April 16-22, 2018 & November 6, 7 & 11, 2018

This Year's Program Celebrates the Power of Art and Culture in Affecting Positive Change

13th Annual event takes place April 16-22nd in collaboration with Roger Williams University. Highlights include major international shorts and features, and documentaries and a celebration of the arts.

2018 ROVING EYE INTERNATIONAL

FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS

13th Annual Event welcomed world premieres & attending filmmakers

BRISTOL, RI • Awards for the top films screened at the 13th Annual Roving Eye International Film Festival have been announced. And the awards for the Fall 2018 Jewish Experience Series which ran November 6, 7 & 11th. (click here for details on this programming).

The Festival created by the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) in partnership with Roger Williams University kicked off April 16th and ran through the 22nd. This year’s programming featured over 70 films from across the world, numerous World and US Premieres; panel discussions/symposia; visiting filmmakers; workshops; student film and arts showcases on the RWU campus.

The Roving Eye International Film Festival is a portal for discovery for film, arts and culture lovers across the region at this year’s celebration.

Complementing this year’s cinematic offerings, the campus will be alive with a bounty of special presentations. The Festival theme this year is “Connecting Through Storytelling.”

The Roving Eye International Film Festival was a portal for discovery for film, arts and culture lovers across the region at this year’s celebration. Complementing this year’s cinematic offerings, the campus will be alive with a bounty of special presentations from...

Students at the University, with the guidance of Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, create the Roving Eye International Film Festival through the Film Minor senior-level course, Curation and Film Festival Production. Flickers’ Executive Director and RWU Professor, George T. Marshall teaches the class. This year, 16 students spent the first part of the spring semester reviewing more than 500 films provided by Flickers and from there went on to create the entire Roving Eye Festival. The students developed active marketing and PR strategies, including the planning for events plus staffing throughout the week. Roberta E. Adams, Ph.D., retiring Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, is the Festival Chair, linking faculty adjudicators with students, RIIFF and the RWU administration in a unique collaboration.

Students in the Curation and Film Production Class who voted for and adjudicated these awards included: Anas Alfeez, Christopher Aquina, Matthew Burbine, Jake Chipkin, Mark Donovan, Alexandra Ende, Amanda Farrow, Angela Ferguson-Martins, Kelsey Piazza, Rosalie Stevens, Carolyn Terry, Lauren Utecht, Stephanie Ward, Hoss Wheeler, Emily Whitehead and Kenneth Kramer.

THE 2018 AWARD WINNERS:

BEST OF FESTIVAL
Grand Prize:
“The Silent Child,” | Chris Overton, Director, and Rachel Shenton, writer | 20 min. United
Kingdom, 2017
The Silent Child film centers around a profoundly deaf four year old girl named Libby, who is born into a middle class family and lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker teaches her the gift of communication.

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY:

Grand Prize:

“Edith+Eddie” | Laura Checkoway, Director | 29 min. United States, 2017
Edith and Eddie, ages 96 and 95, are America's oldest interracial newlyweds. Their love story is
disrupted by a feud over legal guardianship that threatens to tear the couple apart.

1st Prize:

“Knife Skills” | Thomas Lennon, Director | 40 min. United States, 2017
A French restaurant is staffed by men and women who have recently been released from prison

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

Grand Prize:

"Tribal Justice" | Directed by: Anne Makepeace | 97 min. USA, 2017
Tribal Justice is a feature documentary about the work of the chief judges in the two largest tribes in California, the Yurok on the northwest coast and the Quechan in southern desert. These women are looking back to traditional forms of justice to create new court systems in order to heal rather than punish offenders, prevent children from being taken from their tribes, and stop the school-to-prison pipeline that plagues their young people. The documentary is about Indian people taking their destiny in their own hands and turning the tide of history.

1st Prize:

“Face New York” | Erin Sanger, Director | 13 min. USA, 2017
New Yorkers experiencing homelessness tell their stories to a group of international artists as part of a groundbreaking art exhibition.

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT FILM:

Grand Prize:

“Counter Act” | Heath Affolter , Thomas Affolte , Nathan Affolter, Jon Affolter, Directors | 16 min. Canada, 2016
When Alice, a naive young woman having lunch in a diner circa 1960, joins Mary and Ray in their sit-in protest, the ire of the racist patrons boils over and Alice learns what it truly takes to stand up for what you believe in.

1st Prize:

“Game” | Jeannie Donohoe, Director | 15 min. USA, 2017
A new kid shows up at the high school boys' basketball tryouts and instantly makes an impression. Will talent and drive be enough to make the team?

BEST ANIMATION:

Grand Prize:

"Poles Apart" | Paloma Baeza, Director | 12 min. | UK.
Poles Apart tells the story of an unlikely meeting between Nanuk, a tough female polar bear, and Aklak, an enthusiastic male grizzly bear, brought together by their changing habitats. Hopeful and eager Aklak crashes into Nanuk's world. She has to decide if the naïve grizzly bear is her food or her friend.

1st Prize:

"Coin Operated" | Nicholas Arioli, Director | 5 min. | USA, 2017.
Coin Operated is a 5-minute short animation that spans 70 years in the life of one naive explorer. This film was proudly made by independent artists.

To see a listing of this year's programming and to learn more about the Roving Eye Festival, go to: http://www.film-festival.org/RovingEye.php

FALL 2018 AWARD WINNERS (November 6, 7 & 11th)

BEST OF FESTIVAL
Grand Prize:
"EVA" | Ted Green & Mika Brown, Directors | 118 min. Germany, Israel, Poland, Romania, USA, United Kingdom, 2018
As a 10-year-old 'Mengele Twin,' Eva Kor suffered the worst of the Holocaust: being experimented on by the Auschwitz 'Angel of Death.' At 50, she launched the biggest international manhunt in history. Now 84, she urgently circles the globe in failing health to promote the controversial lesson her journey has taught: healing through forgiveness. “Eva” tells the full, unvarnished story of this historic figure for the first time. Narrated by Hollywood icon Ed Asner, it features spectacular new footage from Auschwitz, from the Transylvanian hamlet from which Eva’s family was carted off to slaughter, and on a boat off Israel where she first tasted freedom. Interviews include Holocaust experts, celebrities she's moved (Elliott Gould, Wolf Blitzer, Ray Allen), fellow survivors she's enraged, and myriad young people whose lives she’s changed - - in many cases saved. Eva Kor has emerged as a worldwide spokeswoman for peace — a recent Buzzfeed video has 187 million views — and 'Eva' will be her legacy. Narrated by Ed Asner.

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

Grand Prize:

"FOOTSTEPS OF MY FATHER" | Paul Allman, Director | 38 min. Belgium, Germany, USA, 2018
The true story of an act of extraordinary courage by Master Sargeant Roddie Edmonds, a devout Christian from Tennessee who risked his own life to save the lives of 200 Jewish G.I.s when they were prisoners of the Germans in WWII. This act of bravery would have been forgotten and lost to history, had it not been for the rediscovery of Edmonds’ private journals, by his son, and a chance encounter with one of the surviving POWs. Chris Edmonds set out to locate the survivors, and discover the truth about his dad during his time as a P.O.W. Roddie's story is a testament to how a simple commitment to fairness and equality can make a huge difference in the world. Narrated by Ted Koppel.

BEST ANIMATION:

Grand Prize:

"A THOUSAND KISSES" | Richard Goldgewicht, Director | 17 min. USA. Germany, 2018
Inspired by the actual correspondence recovered by the couple’s grandsons 80 years later in Sao Paulo, A Thousand Kisses presents a peculiar love story tainted by the harsh historical context of its time, with a light appeal of irony and real-life poetry.

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT FILM:

Grand Prize:

"THE VISITOR" | Justin Olstein, Director | 10 min. Australia, 2018
In present-day Melbourne, just after midnight, Naomi is awakened by a frantic young woman on the run. Naomi grapples with a situation that defies reality and, as the night unfolds, she must decide how far she can go to protect her visitor from rapidly encroaching danger.

tied with:

"THE MUSEUM OF LOST THINGS" | Gregory Cioffi, Director | 22 min. USA, 2017
The Museum of Lost Things concerns a writer in his late 40s who, while sitting in an all-night diner, tells to an affable waitress the story of his stumbling upon a strange museum on an obscure street in downtown Manhattan. His story takes us through the labyrinths of the museum, where, with the help of a nonchalant museum guard, he encounters exhibition rooms seemingly dedicated to him alone, each one representing a piece of the man’s lost past. Some rooms are filled with objects, such as his lost umbrellas or his lost books, and still others contain aspects of his life that he hardly remembers. In this absurdist mystery, the museum visitor discovers rooms of lost hope, of lost patience, of lost illusions, and is always surprised by what he finds. But will he find what he’s looking for? Will he recapture his past? Or is the museum only a fantasy, one of the writer’s own inventions?

ABOUT FLICKERS' RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL:

The Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF), has secured its place in the global community as the portal for the best in international independent cinema, earning the respect of domestic and foreign filmmakers, filmgoers and trend watchers. Ranked as one of the top 10 Festivals in the United States, RIIFF is a qualifying festival for the Live Action, Documentary and Animation Short Academy Awards through its affiliation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Canadian Screen Awards and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). There are only 10 film festivals worldwide that share this distinction and RIIFF is the only festival in New England. The Festival takes place every August.

For more information about the Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, running August 7-12, 2018 at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) and The Vets (formerly Veterans Memorial Auditorium), please visit call 401.861.4445.

Our Collaborative Partners: