Orcas Island Film Festival

The first annual Orcas Island Film Festival, “Off the Edge” will take place from October 10 to 13, 2014, focusing on a curated selection of feature length films from around the world, including these three new short films shot in the San Juan Islands:

• A Reverence For Excellence, filmed and directed by Andrew Plotsky, is an intimate and honest portrait of Maple Rock Farm and Hogstone’s Wood Oven. Filmed over the course of one day, we see the patience, commitment and toil required of the necessarily idealistic and romantic occupations of the farmer and chef.
• Drift, produced by Travis Alley, Aaron Wheetman and Dallas Artz, follows the journey of a broken branch as it travels between the San Juan islands. Through the journey and “life” of the branch, the film explores the odyssey of what it takes to find our place in the world and our interconnectivity with nature.
• All These Waters Are Within, filmed and directed by Nell Carden Grey, is an experimental observational documentary that tracks daylight around the San Juan Islands from sunrise to sunset. A wide range of images from around the archipelago are set together in split screens to create moving diptychs and triptychs, heightening relationships between the color, form, motion, and pattern of disparate scenes.

View these films and vote for the best one online at www.orcasfilmfest.com/voting.

The above shorts will be shown at the festival, in addition to a curated selection of feature-length and short films, including:

• Oil and Water – a documentary produced by Laurel Spellman-Smith and Francine Strickwerda, about two boys from different cultures, both working towards ending pollution from crude oil.
• Song of the New Earth: Tom Kenyon and the Power of Sound, by Sophie Jane Mortimer and Ward Serrill of Port Townsend – this movie premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in May.

Crew members from several films will be on hand for question-&-answer sessions during the festival. Sponsored by the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and Orcas Open Arts, the Orcas Island Film Festival (OIFF) is dedicated to fostering an informed, aware, and vibrant community of film lovers in the San Juans. “Our mission is to harness the creative energy of film to build a more inspired and vibrant community in the San Juan Archipelago,” says OIFF creative director, Jared Lovejoy. “We want to encourage new work from amazing filmmakers from the islands and from around the world.”

Orcas Open Arts is an Orcas Island based non-profit focused on creating and supporting a variety of arts programs in the San Juans. The Seattle International Film Festival was founded in 1976, with the mission of creating experiences that bring people together to discover extraordinary films around the world through the Festival, the SIFF Cinema, and SIFF Education. The Orcas Island festival is looking for sponsors. More information is available at www.orcasfilmfest.com/sponsorship.

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