MIDDLEBURY— The Ilsley Public Library has announced a partnership with the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival to create a MNFF Film Archive. This repository of Festival films is now available to the community for at-home use as well as viewing at the library. The MNFF Archive will be stocked initially with 19 films from the inaugural 2015 Festival, including the VTeddy Award winning titles “Omo Child: The River and The Bush,” “Figurine,” “John The Baptist” and “Obsolete.” Other highlight films include the fine documentaries “Western,” “A Farmer’s Road” and “Nasbandi.”
The archive will contain details on each film including the director’s name, a brief description of the film, its genre, its suitability for all ages and the film’s runtime. Future plans call for additional titles to be added at the conclusion of each year’s Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, concurrent with the filmmakers’ granting of permission.
“Ilsley Library is grateful to the Festival and the filmmakers for their interest in providing this amazing collection,” said Kevin Unrath, the Library’s Director. “We plan to house the all the films in the archive together in our Vermont Room space and look forward to building a multi-year collection that showcases the diverse variety of films screened at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival.”
“This is our way of addressing an issue that our audiences often talk to me about,” noted Lloyd Komesar, MNFF Producer. “We screen so many films during the Festival that folks clearly can’t see them all but they would like to have the opportunity later to catch up. So we hope the MNFF Archive at Ilsley will help fill in that experience gap.”
This year’s 2nd Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival comes to town Aug. 25-28. With over 70 films set to screen and many special guests appearing, MNFF looks to build on the success of its first fest last summer. Opening Night tickets and Festival Passes plus more information are available at www.middfilmfest.org.