Tag: Annapolis Film Festival

AFF Feature: Magical Universe
Al Carbee is an octogenarian outsider artist who spends every day completely alone in his labyrinthine house in Maine, creating collage art of hundreds of Barbie Dolls in elaborate dioramas. Carbee’s relentlessly creative lifestyle is seen through the prism of his friendship with the young filmmaker, who becomes Carbee’s closest friend and his only link […]

AFF Short: Night
Andrew spends his days helping people find each other, in the employ of “Real Love”, an online dating site. At night, in his loneliness, he wanders down dark paths to fill the void. (USA, 2014, 12 min., Narrative Short) Austin Black Get your Annapolis Film Festival tickets here!

AFF Feature: Lawrence and Holloman
An hysterically dark and twisted story of a cynical and suicidal accounting clerk, taken under the wing of a happy-go-lucky suit salesman. Lawrence, an eternal optimist, attempts to teach Holloman, a confirmed pessimist, how to live happily and remain positive, even as his own good luck starts to turn. This brilliant modern homage to Candide […]

AFF Feature: Elena
Elena moves to New York to become an actress. She leaves behind Petra, her seven-year old sister. Two decades later, Petra also becomes an actress and goes to New York in search of Elena and her elusive past. She only has a few clues about her: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary, and letters. At […]

AFF Feature: Druid Peak
Sixteen year-old Owen is a bully, lashing out against life in rural West Virginia. When his actions lead to the death of a friend, he is sent to live with his estranged father, a biologist on Yellowstone’s wolf reintroduction program. Owen wants no part of this new life until the day he comes face to face […]

AFF Feature: In the Name Of…
Adam, a Catholic priest, runs a home for delinquent teenage boys in a remote Polish village. The arrival of Lukasz, a troubled and vulnerable young man, touches something deep within him, and he takes the boy under his wing. After an unexpected tragedy, rumors of homosexual misconduct threaten to destroy both the home and the […]

AFF Feature: If I Could
This true story follows the life of Tracy, a young woman facing the ghosts of her troubled past, in a fight to keep her son from the same demons that almost destroyed her. Covering a 20 year period, archival footage of Tracey’s own difficult youth is juxtaposed with James’s unfolding drama. The film creates a […]

AFF Feature: The Priest’s Children
When Father Fabijan arrives at his new post on a tiny Dalmatian island, he discovers a dwindling community where funerals notably exceed christenings. Willing to take subversive action to enforce the church’s stance on birth control, he conspires with the town pharmacist to compromise the condom stock with a deft series of pin-pricks. One unexpected […]

AFF Short: Baxter
Baxter, an obsessive-compulsive raccoon, happens upon the chance of a lifetime: an unattended sweet shop. The sky’s the limit! But first a little cleaning, color coordinating and reorganizing. (USA, 2013, 3 min. Student Showcase Narrative Short) Ty Coyle Get your Annapolis Film Festival tickets here!

AFF Feature: Jamesy Boy
Jamesy Boy is the true story of teenager James Burns (Spencer Lofranco) who goes from running the streets in a suburban gang to the confines of a maximum-security prison cell surrounded by hardened criminals. In prison, he forms a friendship with a convicted murderer (Ving Rhames) who helps him turn his life around. In this unlikely setting, […]

AFF Feature: Blood Brother
Disenchanted and at loose ends, American Rocky Braat travels through India without a plan. There he has a chance meeting with a group of HIV positive children living in an orphanage in Chennai, a meeting that will change everything. Rocky leaves his home, friends, and career in Pittsburgh to devote his life to the kids. […]

AFF Short: Doing it for Me
When two teens in the District of Columbia lose their way through the traditional school system, can their best friend help them get back on their feet again? Doing It For Me explores the dropout crisis in Washington from a young person’s point of view. (USA, 2013, 25 min., Documentary Short) Precious Lambert & Leah […]

AFF Feature: God Loves Uganda
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams explores the role of the American Evangelical movement in fueling Uganda’s terrifying turn towards the proposed death penalty for homosexuality. Thanks to charismatic religious leaders and a well-financed campaign, draconian new laws are winning over the Ugandan public. But the source is not Africa: these dangerous policies, and the […]

AFF Feature: Suitcase of Love and Shame
This 1960’s Mid-western love story is reconstructed from 60 hours of audiotape discovered in a suitcase purchased on eBay. The recordings, equally tender, erotic, and pathetic, chronicle the details of an adulterous affair. Part historical documentary and part experimental narrative, the film uses this unusual audio artifact to examine a time in the United States […]

AFF Feature: Maidentrip
14-year-old Laura Dekker sets out on a two-year voyage in pursuit of her dream to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone. In the wake of a year long battle with Dutch authorities that sparked global media scrutiny, Laura now finds herself far from land, family, and unwanted attention, in search […]

AFF Short: Leaving Sharpe
In January 2013, Washington, D.C. Public Schools announced it would close Sharpe Health, a school for students with special needs, and move its program to a vacant Anacostia school building with limited handicapped access. This film follows two mothers who take on the school system. (USA, 2013, 13 min., Student Showcase Documentary Short) 2013 GW […]

AFF Feature: Mondays At Racine
Every third Monday of the month, two bold, brassy sisters open the doors of their Long Island hair salon to women diagnosed with cancer. As locks of hair fall to the floor, women gossip, giggle, weep, face their fears, and discover unexpected beauty. (USA, 2013, 39 min., Narrative Short) Cynthia Wade Get your Annapolis Film Festival tickets […]

AFF Feature: The New Black
A frank document of the evolution of division in the African-American community as it grapples with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement. Activists, families, and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage candidly examine homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar—the black church. The New […]

Annapolis Film Festival panels
The Annapolis Film Festival, running for four days from March 27th to 30th, is presenting five panels of interest to filmmakers. These include: Making Your Movie in Maryland Friday, March 28th, 10:30-11:30am, O’Callaghan Hotel, 4th Floor What do HBO’s VEEP, Game Change and The Wire have in common with Netflix’s House of Cards and feature films Jamesy Boy and Better Living Through Chemistry? All were filmed […]

AFF Feature: Friended to Death
Do you ever ask yourself: if I died tomorrow, who would come to my funeral? Facebook-addict Michael Harris would give anything to know the answer. So, after having the worst day of his life, he does what any desperate, social media-obsessed loner would do – he fakes his death on Facebook. Why? To find out […]

AFF Short: Alone Together
Thomas DeKornfeld is not your average runner– he’s an ultrarunner, meaning he’ll run over 50 kilometers in one go. Follow Tom on his first 24-hour race. His goal: to run 115 miles. (USA, 2013, 4 min. Student Showcase Documentary Short) Ora DeKornfeld Get your Annapolis Film Festival tickets here!

AFF Feature: Stand Clear of The Closing Doors
Mariana, an undocumented Mexican mother, searches the outskirts of New York City for her autistic son when he does not return from school. Meanwhile, 13-year-old Ricky embarks on an eleven-day odyssey in the city’s subway system where he confronts a bizarre and indifferent world. An eye-opening view of life on the autism spectrum and a […]