SHORTS: Taking Place

NEW DOCS

Enthralling places and how one occupies them are the subjects of this program. Directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Timberline documents a West Virginia town caught between transitional pressures: an abandoned naval base is up for auction, and the NSA occupies a station just down the road. What will become of the locals for whom this place is home? Winter’s Watch, directed by Brian Bolster, follows a longtime winter caretaker of the Oceanic Hotel off the coast of New England, who welcomes months of solitude and relishes the opportunity for introspection and productivity. In The Rain Will Follow, directed by Eugene Richards, 90-year-old Melvin Wisdahl shares poignant recollections of wartime and strife from his chair in a retirement home in this deeply personal account set aglow by beautiful images of North Dakotan farmland. In The Great Theater, directed by Sławomir Batyra, a meandering camera takes a graceful, evocative journey through the spaces and operations of Warsaw’s Grand Theatre as it presents the opera Madama Butterfly.

Festival Year

2017