More appearances by guest filmmakers and speakers added
The Ashland Independent Film Festival has added two additional films to its closing night slate of films, along with additional appearances by special guest filmmakers and speakers, according to a news release.
The Chilean film “The Eternal Memory” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, at the Varsity Theatre, 166 E. Main St., Ashland. Additional afternoon showings will also be available April 16 and 19. The film, winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, tells the story of Augusto Gongora, a prominent former Chilean journalist and challenger of the Pinochet dictatorship, and Paulina Urrutia, a famous Chilean actress and 25-year partner of Gongora. Both find their lives changed when Augusto is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The film will replace “Sam Now.”
“American Promise,” by the festival’s 2023 Rogue Award filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson, will screen at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 15, at the AIFF Film Center, 389 E. Main St., Ashland. A meet and greet with the directors will follow. The film spans 13 years, with Brewster and Stephenson, middle class African-American parents from Brooklyn, New York, turning the cameras on their son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, as they attend Dalton, one of the most prestigious schools in the country.
“Chronicling the boys’ divergent paths from kindergarten through high school graduation, this provocative intimate documentary presents complicated truths about America’s struggle to come of age on issues of race, class, and opportunity.”
Two classic Civil Rights documentaries, “The March” and “The Bus,” will also screen at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20. “The March,” directed by James Blue depicts the day’s events that lead up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech. “The Bus,” directed by Haskell Wexler, tells the story of a “multi-racial contingent from San Francisco, California riding a bus to join the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Alison O’Daniel, director of “The Tuba Thieves,” will also appear for an in-person moderated talkback at on Wednesday, April 19, following the film’s 6:30 screening at the Varsity Theatre. O’Daniel, a California-based artist, was diagnosed with 60% binaural loss of hearing when she was three years old.
Visit ashlandfilm.org for ticketing information and additional showtimes.
