Woods Hole Film Festival returns for its 32nd year
At the Woods Hole Film Festival’s first run in 1991, five short films were screened. This year, from July 29-Aug 5, the oldest independent film festival on Cape Cod will return to screen 110 films from 19 countries, with five world premieres.
As always, the program spotlights films with ties to music, science, and New England. Topics run the gamut from sibling roadtrips to prison marathons.
“We try and select a variety of films that we think are going to be interesting to our audience,” said the festival’s founder and executive director, Judy Laster. “I love it when we find ones that are made about New England or Cape Cod or feature people from here.”
One such film is Olivia West Lloyd’s debut feature, “Somewhere Quiet,” screening on opening night (July 29). Set on the Cape, the film follows a woman struggling to adjust to life after her brutal kidnapping. That evening, the festival also screens a film in a similar vein: “A Kind of Kidnapping,” from director D.G. Clark, surrounds the abduction of a corrupt politician by a young, broke couple looking for a payday.
According to Laster, this year is also “a super strong year” for documentary films.
There will be “In the Company of Rose” (Aug 3), from Tonywinning playwright James Lapine, comprised of footage he obtained over six years of interviews with poet, journalist, activist, and Martha’s Vineyard-resident Rose Styron.
“Locked Out” (Aug 3), from festival cofounder and Belmont native Kate Davis and co-director Luchina Fisher, explores racial housing injustice through the stories of Black women. And Christine Yoo’s “26.2 to Life” (July 29) dives into San Quentin State Prison’s 1,000 Mile Club, in which elite runners coach incarcerated men for an annual marathon within the prison.
“Our mission is to support independent filmmakers, but also to present the audiences with an opportunity to see work that they wouldn’t have a chance to see otherwise,” Laster said.
This year, the festival received over 1,000 submissions. Over seven months, a selection committee reviewed them to create the current program of 45 feature-length and 76 short films.
“It’s important that the program has enough variety so that people of any age and interest will have something that they want to see,” Laster said. “Our goal really is to be open to everybody.”
Screenings will take place across three different venues, mostly in the late afternoon or evening because, as Laster noted, “being a summer festival, we don’t want to compete with the beach.”
Over eight days, between screenings, attendees can go to panel discussions, masterclasses, filmmaker Q&As, live music performances, and a closing night awards ceremony.
“We try to make it a little bit more than just film screenings and offer people the chance to learn,” Laster said.
For those who can’t make it to Cape Cod this weekend, there will be an online version of the festival from Aug. 6-13. The virtual component was put in place due to the pandemic, but organizers decided to continue offering it so that everyone could “be part of something that is both fun and interesting and will stay with them for a long time,” Laster said, adding that she still hears people talking about films they saw 15 or 20 years ago.
For Laster, seeing the impact of the festival over three decades is the most fulfilling part of her work.
“Is Woods Hole a film community? Well, now it is,” she said.