AIFF2016 begins tomorrow!
AIFF2016 begins tomorrow (Thursday) and we can’t wait to share all the amazing films, parties, live performances, and events we have in store. Check out the full program online.
IN THIS ISSUE:
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Got Your Tickets?
Pick up your tickets today (Wednesday) at our Box Office/Will Call window at the Kiosk on the Plaza in downtown Ashland. Be sure to check the schedule for operating hours.
Plenty of tickets are available. View the full festival schedule for ticket availability.
(Thanks to Ashland Home Net and Project A for our ticketing services!)
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Films Not on Our Printed Schedules
We are excited to announce that we have added extra screenings of In Transit (Monday) and Bastards y Diablos (Sunday), which sold out early! Get your tickets while they are still available.
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A Live Performance
Tickets are also available to the Saturday evening live music and film performance of Jeremy Rourke, a San Francisco-based artist who blends photos, film, collage and music to create a delightful evening. You can see a video of his work below.
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Click to Play
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Trapped
Friday at 1:00 p.m. at the Historic Ashland Armory
Winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking, this documentary focuses on the effect of Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers (TRAP laws). It follows the efforts of the healthcare workers and lawyers fighting to keep clinics open for millions of American women, many of them poor and uninsured. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected take up this issue in the summer of 2016.
“A powerful and persuasive rendering of a corner of women’s health care under siege.†– New York Times
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The Fits
6:20 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and at 12:20 p.m. on Saturday
at the Varsity Theatre
At its heart, The Fits is a meditation on movement as seen from the perspective of teenage girls. The film explores the particularly adolescent female phenomenon of mass hysteria, also known as mass psychogenic illness. The rapid spread of symptoms affects members of a cohesive group whereby physical ills have no corresponding organic cause. The Fits juxtaposes the precise, powerful, and intentional movements of drill with subconscious, spontaneous, and uncontrolled movements of collective hysterics.
“An evocative look at a teen boxer and her mysterious world.†– Indiewire
This film plays with The Hamster.
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TweenScreen
A program of short films for anyone middle-school aged and up!
12:40 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and at 12:40 p.m. on Sunday
at Ashland Street Cinema
This delightful 79-minute program is a compilation of live-action, animated, and non-fiction shorts. (Note: there is some strong language.) Offerings include: Lamp - a ghost story, Teen Press (a documentary), Pink Boy, Borrowed Time and Birthday Boy.
View a clip from Teen Press below.
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Click to Play
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Community Conversations
by Marla Estes
 “We need to see ourselves projected in other members of our species to, in turn, understand ourselves. Cinema, is that mirror. It is a bridge between the others and us.†― Alejandro González Iñárritu (Director)
Have you ever wanted to have a place to discuss a film with others right after watching it?
This year, the Ashland Independent Film Festival is offering a FREE pilot program, Community Conversations, hosted by moderators Kay Sandberg and Marla Estes.
Unlike the question and answer sessions with the filmmakers, this is not intended as a discussion about the technical aspects, making, or analysis of the film. Participants will be invited to explore how the film affected them personally: emotionally, psychologically, and even spiritually, for some. We are not trying to come to a consensus about anything; this is not a debate, or about whose point of view prevails. This is a conversation to voice what’s true for us, and hear what’s true for others.
Because we each perceive a film through our own unique “lens†based on our psychology and past experience, movies can act as a personal Rorschach test. In other words: what we say about a film says more about us than about the film itself. In this way of exploring, then, we are not trying to figure out what the director meant. As with any other art form, value is to be found in our subjective experience. One person’s reaction can be polar opposite of another’s, with no one being “wrong.â€
For the past 10 years, I have facilitated post-movie discussions and workshops. There is a phenomenon I have seen happen over and over again. When a participant shares how a film affected her, then listens to how it affected someone else, I often hear, “Oh, I never thought about it that way.†This level of exchange is a mind-opening experience. It can open us up to our blind spots. It can loosen our certainty that our way of seeing the world is objectively the only one. It can help bring understanding and compassion to others who seem different to us. As Iñárritu says: “It is a bridge between the others and us.â€
Join us for our facilitated AIFF Community Conversations to talk about how a film impacted you and to hear its effect on others. Our focus will be on collective and personal insights and possible social action points.
Films & Times:
Trapped
1:00 p.m. Friday, April 8 at the Historic Ashland Armory
In the Game
12:40 p.m. Saturday, April 9 at the Varsity Theatre
Bastards y Diablos
12:00 p.m. Sunday, April 10 at the Historic Ashland Armory
All Community Conversations will be held at the Elks Club, 255 East Main (entrance on alleyway) from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m., directly following each of the above showings. Complimentary coffee and tea will be served; no-host bar available. No ticket required.
NOTE: For In the Game and Bastards y Diablos there will be a Filmmaker Q&A at the theatre before we convene for the Community Conversation.
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Secret Screening: Kartemquin Films
Thursday at 9:00 p.m. and Friday at 6:00 p.m. at the Varsity Theatre
Occasionally we get our hands on a wonderful film that hasn’t yet been released. We agree not to reveal details, and in exchange we get a chance to share something special with you. In this case, Kartemquin Films, known for its activist documentaries, is going to let us screen a film. We can’t tell you what it will be, but we can say that Kartemquin has a great reputation, and if you are willing to take a gamble, we think you’ll be happy you did. Go ahead. The film is only 105 minutes long. Not a big gamble.
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Show us how you fest! Share on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram your favorite AIFF2016 moments, photos and films. Don't forget to tag us @ashlandfilm and use our official hashtag #AIFF2016.
Every day we will feature photos from the previous festival day. Stay tuned for highlights!
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