NFF Interview: Meet the Filmmakers of PRETTY OLD
Published on Wednesday, 16 May 2012 14:52
Ms Senior Sweetheart Pageant contestants in NFF17's Pretty Old
Pretty Old hits the 2012 Nantucket Film Festival this year - and so will several of the pageant contestants!
When thirty women ages 67 to 84 descend on Fall River, Massachusetts to compete in the 30th edition of the Ms. Senior Sweetheart Pageant, hilarity and heartbreak ensue. Under the doting attention of pageant founder Lenny "Low Price" Kaplan, the women share intimate experiences, discover newfound passions, and stir lifelong insecurities that challenge misconceptions about aging. Pretty Old is a profound look at what it truly means to age beautifully.
We spent some time chatting with Writer/Director/Producer Walter Matteson and Writer/Producer Josh Alexander about their approach to the film. Read below for their thoughts and catch Pretty Old at NFF17!
Vera Farmiga Returns to NFF17
Published on Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:21
Vera Farmiga accepting the Compass Rose Acting Award at NFF16
We're happy to see a familiar face at NFF17: last year's Compass Rose Acting Award-winner Vera Farmiga.
Ms. Farmiga, an Academy Award-nominee, was awarded the Compass Rose Acting Award at the 2011 Nantucket Film Festival, a unique honor given to an actor that has reached a level in which they inspire writers to frequently create roles especially for them. She received the award for a role in a film which also marked her directorial debut: Higher Ground, the Closing Night Film at NFF16.
This year, Ms. Farmiga appears in Christopher Neil's directorial debut, Goats, alongside notable actors David Duchovny, Keri Russell, Ty Burrell, and Justin Kirk.
Brooklyn Castle: National Champions
Published on Monday, 07 May 2012 17:41
A student from Brooklyn's I.S. 318 in Brooklyn Castle
As the school year draws to a close, we want to highlight one 2012 NFF film that is celebrating young, extraordinary students: Brooklyn Castle.
Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about I.S. 318, an inner-city public school in New York that's home to the most winning junior high school chess team in the country. But a series of deep public school budget cuts now threaten to undermine its hard-won success.
Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn, New York, is housed in a squat concrete building on a dingy inner-city block. The school’s exterior offers little to impress but, in room 319, something extraordinary is happening. Over the last decade, hundreds of Ms. Vicary’s students have learned to play chess, one of the world’s oldest and most complex games; each day, the class fills with kids both well on their way to becoming the next Bobby Fischer and others just learning how to move the pieces. The school has a powerhouse chess team that has won 26 national chess titles — more than any other junior high school in the country. It’s a particularly notable achievement for I.S. 318, a Title I school, where more than 60 percent of all students are from homes with incomes well below the federal poverty line and eighty-seven percent of the students on the I.S. 318 chess team are from homes with incomes well below the federal poverty line.
Sarah Silverman: Her Dramatic Turn in TAKE THIS WALTZ
Published on Tuesday, 24 April 2012 12:23
Michelle Williams with Sarah Silverman in Take This Waltz.
We're happy to have a familiar face return to the NFF. You may remember comedienne/actress and Emmy-nominee Sarah Silverman from her uproarious appearance at our All-Star Comedy Roundtable in 2010.
Silverman was most recently seen starring in the third season of The Sarah Silverman Program, on Comedy Central, and her New York Times bestselling book, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, was recently released in paperback. In addition, she was honored with a Best Actress Webby Award for her online video The Great Schlep, in which she persuaded young Jewish kids to encourage their grandparents in Florida to vote for President Obama prior to the 2008 election.
Mike Birbigilia: From Stage to Screen With SLEEPWALK WITH ME
Published on Tuesday, 24 April 2012 12:23
Mike Birbiglia, star/writer/director of Sleepwalk With Me
Writer/actor/director Mike Birbiglia appears in two Special Presentations at NFF this year: Sleepwalk With Me (Centerpiece Film) and Your Sister’s Sister (Closing Night Film).
Over the past 11 years, Mike Birbiglia has grown into a groundbreaking, original comic storyteller. At 24, Birbiglia was one of the youngest comedians ever to appear on The Late Show With David Letterman. In 2007, Birbiglia released an album-length live rendition of his favorite stories, My Secret Public Journal Live, which The Onion's AV Club named, "one of the best comedy albums of the decade." He is additionally a contributor to This American Life with Ira Glass.