Reprinted from THE LAKEVILLE JOURNAL
March 30, 2006

First Kent Film Festival Attracts 400
By David Fine

KENT — Filmmakers from across the Northeast descended upon this sleepy town to take part in the inaugural Kent Film Festival, March 25 and 26, at the Kent Community House.

"It's exciting, man," said Alex Echevarria, a Brooklyn native whose short film, "Redhook", was shown Saturday evening. Echevarria smiled when he said his film, about a struggling painter thrust into a dangerous situation and able to rely on only a tube of paint to get through it, was his "least favorite" of all the films he saw over the weekend.

About 400 attendees made their way to the weekend festival, three-quarters of whom went during Saturday's full-day program. Aside from myriad films of various lengths and genres, guests were treated to filmmaking workshops, question-and-answer sessions with filmmakers and a gala party Saturday night. And while many of the filmmakers hailed from New York City, there were entrants from Danbury, Bristol and Kent - not to mention one director who came all the way from Toronto, Ontario, "which officially makes this an international film festival!" said event coordinator Patrice Galterio.

Also featured were three students from Housatonic Valley Regional high school - Tyler Forstmann, Max Chaiet and Brad Haiko - whose short film "3:31" deals with a suicidal woman's anxiety-filled final moments.

One of the biggest hits of the weekend was Mario Pinzon's "Immaculate Perception", a narrative short dealing with serious themes of religion and trust, in which a 16-year-old girl suddenly and mysteriously becomes pregnant. Another was Bobby Miller's "The Self Deprecating Brain," a 10-minute comedy about a man who tries to rid himself of his abusive disembodied talking brain.

"I really enjoyed 'Aftermath: 9/11 and New York Artists,'" said former Kent native Simon Cole, who made the trip all the way from his current home in Seattle to support his friend, filmmaker Echevarria. He also mentioned "Chargoggaggoggmanchu," a two-minute student short by Jake Doty, which explores the dangers of a society that places too much importance on convenience.

"This is exactly what we hoped for, and it really happened," said Galterio, who, with her husband, filmmaker Frank Galterio, worked around the clock the past three months to organize the festival.

Award winners included:

• Best short drama: "Immaculate Perception," Mario Pinzon
• Best documentary: "Sweet Soil - Local Farmers and the Berkshire Coop Market," Laura Meister and Erica Spizz
• Best student film: "Love and Fall," Zachary F. Borst
• Best short comedy: "Putz," Craig Geraghty
• Best student documentary: "The Promise," Brain Simalchick and Tim Salem
• Best feature: "The Morrison Project," Amy Morrison Williams