Western-Massachusetts-native-turned-fake-judge John Hodgman always says, “Specificity is the soul of narrative.” In other words, the more precise a story is, or the more unique the subject matter, the better. Through specificity of content and approach, artists can present audiences with unique characters, stories, and experiences.

The same logic applies to film festivals and the cinema they celebrate. In addition to the dozens of big film fests across the region, film junkies and industry folks alike have privileged access to niche New England film festivals in every state. Movie lovers can see everything from queer romance to cinema written, produced, starring, and directed by folks with hearing impairment. Some of these festivals are right around the corner, while others are still accepting submissions. All reveal subjects that are unique and satisfyingly specific.

AIP Film Festival
April 2 – April 8
Cinestudio
Hartford, CT

Hartford’s beautifully designed 1930s-era movie theater continues its yearly film fest for Francophiles, April in Paris, which goes beyond the French New Wave and into the realm of contemporary cinema. Prospective moviegoers have nine opportunities to see French films produced from 1982 to 2016, all of which examine the exceedingly relevant, “effects of crossing borders, from the political to the personal.”

Wicked Queer Film Festival
March 30 – April 9
Various venues
Boston, MA

Laverne Cox in Free CeCe! | Director Jac Gares, 2016

The 33rd incarnation of Boston’s film festival revealing and unpacking the queer experience through documentary, comedy, and drama will feature internationally renowned voices of the queer community and emerging artists alike. Queer film enthusiasts of all kinds have dozens of chances to see films across the city in a new neighborhood each night.

Maine Deaf Film Festival
April 28 – 29
University of Southern Maine
Portland, ME

The 15th annual Maine Deaf Film Festival is the longest-running and perhaps the only film festival of its type in the nation. Programmed and planned in collaboration with students and boasting content exclusively created by deaf folks across the region, MDFF skillfully solves some of the problems of underrepresentation of people with hearing impairments both in front of and behind the camera.

SENE Film Festival
April 25 – 29
Various venues
Rhode Island

With dozens of films ranging from experimental shorts to feature-length animated dramas, SENE provides attendees nearly endless opportunities to pick their vast or small corner of the world to explore. The Wednesday night screenings of experimental films and documentary features is both a can’t-miss evening and an excellent example of the range and specificity of topics explored throughout the festival.

New Hampshire Film Festival
October
Various venues
Portsmouth, NH

Still from All The President’s Heads | Director Adam Roffman, 2016

With the time for submissions still open, we can’t say for sure what niches the New Hampshire Film Festival will investigate. However, if last year’s programming is any indication, cinephiles will delve into some strange and specific topics. For example, All the President’s Heads, a film about a history devotee who saves two dozen, massive presidential busts from destruction after being displaced by the building of an Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

Independent Television Festival
October 11 – 17
Various Venues
Manchester, VT

Okay. . .this isn’t technically a “film festival.” However, was True Detective (the charcoal dark, riveting serialized HBO murder mystery disguised as a police procedural) a television show or more of a seven-and-a-half-hour movie split into manageable 54-minute chunks? As the line between prestige television and film blurs more each day, so will our categorizations for the sake of this list. Anyway, ITVFest still counts because it’s a moving image festival celebrating a niche part of a hulking industry, a section of the industry that often gets ignored in cinema as well; the independents.

Global Roots Film Festival
April 7 – 9
Contois Auditorium
Burlington, VT

Still from Ladies & Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen |
Directors Donald Brittain & Don Owen, 1965 | Presented by VT PBS and RETN

This niche film festival is brought to us by the Vermont International Film Foundation which also presents the yearly Vermont International Film Festival. The Global Roots Film Festival endeavors to bring Vermonters, “great films from the countries of many of the New American communities. . .to foster a greater understanding of our diverse cultures.” This year, Global Roots turns the lens towards contemporary films coming from Quebec.

Top image, still from Signature Move | Director Jennifer Reeder (2017)

The post 7 New England Niche Film Festivals You Can’t Miss appeared first on Take Magazine.

What’s out there for a frustrated musician who’s mastered their guitar, bass, piano, violin, or xylophone and wants to do a bit more? According to David Kontak, the next step after mastery involves imagination and augmentation. Kontak builds and plays unique experimental instruments, reimagining, with gesture, light, and sound, what an instrument can look and sound like.

“This string assembly is played by a series of battery-powered glowing fans. When the structure is
twisted, the fans strike various points on the instrument. This creates a large variety of sounds.” | Photo courtesy the artist

Kontak is a rare combination of occupational therapist (OT), musician, and builder. Though most of his time as an OT is spent building adaptive equipment for for people with limited motor functions and improving wheelchair accessibility, Kontak also utilized his skills as a musician. He modifies instruments in a non-permanent way, making them more accessible to folks with a range of disabilities, “You can simplify an electronic keyboard just by attaching things to it,” says Kontak. “People who cannot isolate a finger to tap a particular note can have keys extended so they can pick that note and play it accurately within an ensemble.”

It was 20 years ago when Kontak started modifying instruments for himself, a fascination that would lead to the creation of his own signature instruments, “I got to the point where I wanted to make different sounds, sounds that weren’t available through many musical instruments,” he says. “So I started a process of building instruments that make very unusual sounds.” It’s not uncommon for Kontak to build six, eight, or even ten versions of an instrument before he’s ready to, as he puts it, “develop a repertoire for them. Songs is the wrong word,” he explains. “They’re more compositions that exploit the unique characteristics of those instruments.”

Kontak makes all kinds of instruments that do all sorts of things. Peruse his catalog of homemade musical tools and you’ll find some familiar forms, and other bulky, strange objects. Consider the noise made by a plastic percussion instrument with slits on the top, that Kontak runs water over and strikes. Imagine the tone of a “jellyfish-stringed” instrument, with strings that are slack instead of ridged, never fully achieving a fixed tuning. Perhaps the most surprisingly hypnotic sound comes not from one of Kotak’s modified slinkies, but from four of the instruments played together in his ensemble.

And yet, the sound of the instruments is not the whole story. For Kontak, the look of the instruments and the gestures the player makes are almost as important as the sound emanating from the object. Like a complex language, the player’s movement conveys additional layers of meaning. It’s through this visual aspect of his instruments that Kontak gets to play with audience expectations, offering viewers a unique and truly musical experience, “If I walk up on stage with an instrument that looks almost like a piece of exercise equipment,” says Kontak, “people are not going to expect it to sound like a classical piece. They’re going to be more naturally open-minded. It’s so important to have a visual or motion component to performances. I don’t want to just sit behind something and tinker. There’s a connection to, not really dance per se, but there’s movement that creates sound, gesture that creates sound. I think that makes for an interesting performance of experimental music.”

David Kontak is a teacher, musician, builder, and occupational therapist living in Concord, New Hampshire. 

Top photo “This guitar has a specifically tuned section of strings behind the bridge. When strummed, it excites overtones on the ‘normal’ side of the guitar.” | Photo courtesy the artist

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