Silk City Film Festival

The first annual Silk City Flick Fest kicked off in high fashion in Manchester Connecticut on Thursday, October 8th with the inaugural screening of Director Andrew Gernhard’s new age gore-fest “Sasquatch Assault”, screened in front of a packed theater at Showcase Cinemas on 99 Redstone Road.

When a ruthless bear poacher is arrested, police get more than they can deal with when his latest catch escapes captivity and terrorizes the surrounding town and its inhabitants. Instinctually, the creature cuts a swath of primal carnage, leaving the butchered remains of all those it encounters in its wake as he quests for the blood of his original captor.

Over the course of the weekend, films ranging from fifteen minute comedic shorts, to student length dramas, and full documentaries were screened in blocks at Manchester Community College, Hilliard Mills, and the Little Theater of Manchester at Cheney Hall.

“The town of Manchester has really embraced and supported us,” says Silk City co-director Ryan Maloney.

Maloney, a stand-up comic and actor, also starred in one of the festival’s dark comedies, Quarterlife about a group of friends determined to beat their “quarter life crisis” by tackling a downturned economy and going after their dreams at any cost.

With more than seventy-five film entrees, the festival united writers and directors from the east and west coasts of the U.S. with their peers from abroad, as far as Australia, Ireland, The UK, and South Africa.

Researcher and Cape Town native Rene Scheltema’s documentary, Something Unknown is Doing We Don’t Know What, Produced in part by director Paul Verhoeven, attempts to address and explain the five major psychic phenomenons inherent in select human beings. It goes on to further assert weather or not there is any scientific grounding and validity in cases of telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and healing.

The film’s depth and abundance of research, conducted at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and the Institute of transpersonal psychology among others, has garnered it the reputation of best in the field of parapsychology. It has received several awards and a special selection in the Berlin Documentary Festival.

“Everyone really does seem to know everyone else. It’s a great network for film makers”, says Michael Hall from Astoria, New York.

The premise of Hall’s feature length horror comedy, Kids go to the Woods, Kids get Dead, leaves little to the imagination.

“It’s exactly as advertized,” Hall says. “It’s boobs, blood, and rock and roll.”

The movie’s narrative is broken up by fake horror hostess vignettes, fake commercials, and taped as though it were recorded over old home movies.

“It’s like Grindhouse for the VHS and cable generation,” describes Hall.

The Silk City Flick Fest also provided opportunities for a number of the members of Connecticut’s film community to showcase their works.

“The more exposure we get is great not only for us, but for the state as well”, says writer and director Sean Ring, whose short films have been screened at festivals in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Toronto.

“It felt good for a change to just have to hop onto I-95 with my film instead of an airplane”, says the Windsor native.

Ring’s vignette, Walk of Shame centers on a young man as he attempts to cope with a vicious hangover and a night’s worth of poor decisions, the biggest of which he wakes up to find in bed with him. With his head held low and pounding, he happens upon an unlikely connection with someone in similar circumstances.

Director Alec Aston’s New London based film company, SECT Films, endeavors to bring legends of Connecticut’s past onto the screen with representations of its most enigmatic and sometimes frightening figures.

Aston’s film, The Curse of Micah Rood, examines the final days in the life of colonial era hermit Micah Rood, one of Connecticut’s most storied folkloric figures who earned the contempt of his peers by choosing to live alone in an apple orchard in Norwich Connecticut, a man apart from society.

“Some people just enjoy solitude. They become disenfranchised with civilization, and the status quo,” says actor Brian Ellsworth of the title character.

What is the end result?

“Well, that certainly removes the incentive to see the film, doesn’t it?” Ellsworth chuckles.

Possible future SECT projects include narratives of the fabled Lady in White, The Melon Heads, and the Old Leather Man.

The Curse of Micah Rood was one of several films to debut at the Manchester Community College venue, alongside several student-led projects.

MCC Communications major Amy Elizabeth Gott happened upon a film class at MCC, and soon found herself hooked. She wrote, directed and edited her film, “A Beautiful Disaster” by herself, filming it mostly in locations in Glastonbury, and St. Johnsbury Vermont.

“It was a real struggle at first figuring out how to film certain parts, but it was a great experience”, says Gott of her first effort.

A Beautiful Disaster focuses on the friendship of two teenage girls. As one of them struggles to cope with her mother’s drug addiction, she relies strongly on her best friend as the primary outlet and crux for support, testing the bonds of the relationship.

“There’s a scene with a big, hysterical cry”, says East Hartford High School student Jessica Holbrook, who portrayed the film’s main character.

“It was really difficult, and took a few takes to finally get. But I reached down deep and nailed it.”

Independent Film makers, actors and writers new to the industry or otherwise were encouraged to take part in several panel discussions held throughout the weekend. The panels ranged in topic from Documentary making, expectations of the indie film actor, to what various other roles in the film industry, such as the producer comprise.

“That one’s easy—absolutely nothing!” chuckles seasoned Hollywood vet Tom Kane brazenly while nursing a large cigar. “He is too busy thinking of doing things in this whole process to actually be doing them!”

In Connecticut for a film production workshop October 16-18th at Tripeg Studios in New Haven, Kane would assert he showed up at Silk City principally for the cheap wine and free food. However, the assistant director and producer attached to such titles as Prizzi’s Honor, Raging Bull, and Kramer vs. Kramer was invited to give a lecture on the myriad issues surrounding film making, such as adhering to shrinking budgets and tight schedules.

“I guess I’m supposed to go in there, be all prophetic and tell them about how ‘the big boys do it,” Kane says with a grin.

The Silk City Flick Fest concluded the night of Sunday, October 11th with a celebration and awards ceremony held at Cheney Hall. Ten percent of the event’s proceeds went to MARC Inc, an association that seeks to give aid to the disabled. The festival was a great success in bringing awareness of the independent film community to the forefront of central Connecticut, using it then as the grounds to bring film makers from all over the world together.

For more information on the festival and how to enter, news about the directors and their films, award results and more, visit www.silkcityflickfest.com

View more photo’s from Airen Miller at: MARC Inc’s Picture Gallery