NEW YORK, NY | GREENWICH, CT (March 24, 2020) - The Greenwich International Film Festival announced today they will pivot from the annual film festival, slated to begin at the end of April, to a virtual film festival experience running online from May 1 - 3, 2020. The virtual festival is sponsored by Betteridge, Maison d’Alexandre, JP Morgan, The Nature Conservancy, Nichols MD, Brightline, ICON, CAIS, Richards, Ashforth, Volvo, and Compass. The rest of the events around the annual festival, including the Changemaker Gala, and in-person screenings and panels, will be postponed until Fall 2020.
This virtual three-day event will include an exciting selection of Narrative & Documentary Features and a Connecticut Shorts Program; which includes films from 8 countries, exclusive online interviews with film talent, and a chance to vote for the JP Morgan Chase Audience Award. The festival will also announce the Best Connecticut Shorts Award, presented by the Connecticut Office of Film, Television & Digital Media and the Best Social Impact Film Award, presented by the Bill & Ann Bresnan Foundation.
“Out of concern for public safety and the well-being of our community of supporters, filmmakers, staff and health care professionals, we have moved the Greenwich International Film Festival to an online experience. We remain committed to providing an effective platform for filmmakers to showcase their films, as well as to supporting them with cash awards. Our team has worked incredibly hard to launch the inaugural virtual festival and we can’t wait to share it with audience members, both near and far,” Ginger Stickel, Executive Director.
To be a part of the virtual experience, purchase a pass here
The following films will be available to audiences from the comfort of their own home:
Documentary Features
Women of Earth (Directed by Isadora Carneiro) Mayara grew up in Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil and Latin America. She was a teenager surrounded by millions of people, technology, and everything the modern world can offer but she still felt empty. In search of someone who could answer her questions, she went back to the roots of Brazil, to indigenous quilombolas and rural communities. On this journey, she met women who showed her how the wisdom of the past can heal the future. They are traditional midwives, healers, and community leaders. They are keepers of an ancient knowledge that we can’t afford to lose. She calls them Women of Earth.
The Hoy Boys (Directed by Dave Simonds) Twin photojournalists lead us back to a pre-digital era, when Americans read newspapers and facts mattered. Working class twin brothers Tom and Frank Hoy hustled up copyboy jobs in 1953 and became White House News Photographers for two major Washington DC newspapers. Frank shot pictures for The Washington Post, and Tom did the same for The Evening Star. Their story is the story of American journalism when it mattered most. Tom and Frank’s work was seen by hundreds of thousands of people daily, and as we rediscover their iconic photographs The Hoy Boys provides a lens through which we view the complexities of the past, and we gain a perspective on the chaos of the current media landscape.
Bullied (Directed by Thomas Keith) Through interviews with family members, victims of bullying, and an array of the most notable experts on bullying in America today, Bullied takes the audience on an unflinching journey into the lives of those who suffer bullying, while focusing on how bullying can be reduced around the world.
Driven to Abstraction (Directed by Daria Price) Driven to Abstraction unravels a mutating tale of self-delusion, greed, and fraud-- the $80 million forgery scandal that rocked the art world and brought down Knoedler, New York City’s oldest and most venerable gallery. Was the gallery’s esteemed director the victim of a con artist who showed up with an endless treasure trove of previously unseen abstract expressionist masterpieces? Or did she eventually suspect they were fakes, yet continue to sell them for many millions of dollars for fifteen years? Whatever the truth, two women from very different worlds crossed paths in what would become the greatest hoax ever of Modern American Art.
Music Got Me Here (Directed by Susan Koch) A snowboard accident leaves Forrest Allen, age 18, trapped inside himself, unable to speak or walk for almost two years. Tom Sweitzer, an eccentric music therapist with a troubled childhood, is determined to help Forrest find his voice. This is a story of the power of music to heal and transform lives, often in miraculous ways.
Medicating Normal (Directed by Lynn P. Cunningham) One in five Americans is taking psychiatric medication, including antidepressants, ADHD drugs, anti-anxiety medications and mood stabilizers. While these drugs sometimes provide effective short term relief for emotional distress, pharmaceutical companies have hidden dangerous side effects and long term harm from both doctors and patients. Combining cinema verité and investigative journalism, “Medicating Normal” follows the stories of five diverse Americans who were harmed by prescribed medications they took to feel better. The larger story of medicine infiltrated by marketing is told by our experts who are psychiatrists and medical researchers at major universities, a military psychologist, and one crusading investigative journalist.
The Euphoria of Being (Directed by Réka Szabó) Éva Fahidi was 20 years old when she returned home alone to Hungary from Auschwitz Birkenau. At the age of 90, she’s asked to partner with dancer Emese Cuhorka to tell her story through dance. Eva's exuberance for life and the horror of her past is expressed through their bodies in a dance that defines love and resilience. The Eve & Simon Colin Foundation will underwrite THE EUPHORIA OF BEING in honor of The Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University.
For Walter and Josiah (Directed by Jamie Elias) When the Flathead Indian Reservation experienced an unprecedented spike in teen suicides, (22 in 1 year out of a population of under 2,000), their community was devastated. Two of these suicides were members of the high school's basketball team, Walter and Josiah. Hoping to track the root of an issue that Native American communities across this country face, we spent nearly a year following three members of the high school basketball team, and their coach, as they learned to cope in a new reality—using cultural resurgence and basketball as their conduit for change and growth.
Bastards’ Road (Directed by Brian Morrison) Like many Combat Veterans, transitioning back to civilian life was very difficult for Jon Hancock. After years of struggling, he decided to take an epic journey across the country - on foot. Walking nearly 6,000 miles alone, Jon confronts the demons that had overtaken his life. Visiting his fellow 2/4 battalion Marines - known as the The Magnificent Bastards - and families of their fallen along the way, he finds a mission even bigger than his own redemption. Jon Hancock’s unique personality shines a light of hope on this tough topic. His huge heart, stark honesty and disarming humor are on display throughout the film. The story of redemption and self-empowerment is a powerful message to veterans, but also to any person that faces trauma. The path to healing begins with yourself.
A Peloton of One (Directed by Steve Mallorca and John Bernardo) A Peloton of One follows Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivor, Dave Ohlmuller, as he conducts a solo bicycle ride from Chicago to New York. Along this 700-mile journey, Dave meets a wide array of other Survivors: Olympic athletes, members of the music industry, former altar boys and girls. Dave also meets leading activists and lawmakers fighting for Survivor rights, focusing on Statute of Limitations law reform.
Narrative Features
Family Matters (Directed by Stanley Kolk) When Kelly is released from prison, her sister Samantha tries hard to keep her on the right track. But then Kelly's ex-boyfriend Eddy gets back into her life.
High Tide (Directed by Verónica Chen) Laura has lost control. After she sleeps with Weisman, the lead contractor building a barbecue shed in the backyard of her beach house, the other two workers on the job cross a boundary, making Laura feel that her space has been encroached upon. As Weisman disappears, sheltered and privileged Laura must manage the laborers herself.
The Black Emperor of Broadway (Directed by Arthur Egeli) Charles Gilpin begins his career in minstrel shows in the early 1900's. He struggles to find serious work as an actor, but there are very few parts available. He finally arrives in New York and becomes a star of the all black Lafayette Players in Harlem. A Broadway gig in 'Abraham Lincoln' gets him in front of Eugene O'Neill, who is breaking all the rules of traditional theater. He casts Gilpin as the lead in 'Emperor Jones', a play about an ex-Pullman porter turned leader of a small island country. It's O'Neill's first commercial success and it makes both men famous. But Gilpin has been uncomfortable with the language of the film, especially the free use of the 'N' word. When he starts changing the lines of the play, O'Neill fires him and replaces him with Paul Robeson, and Gilpin is ruined.
Woman of the Photographs (Directed by Takeshi Kushida) A gynophobic photographer discovers for the first time in his life the joys of loving a woman, this one confused about her self-identity and self-esteem, by helping her in her perceptions of herself with his photographic retouching skills.
Team Marco (Directed by Julio Vincent Gambuto) Screen time alert! Marco, 11, is obsessed with his electronics — his iPad, his Xbox, his VR headset — and hardly leaves the house. But when his grandmother dies and his grandfather moves in, Marco’s life is turned upside-down and he’s forced…to go play outside. “Nonno” (Grandpa) introduces him to bocce — the world’s oldest game — and to the neighborhood crew of old Italian men who play daily at the local court. With sport, laughter and love, Marco finds connection to other people “in real life” and rounds up a team of neighborhood kids to take on his grandfather and his pals.
The Bellmen (Directed by Cameron Fife) When the charming bell captain at a popular Arizona resort decides that becoming a manager is the only way to win the girl of his dreams, he must navigate a crazy group of guests, allies, and rivals to earn the promotion and affection he covets.
Time Is Precious (Directed by Miguel Molina) Miguel is an aging, tormented, down on his luck actor who struggles to find work in his profession. His tragicomic situation leads him to conjure up ghosts in a parallel world. His illness takes him to Ibiza, a place of soul seeking, childhood dreams, long lost friends and where he reconnects with himself, his son and his ex-wife.
Another Year Together (Directed by Dan Simon) A divorce announced at Thanksgiving dinner, a separation before Christmas. What will the new year bring?
Connecticut Shorts
Mommy's Nightmare (Directed by Jonathan Wayne Napolitano) While my mother filmed my Kindergarten Halloween parade, a monster waited for her back at home.
Greta (Directed by Sparkman Clark) A comedy about depression. Armed with self-loathing, hopelessness and existential dread, 22-year-old Greta tries to find one thing about adulthood that doesn't suck. It's a lost cause until she meets a woman named April.
Elvis (Directed by Connor Rog) While grieving for the loss of his basset hound named Elvis, Doug gets robbed and looks to his neighbor for help in finding the last memory of his late best friend. Through perseverance and courage, Doug must rise to action.
Wax Paul Now (Directed by Val Bodurtha, Rebecca Shaw, Sophie Mann) Three New Yorkers will stop at nothing to get Paul Giamatti his own wax statue at Madame Tussauds.
The Old Man (Directed by Devin Peluso) A stubborn widower must accept that he’s not the young and healthy man that he used to be after his daughter suggests he should move into an assisted living community.
Conviction (Directed by Jia Wertz) At 16 years old Jeffrey Deskovic was convicted of the rape and murder of Angela Correa, a 15-year-old high school classmate. His fight for freedom sheds light on the shortcomings of the American justice system and is a testament to the human spirit.
Caro in 10 Minutes (Directed by Caroline Johnson) Caro is sick. Well, she thinks she might be, but everyone around her, including her doctor, believes that her pain is all in her head. Left unsatisfied by her traditional outlets of support, Caro meets a mysterious woman who not only listens to her, but sees her as well. Shot on Super 16mm film, CARO IN 10 MINUTES evokes the restless, meandering energy of the New Wave, but it is very much a snapshot of a woman today: anxious and alienated by conventional structures of support, and yet undeterred in her search for the meaning behind her pain.
Morning Mourning (Directed by Dana Greenfield) Morning Mourning follows two outrageously odd sisters, Pearl and Zelda, as they mourn their mother’s death at Greenwood Cemetery. Rating the lives of her deceased lady neighbors on the level of sexism they experienced in their day, the girls distract themselves from the grief of their mother’s passing through morbid humor and satirical commentary.
The Other Side (Directed by Josh Leong) Set against the Ethiopian abandoned children crisis, “The Other Side” follows two orphan brothers faced with the reality of never being adopted.
This Body Has No Text (Directed by Sophie Bardos) Retroactive catharsis through nature, body, and spoken word.
About Greenwich International Film Festival
Greenwich International Film Festival (GIFF) is an all-female founded and run 501(c)3 non-profit organization that hosts a world-class film festival in Greenwich, CT. GIFF’s mission is to provide an effective platform for filmmakers to expose their work, while harnessing the power of film to serve the greater good by supporting causes that relate to basic human rights, education, the environment and health care. In 2020, GIFF will hold its first-ever virtual Festival May 1st to 3rd, featuring an exciting line-up of narrative and documentary features and short films. For additional information, please visit www.greenwichfilm.org.
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