Even though the Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival (MVIFF) will celebrate 10 years when the lights go down for the opening night screening on September 8, festival founder Richard Paradise insists that this year is just like any other. “We don’t have a specific theme this year or any other year,” says Paradise, who started showing the occasional movie on Martha’s Vineyard in the late 1990s as a hobby and, in 2006, began an official festival. “We just try to find the best possible international films that we can. We try to bring people and experiences from across the world to this island so that we can increase exposure.”

That means that audiences — made up of island locals, visiting filmmakers, seasonal residents, and tourists alike — can expect a truly global lineup this year, with films from Norway, Sweden, France, Israel, Australia, the UK, Italy, China, Mexico, and even the Caribbean. “Ninety to 95 percent of the films we show have been made outside of America,” Paradise says.

Volunteers at the MVIFF opening night festival: (L to R) Patricia Hand, Cheryl Doble, Carol Anderson | Photo by Elizabeth Norcross

On the bill are features such as the Norwegian Sundance-winning drama Blind, about a blind woman who lets her fantasy world become her reality, and a Swedish comedy about a 100-year-old man who climbs out of a window and dares to start his life over from the beginning. Documentaries range from Meru, an exhilarating and award-winning look at high-stakes mountain climbing, to the haunting Amy, which explores the late pop musician Amy Winehouse’s career and early death. Many screenings include talkbacks with filmmakers.

Richard Paradise, MVIFF founder and director | Photo by Elizabeth Norcross

Cambridge-based lawyer and MV season resident Alan Dershowitz and wife Carolyn Cohen capture a rainbow outside the MVIFF opening night festival tent. | Photo by Elizabeth Norcross

Also on the program are shorts — a juried competition of international options and an animation showcase curated by Academy Award nominee and MVIFF film festival staple Bill Plympton.

The festival will feature parties (and after-parties) aplenty, with opportunities to mingle with friends, strangers, moviemakers, and musicians, starting with an opening night bash overlooking the water.

And if the movies aren’t enough, there’s always the Vineyard’s natural beauty, which some say reaches its peak in early September. “It’s the best month of the year on the island,” Paradise says. “The weather is still warm, but the nights are cool. The water is perfect. I deliberately don’t schedule movies in the mornings. I want people to go to the beach.”

The festival wraps September 13 with a party at the La Soffitta Italian Restaurant. “It’s six days of looking differently at the world,” Paradise says. “It’s the big picture from a small island.”

Top image by Elizabeth Norcross

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“I always like eating lobster,” Martha’s Vineyard-based chef and farmer Chris Fischer says, while standing over the large brick grill he built on his family’s five-acre Beetlebung Farm. “It reminds me of my dad.”

Fischer grew up year-round on the island, and early each spring he, his brother, and his father would set lobster pots on Menemsha Pond, in between Fischer’s hometown of Aquinnah and the tiny fishing village of Menemsha.

Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company

“There were rites of passage with it, as with anything else,” Fischer explains. “When we were little we carried the buckets. Then when we were bigger, we put the oar locks into the dinghy we took to the boat. When we were old enough, we hauled in the pots.”

On the way back to the house after a day out on the water, they always made one last stop. Fischer’s dad would pull the boat up to the Menemsha bike ferry dock and the boys would scour the underside for mussels. They’d scoop as many as they could into buckets before heading home, where they’d wash them and start getting ready for dinner.

If it was a special occasion, Fischer’s dad might cook the mussels with sausage or potatoes from the garden, but most nights he steamed them in a big pot with herbs and onions from out back. They’d eat outside at the picnic table, tossing the shells into a bucket. If lobster was on the menu, there was no bucket — the kids tossed the shells where they pleased — but there was melted butter, a lot of it.

Photo by Gabriela Herman

In his first cookbook, The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook, Fischer, who did stints at spots including Mario Batali’s Babbo and Alice Waters’ Rome Sustainable Food Project before moving back home to the Vineyard in 2010, pays homage to both childhood staples.

A recipe for steamed mussels gets an addition of fresh parsley, garlic, and just a pinch of crushed red pepper — a trick Fischer picked up from Batali. Be sure to pair it with a loaf of country bread. “Something with a really nice crust to get all the beautiful juices afterward,” says Fischer.

The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook version of lobster riffs on the family classic, quickly blanching the tails and claws, and then finishing them off in a pan with melted butter and serving them with toasted bread and more butter — this time a homemade tomato one with lemon and marjoram. In the book, Fischer notes that his favorite time to eat lobsters is in the fall, when they taste a bit wilder “than the sweet, softer-shelled summer” ones. Bon Appetit!

Mussels with Parsley and Garlic | Photo by Gabriela Herman

Mussels with Parsley and Garlic

Serves 4

– 1 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves
– 6 dozen mussels, beards removed
– About 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
– 1 clove garlic, minced
– Pinch crushed red pepper
– Kosher salt
– Country bread or baguette, sliced and toasted if desired, for serving

Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the parsley and blanch until it is bright green, about 1 minute. Drain and refresh in cold water. Puree in a blender with 1 cup water; reserve.

Put the mussels in a large pot. Add 1 cup of water, cover, and cook over high heat until the mussels open. Remove the pan from the heat, add the parsley puree, and stir to distribute.

Heat a skim of oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and crushed pepper. Toast the garlic, shaking the pan, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Season the garlic with salt and add it to the mussels. Stir, then spoon into bowls and serve with good bread.

Lobster Pan-Roast with Tomato Butter Crostini | Photo by Gabriela Herman

Lobster Pan-Roast with Tomato Butter Crostini
Serves 4

– 2 small lobsters, each about 1¼ pounds, females if available
– Kosher salt
– ¼ cup tomato paste
– 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
– ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, softened
– 2 teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram
– 2 lemons
– 1 small baguette, split lengthwise; or 1 loaf country bread, thickly sliced; toasted or grilled

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and organize an ice bath. Separate the tails and claws from the lobsters’ bodies. Blanch the tails and claws for 5 minutes, then drain and put them into the ice bath to stop the cooking. Crack the shells and remove the meat. (This can be done several hours ahead; refrigerate until you are ready to make the pan-roast.)

Meanwhile, retrieve the roe (if there is any) from the bodies of the females by pulling out the dark green sack. Put the roe sacks in a small container and refrigerate. Freeze the lobster bodies to use for another purpose.

Combine the tomato paste and vinegar in a small pan and reduce over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until you are left with about 2 tablespoons of tomato concentrate. Allow the tomato to cool, then stir it into ½ cup of the softened butter. Add the marjoram, then season with salt and the juice from half a lemon. Taste the butter and adjust the seasoning if necessary with more salt and lemon juice. Pack the butter into ramekins, cover, and refrigerate.

Squeeze the roe, if you have it, from the sacks into a small bowl. Remove and discard the vein that runs down the back of the lobster tails and then cut the tails into ½-inch pieces. Tear the claws into pieces about the same size. Pull the tomato butter from the refrigerator.

Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons butter over very low heat in a skillet or flameproof serving dish large enough to hold all the lobster. Cut a lemon in quarters, squeeze the juice into the pan, and add the rinds. (If you want to, you can add a tablespoon of water — this helps to keep the butter from “breaking.”)

Season the lobster and pan sauce lightly with salt. Add the lobster and roe to the pan and warm, basting with the butter mixture, until the lobster is heated through and the roe turns bright red. Remove the lemon rinds. Serve the lobster with the toasted bread and tomato butter — spread it ahead, or do as I do and just let everyone dig in as they will. (Save any extra tomato butter — it is great on sandwiches.)

Top photo of Chris Fischer by Gabriela Herman

Recipes Courtesy Little, Brown and | Copyright © 2015 by Chris Fisher

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