HWWT at Woods Hole Film Festival!!

Hey folks!

Below is all the info you’ll need to watch films at this years Woods Hole Film Festival, which has the honor being the setting for the World Premiere of “Have Wine, Will Travel”!

The 29th Woods Hole Film Festival runs from July 25- Aug. 1, 2020.

 

Tickets to individual screenings go on sale at 8:00 AM EDT on July 25. Our film screens during the “Hello, Stranger” Shorts program. (Click images for links.)

Once you have your ticket to that program, you can watch it on your own schedule during the 8 days of the festival.

 

There are also options for day passes and full festival passes so you can watch panels and workshops and all sorts of great films – check out the program while you’re at the WHFF website! 

 

 

Finally, this Wednesday, July 22 at 10:00 AM EDT there’s a Filmmaker Chat with myself, Dawn Brodey, and Alisha Seaton, via the below links:

You can watch this chat LIVE on the Woods Hole Film Festival Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/woodsholefilmfestival/

And then later in the day or during the festival on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0JZakfyRMLqmyf2lc7QpdQ/featured

 

See you soon!

 

Woods Hole Film Festival – HWWT Screenings

 

My film “Have Wine, Will Travel” will be playing at the 2020 Woods Hold Film Festival beginning on July 25th. You can access the Festival passes, tickets, and schedule through their website at: https://www.woodsholefilmfestival.org/

The film will be under the “Hello, Stranger” short film block.

This is exciting for us, our World Premiere and hopefully the first of many festival celebrations for us. I will be updating this page with news and bits about future screenings, as well as Q&A opportunities.

I’ll also be re-vamping my website here in the near future to provide some fresh short tales, opinions, and shared experiences in these strange times.

Until then… be safe, be healthy, be well.

Joe

Mouse-X short film

Below, embedded, is a short film entitled Mouse-X by filmmaker Justin Tagg. The concept is simple: A man wakes in a mysterious room, and as he tries to figure a way out he comes upon only the room — and himself. The atmosphere is eerie, the sense of dread lingers despite a faceless authority running this “maze”. The photography, design, and sound are all top-notch, and the fact that nary a word is spoken adds, in my opinion, to the sense of dread.

I’ve been toying with concepts like this myself lately, experiments in concepts and atmosphere over pure A-B-C Hollywood Storytelling. When I write projects, I’m usually on my own, though lately I’ve dealt a lot in collaboration, and things that end up popping up again and again are:

What motivates the characters?

Why do we care about the characters?

Why is this happening to the characters?

In Mouse-X, we care about this guy because he’s as confused as we are, he wants to get out, to be free. WHY this is happening is not entirely clear, and allows the audience to come up with their own conclusions. The WHY is not necessarily as “important” (yes, I put that in quotes) as the WHAT and WHO. WE relate to this character because WE, at one point or another, feel trapped, looking for answers, whether physically or emotionally or in some other way.

Therefore we care about what happens to this guy, despite not knowing anything about him. It doesn’t matter. Whatever answer the filmmaker and actor came up with for the backstory is hidden entirely from the audience. For all we know, this is a bad dude, in a prison, who has done despicable things. Yet we still care, because we’re intrigued by the mystery.

I’m not saying backstory is not important, it’s just not as relevant to the piece itself as the motivation of the character. He doesn’t need a “reason” to escape — just the fact that he WANTS to escape is enough to drive the short. It’s in this way that “Hollywood storytelling” is not always the most effective when inspiring a feeling in an audience.

I suppose.

Or maybe I’m not seeing something you are? Feel free to comment below and let me know what you think!