Arts & Entertainment
The second annual Martha’s Vineyard Songwriters Festival last weekend combined pop and country BMI hit-makers in exclusive live music lineups and intimate settings, adopting the overwhelmingly successful approach of the perennially popular Key West Songwriters Festival. The event is designed to introduce top BMI pop and country songwriters not only to a wider audience, but to one another as well. While attendees soaked up performances from the composers behind the hits, the performers took advantage of the retreat-like setting and established new creative partnerships.
Last Friday and Saturday Vineyarders, along with moviegoers in 200 cities across six continents, participated in the Manhattan Short Film Festival. Local cineastes crowded the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven for a billing of 10 international short films and voted on their favorites. This week the votes are tallied worldwide and a winner is crowned.
“I don’t know of any other film festival like it,” said Richard Paradise of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, which presented the series.
Film: Ondine
Tonight, Oct. 1, at 7:30 p.m. the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society is screening Ondine, the story of a simple fisherman named Syracuse, starring the not so simple Colin Farrell, who catches a beautiful and mysterious woman in his trawler’s nets. The woman seems to be dead, but then comes alive before Syracuse’s eyes. He thinks he may be seeing things. However, with the help of his ailing yet irrepressible daughter, he comes to believe that the fantastical might be possible.
There’s a place on the Vineyard where the boundaries are constantly changing and forms of artistic expression take on new meanings and challenges. It’s a bracing environment where the creative process is valued over the end result, where audiences regularly give standing ovations, not because they are easy critics but because they appreciate the hard work and dedication that goes into this work.
The artists and craftsmen living at Island Elderly Housing, Inc. (IEH) will be holding a show of their work on Oct. 9 from 1 to 3 p.m. This is the third annual show featuring the work of the residents and has become a “must do” event on Columbus Day Weekend.
International Film Series
This week on Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. the Edgartown Library begins an eight-week international film series. All shows will be screened on Tuesday nights. Admission is free and includes dessert.
The first movie will be this past year’s Oscar-winner from Argentina.
For complete details on all of the shows, call 508-627-4221.
