Independent film lovers in and around Brattleboro will have a lot to choose from this weekend.
A new film festival – the First Annual Brattleboro Film Festival – debuts Friday at the Latchis Theater. It includes 12 films, showing through Sunday.
Festival co-founder Lissa Weinmann previously worked on Brattleboro Women’s Film Festival, as did much of her committee.
That festival happens in March and benefits the Women’s Freedom Center. Weinmann says the Women’s Film Festival will continue.
But she adds that there is clearly an appetite for more independent films in town. She says the new festival will include films on issues that affect the wider community and films that weren’t necessarily made by women.
"Films like ‘Chasing Ice,’"Weinmann says. "It’s a film about climate change but it’s also a story of someone who is beating all the odds to record the biggest story in the history of the planet — the melting of the ice caps
"Other films like Bones Brigade reflect controversies that are going on here in town," Weinmann continues. "Should we have a skate park, should we not? So it gives a window into skate board culture that people might not otherwise see."
Weinmann says many films will be followed by discussions led by local experts.
The movie "One Nation Under Dog," for example, will include a talk led by both a human and a canine representative from the Windham County Humane Society.
The festival begins Friday night with "Never Sorry" a documentary about Chinese dissident artist Ai-Wei-Wei.
You can learn more about the film festival here.