Nolan Potter's film course this semester comes with some fairly unusual requirements.

He and his classmates at Bates College in Lewiston are watching films: That's a given. But they're also contacting movie distributors, writing emails to filmmakers, creating video trailers and drumming up publicity. Their work won't be captured in some ballsy enquiry paper, but volition be used to put on a film festival.

The Bates Moving-picture show Festival, organized by students in Jonathan Cavallero'due south picture festival studies course, runs Tuesday through Sunday at Nordica Theatre in Freeport and on the Bates campus. It features 29 films, ranging from classics of their genres, like the musical "Meet Me in St. Louis" and the science-fiction chance "Tron," to critically acclaimed releases from the past twelvemonth or 2, including the documentary "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street" and the Norwegian dark one-act "The Worst Person in the Globe."

"It'south one thing to take a class and write a newspaper, just we're learning how things piece of work in the existent world, and nosotros get to encounter our work translated to an bodily product, a moving picture festival," said Potter, 21, a senior rhetoric and film studies major from Wells.

Guest speakers scheduled for the festival include histrion and director John Turturro, who plays crime boss Blood-red Falcone in the recently released "The Batman," besides as Emmy Award-winning histrion and Bates alum John Shea, class of 1970, who has had a 45-plus twelvemonth career in Tv and films. Some other is animator and director Bruce Due west. Smith, creator of Disney Channel's animated series "The Proud Family." His 1992 picture show "Bebe's Kids" is widely recognized as the first animated picture show to characteristic a predominantly Black cast.

"To exist able to signal to someone like John Turturro and tell people he's in 'The Batman,' and he's coming to our festival, is exciting," said Potter.

The festival's screenings and guest events – including Q&A sessions with various motion-picture show professionals later on screenings – are all free to attend.

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Jonathan Cavallero fields questions in his festival studies form at Bates College in Lewiston on the upcoming Bates Film Festival. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Connection TO THE Manufacture

Cavallero, an associate professor of rhetoric, film and screen studies, began the moving picture festival grade every bit a way to connect students interested in film and television work with people working in the film industry, including alumni. His hope was that those connections would allow them to explore internships or future employment opportunities. Many of the filmmakers or actors booked to speak at the festival were contacted with the help of Bates alumni or parents who have connections to the industry, Cavallero said.

The outset festival was held in 2018 and the second was in 2019. This year'due south is the third. The festival's advisory board this year includes recent Bates graduates who now work in flick or TV in some capacity. The festival course is not offered every year.

"Maine is 3,000 or more than miles away from the filmmaking universe, so kids hither are studying film and then trying to get jobs there after higher," said Cavallero. "Then I wanted to come up with a way for students to work with alumni, work with people in the industry and acquire about it for themselves. Nobody in our alumni network ever says no when we inquire for help."

Students in the festival studies form tried to pick films that, in some manner, spur civic conversation and bring people together. This year'southward lineup represents a broad range of topics, genres and styles.

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"We looked at how we could engage the film customs and Maine in general," said Factor Chen, a senior art history major from Beijing, Mainland china, who is in the moving-picture show festival grade. "They all have this social justice component. We were able to get our easily on a lot of great films."

Assignments for the grade involve scholarly reading but too a lot of practical writing, including emails to filmmakers, blog posts for the festival website, publicity blurbs for the films and invitations to prospective guests and panelists.

Actor and director John Turturro will speak at the Bates Film Festival this yr. Photograph courtesy of Bates Film Festival

BRINGING ARTS TO TOWN

The festival will kick off Tuesday on the Bates campus with a reception on the commons patio in the afternoon and a screening of "The Worst Person in the Earth." On Friday, the festival moves to Freeport and Nordica Theatre, where most of the screenings will be held. There volition exist several console discussions featuring industry professionals at Meetinghouse Arts, run by the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Freeport.

In past years, most of the festival'south screenings were held in lecture halls on the Bates campus. But this yr, Cavallero and the students wanted to bear witness films in a real movie theater. So they got in impact with the owners of Nordica, which is virtually a one-half hour from Bates, and also contacted the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Freeport.

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Nordica Theatre, with six screens, opened in 2011 in downtown Freeport. The theater has been closed since the first of the pandemic, but owners are optimistic information technology will open over again at some point as COVID restrictions ease and the threat of the virus lessens, said Alfred Yebba, one of the owners. Yebba said Nordica's owners are watching the financial performance of contained motion-picture show theaters around the country as they try to effigy out when information technology makes sense for them to reopen.

Yebba said that having the theater involved in the Bates Motion picture Festival is a way to build "intrinsic value" for the theater and to help draw film fans to Freeport, which is all-time-known for its retail outlets. The theater is in the Freeport Village Station and is owned by partners in the retail circuitous.

Dana Legawiec, executive director of the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Freeport, said that hosting the Bates Motion picture Festival is a style for the town to expand its appeal and its identity.

"The stores and the restaurants and the businesses are all supporting (the festival) because it's a way of bringing folks to town for alive arts," said Legawiec. "It besides shows how of import it tin can exist to have a local movie house."

Jonathan Cavallero started a film festival studies class at Bates College in Lewiston as a fashion to help innovate students to the film industry. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

THE STORIES Backside THE Piece of work

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Cavallero said that Turturro – contacted with help from a Bates parent – was happy to come to the festival fifty-fifty though "The Batman" was released March 4, and he's been busy helping to promote that film. Turturro's long career in film includes a star turn in the Cohen brothers' "Barton Fink" in 1991 and supporting roles in "Miller's Crossing," "Quiz Show," "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "The Big Lebowski."

Turturro volition be giving a talk April 3 at Schaeffer Theatre at Bates and will do audience Q&A sessions subsequently screenings of two films he directed, "Mac" and "Romance & Cigarettes," on Saturday at Nordica Theatre. "Mac," from 1992, also stars Turturro and focuses on an eldest son dealing with the pressures of taking over the family unit construction business after his father dies. "Romance & Cigarettes," from 2005, is a musical romantic comedy with an ensemble cast that includes Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi and many others.

Bates alum and longtime actor John Shea will be a invitee at this year's Bates Film Festival. Photo courtesy of John Shea

Shea, who first gained wide acclaim in the 1982 thriller "Missing" with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, will be doing a Q&A session post-obit a pic he directed, "Gray Lady," on Friday at Nordica Theatre. Information technology'south a 2017 romantic thriller about a Boston homicide detective trying to track down the killer of both his sister and his partner. The cast includes Eric Dane and Amy Madigan.

Shea has as well appeared in dozens of Boob tube shows over the years, including "The Blacklist" and "Law & Order" on NBC, "The Good Wife" on CBS and "Gossip Girl" on CW.

Shea will be giving a talk on Apr 3 at Shaeffer Theatre near the importance of recognizing opportunities and taking chances. Shea said his acting career got started at Bates, but by blow.

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He was on the football team and the fence team just had never thought nigh acting, until one day, when he was on his way to get his fake ID, and then he could buy beer for his friends. He was walking toward the argue room, where his fake ID was, and passed by a theater rehearsal. The director stopped him and asked him to read for a part, and he did. He got the part, in Shakespeare's "Much Ado Almost Nothing," and fell in love with theater. He went on to attend the Yale School of Drama after graduating from Bates.

"Life is full of surprising signposts and cosmic moments that put yous on the right path if you pay attention to them. I could take said no (to reading for the part), but I said aye," said Shea during a phone interview. "The purpose of college education is to really explore and see what's out at that place."

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