'Other Places' Come to the Island

From September 8 through 11, the Island will be carried out to sea and on into the rest of the world by way of the 6th Annual Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival (MVIFF). With four days packed from morning to night with films from countries like Dubai, India, China, Canada and Chad, the folks at the MV International Film Festival are hoping you will find it hard to choose which film to see next.

The MVIFF is put on by the MV Film Society, which also shows films throughout the year. The festival takes over three Vineyard Haven venues—the Capawock Theater, the and the —and this year has added the for a Sunday afternoon showing of "Gainsbourg (Vie heroique)," a surreal record of iconic French singer, poet, writer and actor Serge Gainsbourg growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris.

The Festival will be screening a dozen full-length features that run the gamut of genres. The comedy "The Piano in a Factory (Gang De Qin)" is a Chinese film about Guilin, a man whose daughter is an aspiring musician. Guilin sets out with musician pals to make a piano for his daughter—from the scraps of his closed factory. "The Strange Case of Angelica" is a combination romance/ghost story from Portugal by the 101-year-old director Manoel de Oliveira. There's also drama, romance, mystery, thriller and biography.

"The purpose is to have a varied slate of films from a varied slate of countries," said festival director Richard Paradise. "We have four different French language films that are not from France."

As with any good film festival, there will be documentaries that touch on tough topics, like "Kinyarwanda" about the Rwandan genocide. There will also be documentaries that make you laugh, like "The Trip," which won the 2011 BAFTA TV Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy.

The process of chosing films for the festival is one that begins as soon as the last festival ends. This year's films are picked through a process that is part intuition, part process of elimination and part timing. "Film selection is an ongoing process," said Paradise. "It's something that I’m doing all the time." Paradise solicits films he wants, receives unsolicited films and travels to film festivals all over the country and the world. By early spring, he said, he has selected about 70 films, which he then whittles down to 25.

This year the MVIFF received a grant from the Fledgling Fund to program three films in which the fund has invested. Each of those films are made by women filmmakers. They include the documentary "Bag It," which examines societies use and abuse of plastic; "Made in India," a documentary about reproductive tourism and outsourcing motherhood through surrogate mothers; and "Connected," a documentary focusing on how humankind is speeding toward interconnectedness—for better or worse.

To celebrate established and up-and-coming Vineyard filmmakers, Sunday afternoon will include the annual THINK GLOBALLY, SHOT LOCALLY: MV Filmmakers Forum. The forum will feature locally produced short films and a panel discussion for Island filmmakers.

Many Vineyard Haven businesses are excited and on board. Festival-goers can enjoy 10 percent discounts on meals at Zephrus at the and on treats from . "The beauty of having the festival in Vineyard Haven is that all our venues and events happen in walking distance of each other," said Paradise.

Social events abound at the festival. This year's opening night reception will take place at the Tisbury Marketplace, on the lagoon. The Afro Beat Project will perform. The Friday and Saturday night after parties will take place in what used to be Che's Lounge. The space has been reopened and renamed Festival Lounge—at least for the weekend. There will even be an event at the new with Swedish hors d'oeurvres and shots of Swedish vodka. Closing night festivities will feature local bluegrass band Ballyhoo.

"It's becoming a destination festival," said Paradise, who says that MVIFF events are filled to 80 percent of their capacity collectively, as compared with the average 50 percent of most film festivals. The struggle is on beautiful days, how do you get people to watch a film instead of going to the beach? "You show a great film at 2 p.m.," said Paradise. "I try to make sure that all the films are the ones that people want to see, not just the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. films."

Movie Maker Magazine recognized the MVIFF as one of the top 25 last year, and with a new permanent home in the works at Tisbury Marketplace, Paradise hopes to continue on that trajectory. "We're an all-volunteer organization," said Paradise, "so it's not about trying to make a big profit. It's about sustaining and trying to be a little better every year."

The Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival will take place September 8-11. A full schedule of events, pus descriptions of each film, is available at http://mvfilmfest.festivalgenius.com/2011/films.