazi skinhead (Sunday, July 29, 8:30 PM, Redfield Auditorium)

• The fifth annual student animation show from the Massachusetts College of Art featuring 39 short films selected from 300 entries (Tuesday, July 31, 7:00 PM, Coffee Obsession 2)

• The first-ever Green Building Expo, which showcases builders, architects, products, services and information that can help make homes more green and eco-friendly (Tuesday, July 31, 2:00 PM, Marine Biological Laboratory’s Waterfront Park. All visitors will receive a CFL bulb in return for their admission price and children are free. Followed by the fifth annual “Project Greenscreen” at 8:30 PM, in which the environmental film A CRUDE AWAKENING will be screened outdoors using renewable energy.

• The New England premiere of ROCKING THE BOAT: A MUSICAL CONVERSATION & JOURNEY about the music, life, & times of 3-time Grammy Award winning roots rock legend Delbert McClinton. Featuring interviews and performances such singer/songwriters as Delbert, Rodney Crowell, Marcia Ball, and Stephen Burton (Wednesday, August 1, 7:00 PM, Redfield Auditorium).

• “41,” about community theater in Woonsocket, Rhode Island that staged a play written by Nick O’Neill, the youngest victim of The Station nightclub fire (Thursday, August 2, 6:00 PM, Redfield Auditorium). Rhode Island director Christian de Rezendes will attend the screening.

• A master class in directing for film, with actor-turned-director Sam Weisman, director of GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE, THE OUT OF TOWNERS, and others (Friday, August 3, 2:00 PM).

• A staged reading directed by Judy Belushi Pisano of MOBY BUCK, a comedy screenplay by her husband, Victor Pisano, about a magnificent buck of “Moby Dick” proportions that suddenly appears outside a small Vermont village two days before deer-hunting season opens. Ensemble cast features many veteran comedians (Friday, August 3, 7:30 PM, Woods Hole Community Hall).

• World premiere of SMILE BOSTON PROJECT, a short film which follows artist Bren Bataclan through the first three years of his campaign to leave paintings in public places with a note that says, “This painting is yours to keep if you promise to smile at random people more often.” (Saturday, August 4, 5:00 PM, Old Woods Hole Fire Station). Boston-based director David Tames will attend the screening.

• The New England premiere of BEYOND BELIEF, about two 9/11 widows from Massachusetts who turn their grief into something positive by creating a foundation to empower widows in Afghanistan (Saturday, August 4, 6:00 PM, Redfield Auditorium). Massachusetts director Beth Murphy will attend the screening.

• ON BROADWAY about a Boston playwright who stages a production of his work in the back of an Irish pub, starring a bevy of Boston-area natives, including Joey McIntyre, Eliza Dushku, Mike O'Malley, Lance Greene, Will Arnett, Robert Wahlberg, and Amy Poehler (Saturday, August 4, 8:00 PM, Redfield Auditorium). Arlington, MA-based director and writer David McLaughlin will attend the screening.

• Music at the festival includes: The Reel Blues Fest on Thursday, July 26, at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Ernie and the Automatics, Jim Belushi, James Montgomery and former members of the band Boston; the Chris Beard Blues Band on Sunday, July 29, Boston-based singer-songwriter Flynn on Friday, August 3, and St. Louis based singer-songwriter Barclay Martin on Saturday, August 4 at the closing night awards ceremony.

Awards for best films are chosen by audience members and given in a number of categories depending on the films shown in a given year. This year the categories include best awards for Film of the Festival, Feature, Feature Documentary, Short Comedy, Short Drama, Short Documentary, Short Experimental, and Short Animation, as well as awards for films in the Cape Cod section.

Screenings take place at: the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Redfield Auditorium (Water St.), Old Woods Hole Fire Station (Water Street), the Marine Biological Laboratory’s Lillie Auditorium (1 Water Street), Coffee Obsession 2, Pie in the Sky and Waterfront Park. Readings, panels and master classes take place at the Woods Hole Community Hall (68 Water Street) and the Old Woods Hole Fire Station.

Individual tickets are $9.00 for screenings, $10.00 for staged readings, panels and parties ($2 off for students and seniors, children under 12; $1 off for cardholding WGBH members for screenings). Weekend passes for Saturday, July 28 through Monday, July 30 or Thursday, August 2 through Saturday, August 4, are available for $90, which includes admission to all screenings, special events and parties during the chosen weekend. Purchase online via www.woodsholefilmfestival.org or www.ticketweb.com or by mail and walk in at the festival headquarters at 87B Water Street (upstairs from the Woods Hole Market), the Old Woods Hole Fire Station on Water Street, and at the door of each screening, event or party. Festival passes are available for $250, which includes admission to all festival events. To purchase send check with name, address, phone, email to Woods Hole Film Festival, P.O. Box 624, Woods Hole, MA 02543, indicating the user of each pass. Passes will be held for pickup during the festival at the Old Woods Hole Fire Station, where they will also be for sale during the festival.

In summing up this year’s festival, executive director Judy Laster said, “This year features more than 100 films from around the world that tackle a wide variety of issues at the forefront of humanity; whether related to social change, the environment, war, or people and places on the edge of society. As a festival that supports the work of emerging filmmakers, many of whom will be attending, we strive to develop a program that is both a showcase of independent film and a gathering place for filmmakers and for people who love independent film.”

Sponsors of the 2007 festival include: Arts Foundation Cape Cod, AV Presentations, B-Side, Cap’n Kid, Cape Cod Specialty Foods, Cliff Bar, Coffee Obsession, Crumpler, Discmakers, HB Communications, Late July, Landfall Restaurant, Moody Street Pictures, The Nimrod Restaurant, Ostrow and Company, Pie In The Sky, Principal Staging, Production HUB, St. Aire Productions, WCAI 90.1, WGBH, WMVY, WNAN 91.1, Woods Hole Community Association, and Yankee Classic Pictures.