Ping Pong Summer
Maryland Film Festival has begun unveiling the lineup for its 16th annual festival, which will take place May 7-11, 2014, in downtown Baltimore and include approximately 50 feature films and 10 short-film programs from around the world. The first ten feature films announced for MFF 2014 include the area premieres of a number of highly anticipated independent, documentary, and international features, including Michael Tully’s star-studded, shot-in-Maryland Ping Pong Summer; Josephine Decker’s beautiful and provocative Thou Wast Mildand Lovely; Fernando Eimbcke’s poignant coming-of-age comedy Club Sandwich; and Stanley Nelson’s riveting civil-rights documentary Freedom Summer.
Maryland Film Festival has distinguished itself as a creatively charged meeting place for filmmakers and audiences, offering all its U.S. feature films hosted by a filmmaker in a relaxed and competition-free environment. The festival is also known for its close relationship with legendary filmmaker John Waters, who selects and hosts a favorite film within each year’s festival. Building on record ticket sales and submissions over the last several years, the festival expanded to five days in 2013, and will again offer five days of programming in 2014, using seven screens in and around Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District.
Lineup announcements will continue over the next 2 weeks. The first ten titles announced for MFF 2014 are:
CLUB SANDWICH
CLUB SANDWICH (Fernando Eimbcke) Poignant drama, gentle comedy, and a hint of transgression mix brilliantly as we observe the coming of age of a 15-year-old teen vacationing with his single mother in a sleepy Mexican beachfront resort. From the director of Lake Tahoe and Duck Season.
FIGHT CHURCH
FIGHT CHURCH (Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel) Christianity and the world of Mixed Martial Arts collide in this thought-provoking and expectation-challenging documentary from Academy Award Winner Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel.
Freedom Summer
FREEDOM SUMMER (Stanley Nelson) In the summer of 1964, a thousand civil-rights volunteers worked to combat segregation in Mississippi. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders; Jonestown: The Life & Death of Peoples Temple; The Murder of Emmett Till) tells their story.
Happy Christmas
HAPPY CHRISTMAS (Joe Swanberg) Following his breakthrough hit Drinking Buddies, Joe Swanberg re-teams with star Anna Kendrick and cinematographer Ben Richardson (Beasts of the Southern Wild) for an insightful look at family and friendship centered around a Chicago Christmas. With Melanie Lynskey, Mark Webber, and Lena Dunham.
KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER
KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER (David Zellner) The Zellner brothers (Goliath, KID-THING) bring their unique mix of resonant drama and offbeat comedy to an expanded canvas, following a young Japanese woman who believes her worn VHS copy of Fargo contains instructions to recover that film’s buried treasure.
PING PONG SUMMER (Michael Tully) The director of Septien returns with a sweet and hilarious love letter to summers spent in Ocean City, MD during the golden era of hip-hop, boasting a cast that includes Susan Sarandon, Lea Thompson, Amy Sedaris, and Robert Longstreet.
THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT
THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT (Ramon Zürcher) This strikingly original film builds on Robert Bresson’s ideas of space and sound to create a moving-image sculpture inside a Berlin apartment during a family gathering. Notes of gentleness and tension merge to form a strange visual symphony.
THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY
THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY (Josephine Decker) Following her Butter on the Latch, which premiered at MFF 2013, Josephine Decker further explores themes of budding romance and psychological terror against a backdrop of bucolic beauty. Fresh from its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).
WHO TOOK JOHNNY
WHO TOOK JOHNNY (David Beilinson, Michael Galinsky, and Suki Hawley) When Johnny Gosch disappeared in 1982, his picture appeared on milk cartons, catapulting the issue of missing children into the public’s imagination. The team behind Horns and Halos and Battle for Brooklyn follows the search for answers over decades of stunning twists and turns, resulting in an unforgettable documentary experience that will have audiences questioning everything and everyone.
WILD CANARIES
WILD CANARIES (Lawrence Michael Levine) From the director of 2010’s Gabi on the Roof in July comes this captivating blend of comedy, romance, and mystery set in contemporary Brooklyn. The all-star indie cast includes Levine alongside Sophia Takal, Alia Shawkat, Annie Parisse, Jason Ritter, and Kevin Corrigan.