NFFTY lives up to its name
My day was bookended by champagne today, from mimosas in the morning at this year’s SIFF festival press launch to champagne punch at the NFFTY after-party at EMP/SFM. While I do get a kick from champagne, the bigger thrill for me is the opportunity to see great film.
NFFTY- the National Film Festival for Talented Youth – is the biggest youth filmmaker festival in the world. In only its fourth year of existence it has grown into the preeminent festival for young filmmakers, offering audiences a chance to see great films by great young talents from all over the world.
If the rest of the festival, which runs all weekend long, is even half as good as the opening night programming, this year’s NFFTY will be its best ever. That’s no easy feat when you consider the excellence previous years’ festivals have brought, but it’s definitely do-able.
Tonight’s seven films ranged from light-hearted to very serious, but all displayed quality filmmaking; all were well worth watching.
In I’m in Love with Kimberly Johnson, 21 year old Adam Johns from Florida tells a sweet story of first love and how its both awkward and adorable. The film is appropriately dusted with just a spark of magic.
Yuri Butler, a 22 year old from Maryland, told the audience during the post-screening Q&A about his unusual childhood: originally from Russia, he was a very ill child, not expected to live. He made it to America where he was adopted into a new family and treated at Johns Hopkins. Considering his experience, its hardly surprising that his film Thomas would include illness and injury and the very real possibility of death.
Local high school students Parker Davis, Kaelan Gilman, Henry Shenk, all 17, offer a sweet look at what might happen when the safety blanket a young man hides behind is taken away from him in the utterly charming The Umbrella.
Jane in the Factory, by 21 year old Brett Smith from Florida, is an extremely powerful film about a young woman trapped by circumstance into an unhappy life and desperately yearning to break free. When Jane has a chance to finally escape at the expense of the young man who is obviously crazy for her, Smith makes the audience feel every bit of Jane’s tension and temptation.
A young deaf boy takes inspiration from the silent films of Charlie Chaplin to deliver a final smile to his dying grandfather in the sweet, moving The Kid by Tori Dailey, a 17 year old from Florida.
Evening Music, made when Californian Elle Gold was just 13 years old, is a powerful meditation on grief. Made by an adult it would be a great piece of film; seeing such depth of feeling from someone so young makes the movie breathtaking.
Another film about death, Warren Budd and His Propeller Plane presents a young man struggling to meet the challenge of fulfilling his uncle’s dying wish: to have his ashes scattered in air from his beloved Piper Cub. Massachusetts native Jackson Adams, 21, laces his story with a humor that adds an extra layer of depth to this delightful look at the way that not even death can interrupt real love. Of all the films at the screening, this was my favorite, although it was a very tough call as each of them were wonderful in their own way.
The festival runs through the weekend; passes are sold out but individual screening tickets may still be available. I’m looking forward to seeing what else these talented young filmmakers have to offer.
