Announcing Northeast Premiere: Slice of Pie

Southern California filmmakers Tim Reischauer and Rick Hall have served up a slice of genuine American pie in a short film that is racing through the festival circuit. Although this is Reischauer's first film project, the pair is charming audiences and winning awards, having won trophies in Beverly Hills, Nevada and elsewhere.

New Hope Film Festival is delighted to present Slice of Pie to the Northeast. You can check out the trailer here: Slice of Pie Trailer

Announcing World Premiere: Bakhtiari Alphabet

Set in the majestic and remote mountains of west Iran, this world premiere documentary by Sacred Heart University professor Sima Sedigh is an intimate portrait of the Bakhtiari, one of the world's most ancient tribes. She produced the film on a modest budget and frequently in perilous conditions, which makes her contribution of bringing this footage to a U.S. audience all the richer.

New Hope Film Festival is pleased to exhibit Bakhtiari Alphabet; it's hard to find a documentary like this anywhere else. A picture gallery and trailer are available here.

East Coast Premiere: The Book of Tomorrow

Undergraduate student David Yohe displays more than hint of Steven Spielberg's fun and magical E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial era in this East Coast premiere. This was Yohe's first project at California State University Northridge.

In this 19-minute short film, Young Billy Allen is pulled into an incredible adventure when he discovers an abandoned chest containing a comic book that possesses unimaginable powers. Now he must learn to master his discovery if he hopes to avert a disaster heading straight for Robertstown.

Here's the film trailer.

Announcing World Premiere: Breathtaking

Produced in Serbia and Montenegro, this 32-minute short film by Vojin Vasovic deals with the theme of power in an unusual way. Through psychological drama and ideas on the Pirandellian opinion of life, where "nothing is sure and there is no real truth," this debut filmmaker shows us how we can destroy far more than we wanted to. Just puff...and gone.

The film includes English subtitles and you can watch the trailer here: Breathtaking (Dasak) Trailer.

Announcing U.S. Premiere: Black Field

On behalf of New Hope Film Festival's directors, I'm delighted to present the following U.S. premiere:

Black Field is the first feature film by Winnipeg, Canada-based producer and director Danishka Esterhazy. Set in the Canadian prairies of 1874, this gothic drama tells the story of two sisters and the man who comes between them. The film had its world premiere at Vancouver International Film Festival in October 2009 and we're honored to introduce Ms. Esterhazy's art to the United States.

Tickets will be available in March. Please follow this link to the film's trailer.

Online Program Guide - Coming Soon

The film festival's online program guide is coming in March and will be available on our website. As the festival's resident tech geek, I personally sent the batch data file to our partner B-Side on Thursday. In the meantime, I want to give everyone some hints on what to expect:

We've accepted 86 films versus 268 submissions, and the rich variety of countries represented includes: USA and Puerto Rico, Spain, Canada, Uganda, Germany, Serbia, Turkey, Australia, South Korea, Nigeria, India, United Kingdom and Italy.

Many are world or U.S. premieres, and that's very exciting to me: I founded this festival because I thought worthwhile art wasn't always getting the recognition and push it deserved through existing channels. We directors of New Hope Film Festival love our films and we are, quite frankly, astounded by the quality we received in our first year. We also took measured risks, as did many of our filmmakers. This festival has an indie edge, and I think that's appropriate.

We look forward to meeting our audiences and finding out which films win the audience favorite awards in each category. That, moviegoers, will be up to you. The festival will also be a chance to rub elbows with actors, filmmakers, and maybe even a music star or two. The filmmakers are excited, I can tell you. Many will be flying in from Hollywood, Berlin, India, Canada...and we expect patrons from far beyond New Hope, Pennsylvania, too.

That's all for now! More later...