Best of the Fest Screenings 2016
Best of the Fest at Cotuit Center for the Arts
Cotuit Center for the Arts presents “Best of the Woods Hole Film Festival” on three consecutive Sundays: September 11, 18 and 25th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 for 3 tickets, $25 for 2 and $14 for one, $10 for students and veterans (all general admission). Cotuit Center for the Arts is located at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit. For more information, visit www.artsonthecape.org or call (508) 428-0669.
Sunday, September 11th 7:30 p.m.
COMING THROUGH THE RYE by James Sadwith.
(Narrative Feature) Inspired by events in the filmmaker’s life, and set in 1969, “Coming Through the Rye” is the poignant and funny story of 16 yr. old Jamie Schwartz (Alex Wolff) who has landed at an all-boys boarding school for all the wrong reasons. Ostracized by nearly everyone, he clings to the unshakable belief that he will someday play Holden Caulfield — the main character in THE CATCHER IN THE RYE — on Broadway and in the movies. Jamie adapts the novel into a play to put on at school, but, after a series of increasingly hostile incidents with students, he runs away with a quirky townie, DeeDee (Stefania Owen), to find the book’s author JD Salinger (Chris Cooper). Their odyssey to find Salinger becomes a journey of sexual awakening, the discovery of love and the meaning of one’s life.
Although this is his first feature, James Sadwith started our writing and subsequently directing and producing movies, miniseries and drama series for television. His projects have won or been nominated for over 35 Emmy Awards and Golden Globes.
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Sunday, September 18th 7:30 p.m.
SHORTZAPALOOZA
A long-time Festival favorite, SHORTZAPALOOZA is a two-hour program of short films under 10 minutes. The selections include drama, comedy, documentary, animation and experimental films. You will laugh, cry, think, scratch your head, but you will not be bored!
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Sunday, September 25th, 7:30 p.m.
WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS by Beth Murphy
(Feature Documentary) “What Tomorrow Brings,” by Beth Murphy, winner of the Best of Fest Feature Documentary award for 2016, will be presented on September 25. A longtime Falmouth resident and a three-time Best of the Fest winner, Murphy is the founder of Principle Pictures, a Massachusetts production company. She has directed, written, and produced nearly 20 documentary films.
“What Tomorrow Brings” provides a look inside the Zabuli Girls’ School, the first all-girls’ school in the remote village of Deh’Subz, Afghanistan, where students and teachers are making possible what was once unthinkable. Girls’ lives and traditional attitudes are changed in unexpected ways as they are allowed to go to school for the very first time. The film traces the inter-connected stories of those who bring the school to life: students, teachers, village elders, parents, and school founder Razia Jan.
While the girls learn to read and write, their education goes far beyond the classroom to become lessons about tradition and time. They discover their school is the one place they can turn to understand the differences between the lives they were born into and the lives they dream of leading. Fathers, too, are learning. For many, the skepticism with which they once viewed girls’ education becomes intermingled with pride and enthusiasm. Still, strong patriarchal traditions remain and students struggle with forced engagements and fathers who take their own teenage brides. The story plays out at a critical moment in Afghanistan’s history when international security forces are leaving the country and the Taliban is increasingly exerting its power.
