Maryland Film Festival 2013

Website:

http://www.md-filmfest.com/

I am looking forward once again to the Maryland Film Festival.  Last year was my first time attending and volunteering.  I helped set up tents and usher in the Charles Theater.  My volunteering allowed me to see 4 documentaries and one feature for FREE last year.  Since I worked on the set-up day, I earned more vouchers than I would have otherwise.

Last year I saw:
Ethel
Love Free or Die
Detropia
The Source Family
Save the Date

Before going to MFF last year, watching documentaries was an individual activity.  It was refreshing and stimulating to become immersed in a true story with a theater sometimes packed with people.  This fleeting community springs up to work and watch great films.  The bonus of the festival was the Q&A session after the film.  The person(s) are often a director of the film.  However, the most interesting Q&A was after Love Free or Die last year.  The session was hosted by the director, Macky Alston, and the subject of the film, The Right Reverend Gene Robinson.  This was a surreal experience, watching someone's personal story unfold on the screen and then having them in the room answering questions.

I am volunteering again at MFF.  While the full roster and schedule of films is not out yet, there are a few documentaries I am looking forward to and hope to have a chance to see.

I am Divine by Jeffrey Schwarz.  Described as "The True Story of the Most Beautiful Woman in the World."
Hit & Stay by Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk.  About the Baltimore Four and Catonsville Nine, anti-war protesters during the Vietnam era.
12 O'Clock Boys by Lotfy Nathan.  About a young boy striving to become part of an urban dirt-bike gang in Baltimore.  "The film presents the pivotal years of change in a boy's life growing up in one of the most dangerous an economically depressed cities in the United States."

There are 24 films already announced.  John Waters hosts a screening of a selected film every year.  This once always sells out.  I am interested to see what he chooses this year.