The 2nd Annual Cape Ann Film Festival has a busy second weekend planned, with special guests and exclusive presentations at The Cape Ann Community Cinema at 21 Main Street in Gloucester.
On Saturday, November 19th at 5:00pm, Paul Van Ness of CinemaSalem in Salem personally presents and discusses his 35-minute docudrama “The True 1692,” about the Witch Ordeal in which 19 people were put to death for supposedly consorting with the Devil. Van Ness wrote, produced and directed the film in cooperation with History Alive!
On Saturday, November 20th at 2:30pm, Sandra Schulberg, producer of the restoration of her father Stuart Schulberg’s documentary “Nuremberg,” will personally present and discuss this vitally important film. The film is an account of the 1946 trial during which surviving Nazi officers were prosecuted for war crimes. The film’s official website is www.NurembergFilm.org.
Two very different animated films also debut this weekend. First, the grown-up love story “Chico & Rita,” a jazz-flavored tale set to the music of Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, will premiere at 7:30pm on Friday, November 18th. On Saturday, November 19th at 7:30pm, the family-friendly treat “Mia And The Migoo” screens, a story about a little girl who becomes friends with a 30-foot forest monster who is none too happy that a greedy developer is destroying his forest.
Other family-friendly films playing at the Festival this weekend include “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey” (Sunday the 20th at 5:00pm) and the Massachusetts premiere of “The Hammer” (Sunday the 20th at 7:30pm), the Rockyesque story of deaf wrestler Matt Hamill, who went on to fight in the UFC. The film is presented in the open caption format, not only to service deaf audiences, but through intentionally dropped dialogue and some done entirely in sign language, to give to hearing audiences some sense of what it’s like to not be able to hear. The film is rated PG-13.
The rest of the weekend’s schedule is as follows: “The Way” (Fri. Nov. 18 @ 12:00pm & 9:30pm, Sat. Nov. 19 @ 9:30pm), the Free Classic “D.O.A.” (Fri. Nov. 18 @ 2:30pm), the French comedy “The Women On The 6th Floor” (Fri. Nov. 18 @ 5:00pm & Sat. Nov. 19 @ 12:00pm) and “My Afternoons With Margueritte” (Sat. Nov. 19 @ 2:30pm).
The 2nd Annual Cape Ann Film Festival runs every day through Sunday, November 27. The full line-up can be found at www.CapeAnnFilmFest.com.