Vermont Film & Folklore Festival returns to Manchester | Entertainment

MANCHESTER — The Vermont Film & Folklore Festival (VFFF) is preparing to return to Manchester for its second year and, this time, the festivities will also extend to Brattleboro.

Taking place from May 13 to 18, the festival is described by founder Tim Rhys, a Manchester resident, as “a celebration of storytelling.”

“Our overall goal is to bring cinema to the people of Southern Vermont,” Rhys said, adding that the “folklore” aspect of the festival should not be forgotten.

“It’s a storytellers festival,” he explained. “I thought it was important to make our festival unique by acknowledging the fact that film is about storytelling. It’s the most recent evolution in storytelling, probably from starting around the campfire all the way to IMAX.”

This year’s schedule of events, now available on the VFFF website, includes screenings at the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro. Through his own moviegoing in Southern Vermont, Rhys said that he and the theater’s executive director, Jon Potter, forged a natural connection.

“It’s an old art house, one of the only original art-deco movie theaters to still be operating as a movie theater,” Rhys said. “There’s also hotel rooms upstairs for our visiting filmmakers, and there’s a brand new, renovated lounge downstairs, so we have some of our social events there.”

The festival’s opening night on Tuesday, May 13 will take place at the Latchis Theater, featuring the documentary “Checkpoint Zoo” from Director Joshua Zeman, which follows “a daring rescue led by a heroic team of zookeepers and volunteers, who risked their lives to save thousands of animals trapped in a zoo behind enemy lines in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.”

Festivities in Manchester will begin on Thursday, May 15 with “Far Out: Life on the Commune,” at Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC). Directed by local filmmaker Charles Light, the film features “a group of radical journalists [who] leave the city and politics to live communally as organic farmers.”

“We have the filmmaker coming to SVAC for that night,” Rhys said. “This film has played in other parts of Vermont, but never in this area. It had sellouts week after week at the Latchis in Brattleboro.”

Another highlight of this year’s lineup, according to Rhys, is a screening of four Vermont-made short films on May 17. The social events taking place throughout the festival are also not to be missed, according to Rhys.

“A film festival is all about rubbing elbows, giving audiences a chance to meet filmmakers, ask them questions, and learn about the craft,” he said. “We’ll have a lot of opportunities for that.”

Alongside SVAC and BBA, screenings and events in Manchester are planned at the Manchester Community Library (MCL), Union Underground, and the Riley Center for the Arts at Burr and Burton Academy (BBA) alongside Rhys’s own business, the Wheelwrite Imaginarium. There, screenings of 16 millimeter films will be interspersed throughout the festival this year, including “La Dolce Vita,” “The Night of the Hunter,” and Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator.”

“If you’re a movie fan, you’ve heard of those movies,” Rhys said. “Those are cultural phenomenons.”

The Imaginarium provides a perfectly intimate space for the screenings, Rhys added, but with room for only about 25 people, tickets sell out fast.

“It’s just a great atmosphere to watch movies being projected on film,” he said.

With storytelling at VFFF’s core, however, film won’t be the only featured medium. For example, written and oral storytelling traditions will be showcased in a May 16 talk from Vermont author Joseph Citro, who is the author of multiple books on the state’s folklore.

“To bring things like this to this area, I mean, I would have salivated as a young filmmaker,” Rhys said. Helping to coordinate this year’s festival is another young filmmaker, Cash Cassidy, who grew up in Maine. For his latest feature film, “Childish Things,” Cassidy wore the hats of producer, writer, actor, cinematographer, editor, and colorist.

“I’ve toured around with my movies, but it’s definitely cool to see it from this side,” said Cassidy, who participated as a jury member at VFFF last year.

“So many film festivals are kind of corporate,” he continued. “They’re like profit machines.”

“A film festival used to be about the films, and now it’s about the corporate sponsors,” Rhys responded. “You don’t have to worry about that at the Vermont Film & Folklore Festival.”

“No,” Cassidy agreed. “It’s still so homey here.”

VFFF is largely sponsored by local businesses, Rhys highlighted. Businesses backing the festival in 2024 were Al Ducci’s Italian Pantry, Old Mill Road Recording, The Crooked Ram, Grandma Millers, JK Adams, Northshire Bookstore, and more.

“I think it’s catching on where a lot more people realize that we’re doing something that’s culturally important,” Rhys said. “We couldn’t do it without community support.”

Alongside what Rhys hopes will be a positive economic impact, he also hopes to see VFFF growing in cultural relevance as the now-annual event continues.

“I think the cultural impact will be greater as the years go on, and Brattleboro is excited,” Rhys said. “‘If you build it, they will come,’ and we’ll see if they come. Hopefully the audiences will respond.”