Green Mountain Film Festival returns from five-year break, continues Montpelier's revival

What’s happened in Montpelier since the last Green Mountain Film Festival happened in 2019?

There was the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, which struck days before the 2020 edition was due to start that March, canceling the festival and all public gatherings for months. Two years later, one of Montpelier’s most prominent creative organizations, the Vermont College of Fine Arts, announced it was moving its residential enrollment out of state, taking film-friendly faculty and students with it.

Next, July of 2023 saw flooding rampage through downtown, forcing businesses to shut down for weeks, months or permanently. Those damaged businesses included the city’s two movie houses, the multi-screen Capitol Showplace and the intimate, artier Savoy Theater.

“The Montpelier community has gotten a lot of lows here,” said Phayvanh Luekhamhan, director of the revived Green Mountain Film Festival, which began in 1997. The event, featuring 27 movies over four days, returns Thursday, March 14, heralding yet another sign of the recovery of Vermont’s state capital.

“Let’s have a reason to celebrate, have a reason to come together and be a community again,” Luekhamhan said.

Part of Montpelier’s identity

The festival remained dormant, as did most indoor public events, as the pandemic continued in 2021. Luekhamhan said the leadership transition began in 2022 and continued into 2023 from the festival’s founding organization to the new group led by the Montpelier-based community television station ORCA Media.

The renewed festival almost didn’t happen as a result of the July floods. That devastating event paused fundraising efforts for the festival as money was needed elsewhere simply to rebuild downtown.

“We didn’t want to compete with that community need,” Luekhamhan said. She is a past executive director of Montpelier Alive, the organization credited for its role in spurring the city’s recovery from the July flood.

The city’s two theaters were heavily damaged by the floods. The Capitol Showplace, taking part in the festival for the first time, had to rip out and replace seats in all five of its screening rooms, according to Luekhamhan. The Savoy Theater repaired its primary street-level room, but Luekhamhan said it has yet to renovate its smaller basement theater.

Residents who have spoken with festival organizers, according to Luekhamhan, have reflected on how excited they are to have the festival back. Several screenings have already sold out. That’s the case even as moviegoing has declined in recent years, starting even before the pandemic, as people got used to streaming films and shows at home.

“Filmmakers are still making movies for the cinema. It’s important to continue that tradition and invite people out,” Luekhamhan said, noting that the Green Mountain Film Festival is an important part of Montpelier’s cultural identity.

“It’s like a return to normal” after the floods, she said. “We know how to go to movies. It’s kind of a safe thing.”

Highlights of this year’s festival include:

‘Evil Does Not Exist’

This Japanese opening-night showcase film, according to Luekhamhan, deals with a quaint village targeted for major tourism development. That move shakes up the identity of the community.

8:15 p.m. Thursday, March 14, 11:30 a.m. Sunday, March 17, The Savoy Theater.

‘I Saw the TV Glow’

This queer horror-thriller film earned tons of buzz at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and is arriving at the Green Mountain Film Festival prior to its wide release May 3. Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun will be on hand for a Q&A following the screening.

7 p.m. Saturday, March 16, Capitol Showplace (Sold out; waitlist begins at the door 30 minutes before showtime).

‘Farming While Black’

Set in the Hudson Valley of New York, “Farming While Black” tells the history and paints a contemporary picture of Black farmers in the U.S. The festival will host a panel discussion following the Saturday, March 16, screening featuring four of Vermont’s Black farmers.

1 p.m. Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16, The Savoy Theater. “Farming While Black” is also available as a free virtual screening throughout the duration of the festival.

Film slam/youth media showcase

Luekhamhan said that at the request of supporters, the festival organized a film slam, asking creators to make a movie in three days on the theme of magical realism. Four film-slam movies will be screened during a free session that includes short films by young local filmmakers. A Q&A with filmmakers will follow the screenings.

12:30 p.m. Saturday, March 16, Capitol Showplace (Sold out; waitlist begins at the door 30 minutes before showtime).

‘Reality’

Director Tina Satter based her debut film off her play “Is This a Room,” derived from FBI transcripts from interviews with Reality Winner, who was suspected of leaking classified documents detailing possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Satter will take part in a Q&A following the screening of the film, which stars Sydney Sweeney (“Anyone But You”).

6:30 p.m. Friday, March 15, The Savoy Theater.

‘Robot Dreams’

This dialogue-less film was nominated for this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, losing out to “The Boy and the Heron.” “Robot Dreams” is among the festival’s films geared toward a younger audience.

10:30 a.m. Friday, March 15, The Savoy Theater (Sold out; waitlist begins at the door 30 minutes before showtime).

Vermont shorts

Four films made by five Vermont filmmakers will be shown in an hour-long screening. Those filmmakers – Lukas Huffman, John R. Killacky, Sean Temple, Sarah Wisner and Molly Longwell – will take part in a Q&A following the screening.

5:15 p.m. Saturday, March 16, The Savoy Theater (Sold out; waitlist begins at the door 30 minutes before showtime).

‘Joonam’

This “really personal and sweet” documentary, according to Luekhamhan, follows Iranian-American filmmaker Sierra Urich’s attempt to trace her family history across generations and is set in part in Bristol. Urich will join a Q&A following the screening of the festival’s closing-night film.

7 p.m. Sunday, March 17, Capitol Showplace.

If you go

WHAT: Green Mountain Film Festival

WHEN: Thursday, March 14-Sunday, March 17

WHERE: The Savoy Theater, Capitol Showplace and other locations, Montpelier

INFORMATION: $10-$12 per ticket; $50 five-ticket pass; $150 all-access pass. www.gmffestival.org

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Film festival in Montpelier VT includes film starring Sydney Sweeney