The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival is a nonprofit organization. Since day one, we have stayed true to our mission.
The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival is a nonprofit organization. Since day one, we have stayed true to our mission, embraced input from friends and neighbors, and taken great pride in providing a place for the Island community to gather, discuss, create, learn, and take action on the issues of our times.
In the past year, we have created events that examined the local drug epidemic, race in America, women’s rights, Native American culture, and the environment. This summer’s films explore the sustainability and stewardship of our oceans, gun control, animal rights, and socioeconomic inequality on Island and off.
There has been much misinformation about our desire to create a gathering space. Please know that we have no intention of building a restaurant complex, an apartment complex or a megaplex.
There are no concrete plans yet for our land purchase in West Tisbury. We are in the early stages of planning. We know that we want to conserve the forested area and consider farming some of the land, and that anything we build will be simple, barn- like, and fit the landscape. We know that we will use new eco-technologies, acting as stewards of the land and our natural resources.
Finally, perhaps most importantly, we know that we will move forward with kindness and openness, and sincerely hope you will join us in that spirit. If it is determined after this process that this is not the right location, we hope you will help us find a space that might be.
We look forward to hearing your input. Give us a call, shoot us an email, or stop by our office to have a conversation. We can be reached at 508-645-9599 or at tmvff.org.
Meanwhile, we are focusing on producing our programming for kids (the Cinema Circus, and our filmmaking camp) and our film screenings in Oak Bluffs and Chilmark.
Thomas Bena
Chilmark
The writer is founder and executive director of MVFF. This letter was also signed by MVFF staff members Brian Ditchfield, Hilary Dreyer, Robyn Athearn, Molly Purves, Lilian Robinson, Chris Mara, Kara O’Sullivan, Elina Street and Caitlin Bingham.
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"June 2, 2016 - Anne Cagney
Jesse Chase Chilmark"June 2, 2016 - Anne Cagney Miller, a/k/a Anne M. Cagney, and Bank of America NA, trustees of the JAMES F. CAGNEY JR. Trust, sold 73 Tabor House Road, Chilmark for $430,000."(Real Estate Transactions/MVTimes.com) -- Could there be a more PERFECT up-island location for The Martha's Vineyard FILM Festival?!?! The CAGNEY property represents both tremendous film and Vineyard historical resonance -- a living homage to the natural, creative, artistic, inspiring and rejuvenating spirit that has defined Martha's Vineyard for generations as a beloved, extraordinary and visionary arts community.
Dear MVFF,
Miguel Samuel de Braganca West TisburyDear MVFF,
There is no question that the programming described in your letter is of great service to the community. I have personally enjoyed attending and participating in past MVFF events.
In this letter and other statements you speak to the visual aesthetics of your plan, but you do not speak to the externalities of the operation that will most certainly be of bigger impact to the neighborhood. By selecting a site for your permanent home, the implication is that your programming will become centralized.
Your great success in Chilmark and Oak Bluffs is fantastic. My concern is that concentrating these events in a rural residential neighborhood will fundamentally change the character and peaceful nature that has existed since its settlement. The coming and going of cars and trucks, night after night, brings with it light pollution from headlights and noise.
Sound travels far in this neighborhood. From Old County Road, one can hear parties down New Lane and bands playing at the ag hall during the fair.
Aside from relocating your existing operations, will you not seek to expand the frequency and capacity of your programming? I find it hard to believe that you would invest so much money in a permanent home without the intent to grow.
You already understand how the neighborhood is reacting to your proposed plan and you seek their input. The input you will receive, I imagine, is restriction, restriction, restriction. I ask you: why relocate to neighborhood where every step forward will be met with a fight?
Since your mission is island-wide and focused on community, I would encourage you to avoid making a decision that pits you against neighbors - who do have a measure of say in the scope and scale of your programming. As a first step towards a positive outcome, I would reconsider the purchase of the Walsh property.
I do believe that the island is a better place because of your efforts to utilize community space to present creative, entertaining, and thought-provoking films, and to engage the youth in the arts. We in West Tisbury have ample space, already constructed, for you to use to further your mission--to everyone's benefit.
If you must, and you deserve to have, a permanent home, there are areas in West Tisbury zoned for the type of operating you do. I'm sure you can find a welcoming neighborhood. But it will be one that is prepared to deal with the externalities of your business. West Tisbury Village clearly is not.
Sincerely,
Miguel Samuel de Bragança
Old County Road, West Tisbury
It is hard for the people in
MarieIt is hard for the people in West Tisbury to find fault with the MVFF and their great programming.
You enjoy their programming but you would like it to be in someone else's front yard. You do not want non residents to come to your town.
Actually Marie, we welcome
mark reisman west tisburyActually Marie, we welcome residents to our town all the time. They come to the farmers' market, artisans' festivals, concerts and film concerts at the Grange, to the fair, horse shows, farm shows and other agricultural events, art shows and many other events at Ag Hall, horticultural activities at Polly Hill, educational and recreational activities, art shows and discussion groups at the WT Library. These facilities are in appropriately zoned areas of WT. The Walsh property is in a residential/agricultural/historical district that is not zoned for a movie theatre, commercial kitchen and other facilities envisioned by the mvff. As in all of the towns on island, the voters WT have voted for zoning regulations that we live by, value and expect non-residents to respect. It really isn't that complicated.
Marie, you miss the point
Ebba Hierta West TisburyMarie, you miss the point entirely about the objections to this project in this location. We do not wish this organization to relocate to anyone's front yard. We wish this theater/food/music business would relocated to a location that is zoned for business. Their competitor, The MV Film Society, built a theater in a Vineyard Haven business complex, not in someone's residential neighborhood, not in anyone's front yard. We'd like to see TMVFF do the same. The location they've chosen in West Tisbury is zoned for rural residential use exclusively. Large scale business development, like a theater/food/music festival, is prohibited. West Tisbury is home to many attractions that welcome people from all over the island to our town. The Ag Hall, the Grange, the Gymnastics center, Polly Hill all come to mind. Propose a location with appropriate zoning, TMVFF, and you will find an entirely different reception.
I will call you on your
Washashore EdgartownI will call you on your exaggerations wherever I see them. They are not a Theater/Food/Music business. They are a non-profit who have 2-3 events a week for 8 weeks in the summer and a 4 day festival in March. A for profit business couldn't operate that way and you shouldn't call them a business. The events in Chilmark are attended by 200-225 people. Firstly it's not zoned residential it's zoned agricultural. Now there a lot of people on this island, not just in that area of West Tisbury who live on "agricultural" land but they're not really farmers. They treat the land as residential but they get the tax benefits of agricultural zoning. This is the other side of that coin. The mixed-use of non-profits. They like to call it residential when it suits them. Like now but otherwise they'll take the tax break. Now the MVFF likes this property because of the agricultural potentials. It allows them to continue to support sustainable development.
Dear Washashore, person who
Ebba Hierta West TisburyDear Washashore, person who jumps in and babbles on and on before doing any homework. There is no "agricultural" zoning in West Tisbury. The people who live in this Old County Road neighborhood are not getting any tax breaks - this is just cuckoo talk. Zoning bylaws easily obtainable online - please check for yourself. And once more with gusto: TMVFF is a business that has chosen to organize itself under the 501(c) section of the U.S. tax code. Just like the National Football League (are you going to argue that the NFL is not a business?)Just like the lovely movie theaters in Vineyard Haven, just like the YMCA, just like many other large businesses on and off the island. This has become little more than nonsense trolling. If you are the best advocate TMVFF has, I fear for their future.
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