Movie fans set the scene in Rehoboth
Film fans are flocking to the Cape Region for the 16th year in a row, and the Rehoboth Beach Film Society is focusing its lens on both international and local cinema.
The annual Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival will be held from Wednesday, Nov. 6, to Sunday, Nov. 10, at Movies at Midway on Route 1.
The festival will showcase more than 100 feature films, shorts and documentaries from across the globe, but Germany will take the spotlight this year. Two classic German films will each have one showing. “Berlin – Schonhauser Corner” is an East Berlin crime flick from 1957 about a teenager who enters West Berlin illegally and commits murder.
“M” is a classic Fritz Lang film from 1931 in which the criminal underworld outruns police in a race to find a child murderer and bring him to justice.
Three contemporary German films being screened at the festival – “Hannah Arendt,” “More Than Honey,” and “Oh Boy” – earned Lola awards, the German equivalent of Oscars.
Several contemporary films from the Delmarva Region will also be showcased. “Pieces of Tangier,” a documentary about Tangier Island, Va., was directed by Pocomoke, Md. resident Jenny Roberts, who will be present for questions after the film’s showing Sunday, Nov. 10.
“I Used to be Darker,” is a feature film set in Baltimore and Ocean City, Md., directed by Baltimore resident Matt Porterfield, who will also be present for questions after the Sunday, Nov. 10 screening. The film is about a runaway from Northern Ireland who looks to her aunt and uncle for support, but finds them immersed in the process of divorce. The film was also shown at Sundance Film Festival in January.
Behind the scenes
Outside of the theater, movie buffs can attend three seminars to gain some behind-the-scenes knowledge of Egypt, Germany and life as an actor in Los Angeles. All seminars are free of charge and will take place in the Big Tent behind Movies at Midway.
“Egypt: Revolution to Evolution,” will feature political activist Mokhtar Kamel and documentary filmmaker Fredrik Stanton, who will discuss the Egyptian uprising and its global effects. Stanton is the director of “Uprising,” a documentary about the Egyptian revolution that will be shown at the festival. The seminar will take place at 9 a.m., Friday, Nov. 8.
“German Cinema: The Rise, The Fall and The Resurrection,” will be led by Peter Pfeiffer, Georgetown University professor of German and a faculty member of the Film and Media Studies program. Pfeiffer is scheduled to speak about German cinema from 1895 to the present. The seminar will be held at 9 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 9.
“A Conversation with Brian Geraghty” is a live interview with an actor who appeared in “The Hurt Locker,” “Flight,” HBO series “Boardwalk Empire,” and the film “Kilimanjaro,” which will be shown twice at the festival. NPR’s Liane Hansen will speak with Geraghty about working professionally in the film industry.
Geraghty, now a Los Angeles resident, is a New Jersey native whose father, Dennis Geraghty, lives in the Cape Region.
RBFS Board of Directors President Darrel Grinstead said in a letter to festivalgoers that the society and the film fest would continue to grow. “The society’s Board of Directors has had discussions with several other local art, drama and educational organizations that hopefully will lead to the establishment in the Rehoboth-Lewes area of a multicultural center that will house a year-round art theater for films as well as facilities for art classes and exhibitions, performing arts and lifelong learning,” Grinstead wrote.
All festival film tickets will be sold at the Big Tent, behind the Movies at Midway, starting at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 6. Tickets are $9 each for film society members and $10 each for nonmembers. Any unsold tickets drop to $6 each at 1 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 10.
