NH FilmExpo invades Portsmouth

Nate Loomis

Issue date: 10/6/06 Section: Arts & Living

Calling all aspiring directors, actors, screenwriters, and independent film fans. Are you writing the next Oscar winning screenplay or shooting the next controversial documentary? Then leave your schoolwork in your dorm room and cut next Friday's classes and buy a ticket to the NH FilmExpo in the ever-so-artsy downtown Portsmouth.

Portsmouth's very own version of Sundance, the 6th annual New Hampshire Film Expo is taking place in on October 12-15. The brainchild of local New Hampshire filmmakers and artists celebrates its second year hosted in Portsmouth and will include a variety of independent film related events spanning the four day festival.

The NH FilmExpo has grown exponentially in the last few years and has quickly gained notoriety in the independent film festival circuit. This year's festival will screen 67 films narrowed down from 290 submissions representing 31 states and 16 countries. Films being screened will be judged in a variety of categories and include a wide range of feature, short, documentary, and animated films.

This year's categories include Best Feature, Best Short Drama, Best Short Comedy, Best Documentary, Best Animation and Best Student Film. The 2006 Grand Jury panel comprised of local and national film critics and industry professionals will be awarding "Grannie's" to the best film in each catagory. Notable jurors on the panel this year are Chase Bailey, Executive Producer of the period film "The Libertine," starring Johnny Depp as well as Buzz McLauglin, Producer of the film "The Sensation of Sight."

Independent film festivals give us regular small town folk a chance to catch up on what has been playing in the big city art-house theaters and even smaller films that have yet to make it that far. There will be a little taste of everything this year and you may even recognize some of the actors on the big screen, like Michael Rappaport starring in the appropriately named "Live Free or Die." This film, carrying our state slogan, was written and directed by two former "Seinfeld" writers and is described as, "An offbeat comedy about a would-be criminal who's struggling to escape the dreariness of his northern New Hampshire hometown."

Other feature film contenders include "Drunkboat," starring John Malkovich and John Goodman and "Johnny Was," starring Eric LaSalle, Roger Daltry, and Lennox Lewis. Portsmouth's very own Hatchling Studios will be screening a film in the animation category with a computer-animated mockumentary titled "The Toll." This comedic animated film mimics a student film project and interviews a Troll living under a bridge who sees the interview as a chance to clear his bad name.

Page 1 of 2 next >

Poll

The Obama administration is asking applicants for White House jobs for links to Facebook and MySpace page, as well as a list of aliases or �handles� used on the Internet. If you were being vetted for any job (entry-level or otherwise), how confident are you in your web presence?

I�m very confident. My profiles are locked down tighter than Fort Knox.

I�m pretty confident. I should probably check what I have up online, but I think my presence is pretty safe.

I�m not sure. I haven�t really thought too much about what I put up online.

I�m doomed. If an employer Googled my name I would probably be embarrassed by what they find.

I don�t have a web presence on Facebook, MySpace, TNHonline, etc. There�s nothing to find.

Submit Vote

View Results

The New Hampshire