Scenes from the 2017 Maryland Film Festival
Photos and text by Jen Mizgata, a Baltimore-based photographer, who can be reached at mizgata@gmail.com. See more of her work at jenmizphoto.com.
This year was a historic one for the Maryland Film Festival: in addition to it being the 19th annual festival, the Festival introduced its new year-round home, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway. The restored theater, referred to as The Parkway, hosted the bulk of the screenings at this year’s festival. The Maryland Film Festival has restored the original auditorium and added two new screens in an adjacent space for three screens total. Festival-goers saw The Parkway as an energetic hub of activity this year, which was complemented by screenings, parties and events throughout Station North.
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- Kristen Yoonsoo Kim, film critic; Zach Clark, director of MdFF 2016’s “Little Sister”; Richard Brody, film critic for The New Yorker; Eric Allen Hatch, MdFF director of programming, and Matthew Salton, director of MdFF 2017 Opening Night short “Richard Twice” at the Maryland Film Festival Opening Night Gala.
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- Elena Johnston, Baltimore-based visual artist; Russell Hite, Baltimore-based visual artist; Alex Scally, member of Beach House; Eric Allen Hatch, MdFF director of programming; Victoria Legrand, member of Beach House after Beach House’s introduction of a film they curated, “Agnès Varda’s Vagabond,” which screened as the first 35mm print in the Parkway in the 21st century.
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- James Lathos, director of “Finding Joseph I,” his son, Paul “HR” Hudson, founder of Bad Brains and principal documentary subject in “Finding Joseph I” at the Q&A after their screening.
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- Alexa Lim Haas, co-director of animated short “Glove” (MdFF 2016); Jillian Mayer, co-founder of Borscht Corp. and director of MdFF 2017 shorts “Arrows” and “Measurements”; and Josephine Decker, co-host of MdFF 2017’s Opening Night and alum for many films, including the feature “Butter on the Latch,” which world-premiered at MdFF 2013, at a film festival after-party at the Lord Baltimore Hotel.
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- The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway, also known as The Parkway, on opening night.
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- Kristin Slaysman, star of feature “Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks,” which world premiered within MdFF 2017; Josh Crockett, director of “Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks”; and Kris Swanberg, co-host of MdFF 2017’s Opening Night and alum for features such as “Unexpected” (MdFF 2015) at the Opening Night Gala.
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- Nikhil Melnechuk and Melissa Jackson, director and star of MdFF 2017 short film “Jack and Jill.”
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- Eliza Hittman, director of MdFF 2017 feature “Beach Rats.”
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- Theo Anthony, Director of MdFF 2017 feature “Rat Film” and Zia Anger, director of MdFF 2016 short “My Last Film” at the Windup.
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- Matt Grady, founder and CEO of film distributor Factory 25; Miao Wang, director of feature documentary “Maineland”; and Damon Smith, producer of “Maineland” at the Opening Night Gala.
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- Kecia Elan, producer of “They Charge For the Sun”; Terence Nance, director of Opening Night short “They Charge For the Sun”; and Jessica Kingdon, director of Opening Night short “Commodity City” at the Opening Night Gala.
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- Theo Anthony, director of “Rat Film,” gaming with other filmmakers at the after-party at Lord Baltimore.
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- Names of People (L-R): Dana Murphy, bartender at Maryland Film Festival’s Parkway Theater.
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- Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley, co-directors of MdFF 2017 feature “Sylvio,” which was shot entirely in Baltimore.
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- Nolen Strals of Post Typography, which did graphic design for Maryland Film Festival.
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- Natalie Jenison, director of short “Scanners”; Becca Morrin, DJ Book of Morrin; Rozie Jordan, visual artist; and Marnie Ellen Hertzler, director of short “Growing Girl.”
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- Ashley Connor, cinematographer of feature “Person to Person” and co-director of short film “The Backseat,” and Zia Anger, director of MdFF 2016’s “My Last Film.”
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- Scott Braid, MdFF associate director, and his fiance Mikey Hess Weber.
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- Dave Barresi, Closing Night Party DJ; Angie Elliott, art preservationist; and Emily Slaughter MdFF screening committee member.
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- Brett Haley, director of MdFF 2017 Closing Night film “The Hero.”
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- Meredith Moore, director of short “Gunge Buddies”; Jimmy Joe Roche, director of short “To You Dear Friend”; Meg Rorison, MdFF programming consultant; Ben O’Brien, MdFF screening committee member, and Natalie Jenison (crouching), director of short “Scanners.”
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- Marnie Ellen Hertzler, director of short “Growing Girl” and Albert Birney, co-director of feature “Sylvio.”
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- Madison Ginsberg, Stephen Cone, Grace Hahn, producer, director, and producer of feature “Princess Cyd,” which world-premiered at MdFF2017.
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- Nathan Silver, Director of feature “Thirst Street;” Ashley Connor, cinematographer of feature “Person to Person” and co-director of short film “The Backseat”; Joe Stankus, co-director of “The Backseat”; and Keith Poulson, star of feature “Hermia & Helena” and short “Unpresidented.”
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- Dan Deacon, Baltimore-based musician and composer of the score for feature “Rat Film,” with friend.
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- Matt Porterfield, producer on “Kekszakallu,” and Bill Brown, Baltimore-based musician.
On the history of the theater, Eric Allen Hatch, programming director of Maryland Film Festival, notes, “The Parkway’s original auditorium opened as a movie theater in 1915, among the largest and most elegant theaters built for film exhibition in Baltimore to that date. It re-branded as an early art-house cinema in the 1950s, and continued in that mode until closing in the late 1970s.”
Hatch also emphasized that The Parkway will specialize in a mixture of emerging independent, foreign, and documentary films of the kind highlighted during the annual Maryland Film Festival, alongside repertory programming drawing from all eras, regions and genres of film history.
He shared a list of historic firsts at The Parkway in the 21st Century:
—first film screened: Jessica Kingdon’s “Commodity City” [as part of Opening Night shorts]
—first feature: Barry Levinson’s “Wizard of Lies”
—first theatrical feature: Theo Anthony’s “Rat Film”
—first Baltimore-made film: Theo Anthony’s “Rat Film”
—first 35mm print: Agnès Varda’s “Vagabond,” introduced by musician Beach House
Beyond screenings, the festival organizers also hosted talks with filmmakers, dance parties, and the Opening and Closing Parties, where filmmakers and local musicians partied with attendees. Baltimore-area photographer Jen Mizgata took these instant photos over the course of the five-day festival.
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