New Hampshire is the type of state where you tend to know your neighbors. So it wasn’t surprising for filmmaker Michael Venn to run into an old friend in downtown Portsmouth. Their conversation, however, was anything but typical.

Venn was shocked when his friend, a man in his 20s, shared his struggles with heroin addiction. “This is the type of kid you’d want your daughter to date,” he recalls. “Good looking, from a good family, seemed to have his act together.” That chance encounter, combined with myriad headlines about the state’s opioid crisis, inspired Venn’s film, The Heroin Effect. It had its inaugural screening March 30 to a sell-out crowd at The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Another Music Hall screening is scheduled for May 25.

In the U.S., 144 people die daily from heroin and other opioid overdoses. It’s an epidemic that’s touched many New Hampshire residents. For Venn, who professes an obsession with coffee (he’s rarely without a cup), his research on heroin and opiate use changed his perspective on addiction. “It’s a medical issue,” he says. “The only way to tackle this problem is to be real about it and start a conversation.”

Being real meant telling a story that humanizes addiction and focuses on positive outcomes. Venn interviewed more than 50 people for The Heroin Effect, including people in recovery, politicians, police officers, and judges. The film introduces Eric, Sandi, and Dean, former addicts who are now actively involved in the recovery movement. Each tells their own story, without narration. There’s also a riveting video diary by Daniel, who openly discusses his struggles with heroin use. The film is driven by their stories. “My goal is that the audience likes everyone they see on screen and identifies with them,” Venn says. “These people are your next door neighbors, family members, and friends.”

Venn has explored storytelling through music and writing since he was a child. After college, he initially followed his dream to be a musician, playing drums in bands locally and in New York City. He was always interested in film. “I was the kid who watched movies incessantly, then dissected them,” he says.

A faithful attendee of the New Hampshire Film Festival, Venn was inspired to write screenplays, eventually volunteering to help local filmmakers. That led to small acting parts, writing soundtracks, and then directing and producing his own work. Venn made his directorial and writing debut in 2010 with the short film Dark Scribbles. He produced and co-directed an award-winning documentary, In Danger of Being Discovered as well as a PSA, It’s Time, Let’s Talk, about the opiate crisis. He’s also written and directed music videos.

Venn hopes to secure a film distributor for The Heroin Effect and have it seen by as many people as possible. The film’s initial screening at the Music Hall generated statewide buzz. “People told me they were telling others about the movie,” he says. “If you’re still talking about the film after it’s shown, I’m doing something right.”

Michael Venn–Filmmaker
The Heroin Effect
Twitter
Website

Photo by Raya Al-Hashmi of Raya On Assignment

The post Telling Stories of Recovery appeared first on Take Magazine.

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.