Cinema Paradiso will open festival, which includes classics, dramas, documentaries and more
Milford, PA. (September 26, 2011) – The Black Bear Film Festival is pleased to announce a dozen exceptional features will be presented at the historic Milford Theatre during the 12th annual festival, October 14-16, 2011.
The Black Bear Film Festival will kick things off in style with the Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso, which focuses on the love a community feels for its theater. The film will begin at 9pm on Friday, October 14th immediately following the Opening Night Gala at the Tom Quick Inn which starts at 6:30pm and includes a cash bar and seasonal menu prepared by local ‘celebrity chefs’ Christian Garcia and Mark Edmonds of Patisserie fame.
The eleven additional films announced today include:
- Mia and the Migoo – 10am Saturday. Winner Best Animated Feature 2009, European Film Awards. Created from an astonishing 500,000 hand-painted frames, this film is a man-against-nature fable, pitting young heroine Mia against the forces of destruction. She is befriended by forest spirits called the Migoo, who grow and change shape as they please. With the voices of Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Modine, James Woods.
- Sweetgrass – 12 Noon Saturday. Follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks into Montana’s breathtaking and often dangerous mountains. This astonishingly beautiful film reveals a world in which nature and culture are intimately meshed.
- Tabloid – 2pm Saturday. A compelling, weird documentary about a beauty queen turned alleged kidnapper. In 1977, Joyce McKinney, falls in love with Kirk Anderson, a Mormon missionary. They are planning to marry until he suddenly disappears. She tracks him to a church in England and that is where things grow hazy.
- We Need to Talk About Kevin – 3:50pm Saturday. A thriller revolving around parents (John C. Reilly and Tilda Swinton) who have to grapple with the ramifications of a heinous act committed by their 15 year old (Ezra Miller).
- East Fifth Bliss – 6pm Saturday. A comedy/drama about the “coming of age” of 35-year-old, Morris Bliss (Michael C. Hall). He wants to travel but has no money, needs a job but has no prospects and lives with his father (Peter Fonda). Finding himself in an awkward relationship with the precocious 18-year-old daughter of a former classmate, Morris quickly finds his life unraveling.
- Juan -8:40pm Saturday. Mozart’s classical masterpiece “Don Giovanni” is retold as a story of the modern man’s escape from himself and his demons, through countless seductions of the woman he encounters until Juan is inevitably driven to his own death. Mozart’s masterpiece is thrown into the chaotic and brutal modern reality in a gritty film – naked and raw as life itself.
- Metropolis – 11pm Saturday. Special Twilight Showing. Giorgio Morodor’s 1984 remake of the science fiction classic set to the music of the MTV era including: Pat Benatar and Freddy Mercury. In addition to the new score, missing footage was re-edited into the film, creating an all new experience.
- Bill Cunningham – 12 Noon Sunday. For decades this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist, octogenarian NY Times photographer Bill Cunningham, has been inventively chronicling fashion trends, downtown eccentrics, and everyone in between. Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk.
- Le Quattro Volte – 2 pm Sunday. Michaelangelo Frammartino’s wondrous docu-essay traces the cycle of life, through the daily rituals of life in the Italian region of Calabria.
- Tribute to D.W. Griffith – 4:30pm Sunday. The centennial celebration the historic Milford Theatre is marked by three of D.W. Griffith’s films from 1911, some filmed just miles from the theater itself. Neversink Valley Museum Executive Director Seth Goldman hosts this special tribute. Enjoy the movies they way they were meant to be seen and heard, thanks to the live performance by Ben Model, one of the world’s leading silent film accompanists.
- Duck Soup – 7:15 pm Sunday. The Marx Brother’s frantic, funny satire with some of the most inspired physical comedy ever to hit the screen. Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.
In addition to the features, the Film Salon will offer cutting-edge short films, animations and documentaries, including talks and panel discussions by industry insiders, free of charge. Progressive Health, at 112 East Harford Street in Milford, will graciously host these events.
Tickets and passes for the 12th Annual Black Bear Film Festival are now on sale at the festival office at the Upper Mill, at 115 Mill Street and online at www.blackbearfilm.com. The office is open Tuesday-Friday from 10am-Noon and 4pm-6pm, and Saturday-Sunday from 10:30am-3pm. Gold Passes can also be purchased at Upriver Home.
Gold Passes, which guarantee a seat for every film and admission to the Friday night Gala, are available for $200. As fans of the festival know, these must-have passes are limited and sell out quickly.
Gala tickets which also include admission to the Friday night film, are available for $60 each, or $75 at the door (if available).
Tickets for individual films can also be purchased while they last. Remaining tickets for the Opening Night film will be sold at the door for $20, as capacity permits. All other movies are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, except the Saturday morning children’s movie which is $5 in advance and $7 at the door.
About Black Bear Film Festival:
The not-for-profit Black Bear Film Festival (BBFF) was born in Milford, PA. in 2000 when a small group of culturally-minded creative types set about creating an event to support and promote innovative, independent films. It celebrates Milford’s rich filmmaking heritage and the conservation movement in tribute to Gifford Pinchot, “father of the American conservation movement”. Zane Grey, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish and John Barrymore are just a few of the legends who graced Milford’s alleys long before us.
The BBFF packed the town and sold out every show the first year, and has continued to thrive for more than a decade, featuring engaging movies, fantastic parties, a free film salon and more. Today BBFF is has returned to its home in the historic, refurbished Milford Theatre, under new leadership, and continues to support innovative and independent films, artistic expression, education, diversity, and cultural enhancement, while promoting the region’s clean air and water, abundant wildlife, natural beauty and the entities that protect them. It also recognizes the area’s history as the birthplace of the American conservation movement and as a popular filmmaking location. For more information, please visit www.blackbearfilm.com or “like” us on Facebook.
