2004 Winter Film Festival

A lively opening piece that shows what can be done when you join a camera, a dancer, some lively, improvised music, and some computer effects. Walter Wright is a Boston area video artist who improvises video to the live music of a number of well-known musicians in the Boston and New York areas.

A moving piece that centers on the interaction between four carpool commuters from Berkeley to San Francisco on the morning of September 11, 2001. Thomas Bacon is co-founder of Soulsearch Productions (45 Irish Cove Road, South Burlington VT 05403) which creates artful entertainment with unique messages. Carpool was featured in the New England Film and Video Festival this spring.

You’ll never think of the backyard the same way again after seeing this war of the warblers. The animation and music were by the filmmaker. Geoff Adams is a video- and filmmaker as well as a composer who creates the live action segments for the PBS animated series, Arthur. He lives in Rhode Island.

A stunning and instructive documentary about the underwater vegetation that is the source of life under the sea and ultimately for us all. Mark Miller is a biologist, maritime historian, and author who has published books, magazine articles, and scientific papers. He lives in Salem, Massachusetts.

An animated tour—a visual dance—through the now closed and crumbling Metropolitan State Hospital, formerly a public hospital for the mentally ill, situated in Waltham, Massachusetts. The empty spaces and discarded objects resonate with the unseen lives of those who once resided there. Bryan Papciak is an award-winning animator who is part of Handcranked Film Projects, a collaborative of experimental filmmakers. This film is one of four on a compilation tape available from Handcranked Film Projects.

The town of Leominster stars in this tale about a wandering home town girl who discovers her real roots are no farther away than the nearest orchard. This is an old fashioned story, but parents of small children should note that it contains strong language. Andrew Grant is a filmmaker who is part of Plasticville Productions. We’ve Got Johnny is part of a tape that includes Plasticville’s The First Easter Bunny.

If you repeat something often enough, people will believe it, especially when the repeaters are major political and media figures, according to this piece. Robert Arnold is a prominent experimental filmmaker whose Morphology of Desire was shown at last year’s Marblehead Festival of Arts Film Festival.

An outdoor café is the scene of the shifting relationship between a novelist who frequents it season after season and the woman who serves his coffee and pastry. Caution: there is no dialogue in this film, only classical music and the flow of the seasons. Greg Abate is a filmmaker who has done commercials and documentaries.