The Lake Champlain International Film Festival (LCIFF) is happening again at the STRAND Theatre in Plattsburgh on November 13-15. Stop by for one block of screenings or attend them all if you can!

For its second year, LCIFF promises to present “new films and filmmakers working in any and all genres and forms of film. Good, old-fashioned entertainment and cutting-edge artistry will be showcased in equal measure” (strandcenter.org).

Michael Devine, Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Plattsburgh and one of the organizers of the film festival explained some of the main themes chosen for this year’s event:

“Plattsburgh is in the midst of rebirth—the Tibetan festival and the beautiful mandala mural downtown are just some examples of that. The film festival, like the mandala, pursues questions of brokenness and wholeness, our fragmentation but also our essential unity. In finding our place, we end up finding each other. That’s what these films teach us.”

“Find Your Place”—Film Festival Pictures Who We Are in the North Country

Part of Plattsburgh’s broader cultural renaissance, led by the rebirth of the Strand Center Theatre, the 2015 Film Festival celebrates its second year with films submitted from around the world, and special programming on questions of place and displacement in the North Country.

The three-day festival will include:

• A free kick-off event, Friday, November 13, featuring a preview of Mountain Lake PBS’s newest documentary, Arts in Exile: Tibetan Treasures in Small Town America, followed by short films meditating on the poetry of place—featuring Burgh, a new film by Julia & Michael Devine of SUNY Plattsburgh

• Farms and food trucks on Saturday: from shorts on distilleries in the Hudson valley to Aaron Woolf’s King Corn and Ben Stechshulte’s Small Farm Rising (on Essex farms), there will be something for everyone, including tasty food from the Mace Chasm Food Truck and other vendors served curbside at the Strand in the afternoon.

• Sunday will take viewers back to Dannemora, made internationally famous this summer, through local photographer Damian Battinelli’s exclusive pictorial tour, and through documentary films ranging from The Church of the Good Thief­­—on Dannemora’s incredible free-standing church—to The Visitors, which follows NYC residents on bus rides to the North Country to visit incarcerated loved ones.

• Saturday and Sunday will feature films from Iran, Ghana, Spain, Serbia, and Sweden, including Canadian animation shorts (free Saturday morning), and SUNY Plattsburgh alum Ian Thomas Ash’s “-1287.”  Ash is an internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker based in Tokyo.

• Featured guests, speakers, and panelists include Ian Thomas Ash, Paul Larson (MLPBS), Aaron Woolf, Ben Stechshulte, Brian Mann (NCPR), and Jennifer Podemeski of Empire of Dirt, a Canadian film about a First Nations mother seeking to bridge generation gaps. Empire of Dirt finishes the festival on Sunday night.

Attend the Festival

You can purchase an all access pass ($20 or $30 for two) to the entire event or buy individual tickets ($5 each) to particular blocks of film screenings. Buy your tickets or passes online here. (SUNY Plattsburgh students receive a free festival pass, and other students pay $7.50 for a pass with ID.)

The Lake Champlain International Film Festival is presented by The Strand Center Theatre and the Plattsburgh Renewal Project, with support from the following sponsors: In Health Family Medicine; Cook and Gardener;  Raymond James;  SUNY Plattsburgh’s College Foundation and Office of the President; Cynthia and Robert Spencer; Champlain Audiology; Conroys Organics; Maui North; North Country Co-op; Pearl Physical Therapy; Lake City Vape; Beehive Beauty; Della Toyota; Bagel Pit; 99.9 The Buzz; and Downtown Rising.

Visit the event page of the Strand website to learn more about the festival.

Follow LCIFF on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with the festival and help share news.

See the full 3-day schedule for the 2015 Lake Champlain International Film Festival below.
Click an image to enlarge. Or click here to see the full schedule.

Related articles

• Inaugural Lake Champlain International Film Festival Nov. 15-16 (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
• 2nd Annual Plattsburgh Mayor’s Cup Movie Night (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)