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Date: 4/5/2022
EASTHAMPTON – When Chris Ferry moved to Easthampton with his family in 2020, the first thing he wanted to do was connect with people in the community who shared similar interests with him.
“We had friends here, but with the pandemic and everything, I felt like one of the big hurdles we were facing was just getting connected to this new community,” Ferry told Reminder Publishing, when reminiscing on his first days in Easthampton. “I wanted to get involved in stuff that I was excited about … where I could meet other people.”
As someone who has been a part of independent film for the greater part of two decades, whether through acting, filmmaking or producing, Ferry spent his initial months in Easthampton searching for a film festival in the community, but soon found that none existed. “I was surprised to find that there wasn’t a film festival in Easthampton considering the DIY attitude that seems to be so prevalent here,” Ferry said.
As a result, Ferry took it upon himself to create the Easthampton Film Festival, a place where filmmakers from the region, country, and world could showcase their independent films to the public.
To get the word out, Ferry said he joined a lot of Facebook film groups to grow connections and gauge people’s interest in the concept. “The interest level was super encouraging right off the bat,” Ferry said. “Once you’re in a place where people are already keeping one eye on it, people with the bandwidth and the interest kind of came out of the woodworks,”
When Ferry asked filmmakers to submit shorts or feature-length films for consideration at the end of 2021, he said he received close to 80 films. The goal, therefore, was to whittle it down to a little over 30 films to be showcased at various locations in Easthampton during a weekend in 2022. Due to the large volume of films submitted, a group of people assisted Ferry with the watching process and offered their thoughts and comments on each of the movies. “That was hugely helpful … I don’t think I could’ve done it without collaborators,” Ferry said.
Out of the films they selected, Ferry said that about half the screenings are feature films, while the other half are a collection of shorts.
Originally, the festival was supposed to be conducted in February, but due to the continuing presence of COVID-19, Ferry had to change the date. The festival will now occur from May 26 to 29 at four different locations in Easthampton.
When Ferry first set out to spearhead this festival, he said he really wanted to explore the local scene and celebrate local filmmakers and themes. While he did find some great local submissions, Ferry also found a good number of U.S. and international films that will also be featured during the festival.
“I think what I’ve curated here to show … it’s a really great blend of about 40 percent local stuff, and there’s another 40 percent that’s totally international,” said Ferry, adding that there are films from India, Syria, the United Kingdom and beyond. “The remainder are U.S. movies that I thought were really good.”
The festival will kick off on Thursday night, May 26, at Abandoned Building Brewery on 142 Pleasant St. with a collection of documentary films.
On the Friday of that weekend, May 27, a collection of horror shorts will be screened at New City Brewery on 180 Pleasant St. next door. According to Ferry, a lot of the filmmakers for those days will be present, and they plan to conduct a Q & A with the audience.
The festival will then move to the Marigold Theater on 84 Cottage St. for features on both Saturday and Sunday, May 28 and 29, as well as a closing reception for the festival. Lastly, a collection of shorts will be screened at Luthier’s Co-op on 108 Cottage St. during that Sunday afternoon.
Tickets are now available on the Easthampton Film Festival website, which can be found at https://www.easthamptonfilmfestival.com/. Tickets cost $5 each with a limit of six tickets per purchase. Seating is limited and will vary by venue, according to the site.
“I think this is going to be really great,” said Ferry. “I hope people come out, and I hope they stay excited and walk away saying, ‘do that again next year,’ because I would like to.”