“Off the Edge” Orcas Island Film Festival

 “Off the Edge” Orcas Island Film Festival, October 10 – 13, 2014

— from Shannon Borg —

Off the Edge Film Festival now seeking scripts

View and vote online for Best Short Film shot in the San Juan Islands

The first annual Orcas Island Film Festival – Off the Edge (www.orcasfilmfest.com) will take place from October 10 to 13, 2014, focusing on a curated selection of local and regionally produced films, including three new short films shot in the San Juan Islands. View these films and vote for Best Short Film online at www.orcasfilmfest.com/voting.

The full schedule of films and ticket information will be available at www.orcasfilmfest.com on September 22.

A Reverence For Excellence, filmed and directed by Andrew Plotsky, is an intimate and honest portrait of Maple Rock Farm and Hogstone’s Wood Oven. Filmed over the course of one day, we see the patience, commitment and toil required of the necessarily idealistic and romantic occupations of the farmer and chef.

Drift, produced by Travis Alley, Aaron Wheetman and Dallas Artz, follows the journey of a broken branch as it travels between the San Juan islands. Through the journey and “life” of the branch, the film explores the odyssey of what it takes to find our place in the world and our interconnectivity with nature.

All These Waters Are Within, filmed and directed by Nell Carden Grey, is an experimental observational documentary that tracks daylight around the San Juan Islands from sunrise to sunset. A wide range of images from around the archipelago are set together in split screens to create moving diptychs and triptychs, heightening relationships between the color, form, motion, and pattern of disparate scenes.

These shorts will be shown at the festival, in addition to a curated selection of feature-length and short films, including Oil and Water, a documentary produced by Laurel Spellman-Smith and Francine Strickwerda, about two boys from different cultures, both working towards ending pollution from crude oil. Song of the New Earth: Tom Kenyon and the Power of Sound, by Sophie Jane Mortimer and Ward Serrill of Port Townsend, premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in May. Crew members from several films will be on hand for question an answer sessions during the festival.

Sponsored by the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and Orcas Open Arts, OIFF is dedicated to fostering an informed, aware, and vibrant community of film lovers in the San Juan Archipelago. “Our mission is to harness the creative energy of film to build a more inspired and vibrant community in the San Juan Archipelago,” says OIFF creative director, Jared Lovejoy. “We want to encourage new work from amazing filmmakers from the islands and from around the world.”

Orcas Open Arts (www.oicf.org) is an Orcas Island based non-profit focused on creating and supporting a variety of arts programs in the San Juan Archipelago. Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) (www.siff.net) was founded in 1976, with the mission of creating experiences that bring people together to discover extraordinary films around the world through the Seattle International Film Festival, SIFF Cinema, and SIFF Education. The festival is looking for sponsors and more information is available at www.orcasfilmfest.com/sponsorship.