First Ever Live Free or Die Film Festival Promises a Weekend Full of Discovery!
Posted by Leah on
8/10/2016 2:31:26 PM
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New Hampshire can add a new film festival to the roster with the first ever Live Free or Die Film Festival taking place at the Palace Theater in Manchester August 12 and 13. The schedule for the inaugural festival is jam packed, and includes 22 films, after parties, cocktail hours and a red carpet event.
I spoke to Executive Producer of the festival Robert Daniel to find out what festival goers can expect. He told me that after moving to New Hampshire years ago, he found it hard to believe that there wasn’t any sort of a film festival in Manchester, the state’s largest city. “Manchester is such a great city. We have tons of local artists, and filmmakers, and great restaurants. Festival cofounder Dorothea Daniel and I wanted to create a festival that would showcase all that Manchester has to offer. When people think of New Hampshire, culture and talent don’t usually come to mind, but we want to change that perception. Manchester is chock full of talented filmmakers, artists, chefs and other artisans, and is more of a cultural hotspot than people think,” Robert said.
And it turns out Robert may be right. I haven’t spent much time in Manchester, so I did a little digging. It turns out the city has over 800 restaurants, a variety of museums, its own baseball team (The New Hampshire Fisher Cats), an arena that is always holding some sort of event, like concerts and shows (The Verizon Wireless Arena), The Palace Theater which puts on numerous plays throughout the year, a bunch of art galleries, parks and hiking trails, and so much more. Not to mention that the city is also home to an international airport, making it a great and easy place to visit, no matter where on earth you’re coming from.
But the Live Free or Die Film Festival isn’t a showcase for the city of Manchester alone. It will feature 22 films from around the world. Robert told me that when choosing the films they are to showcase, they tried to be as all-inclusive as possible; which is why films from some of the top filmmakers in Hollywood, as well as some student films will be shown. “What we tried to do with the films that we’ve chosen is to set them up like a living art gallery to aid in the audience’s discovery of new films and filmmakers. As long as it was clear that the filmmaker was passionate about what they made we tried to include them. We received hundreds of submissions and probably would’ve easily had enough to fill 4 days’ worth of screenings, but we started the planning for the festival so late in the year, (we started in April), that we kept things relatively small for this year,” Robert said.
According to Robert they are already planning for next year’s festival. They hope to include music, food and other artists (such as painters), and will stretch the length of the festival to a full week over several venues.
Of course, we’ll have to wait and see just how this new film festival will be received; but with more sponsors and films than they can use and over 100 filmmakers set to attend, I don’t think they’re going to have any problem gaining their footing in New Hampshire’s Queen City.
So with the weather promising rain, (finally! We do really need it!) there’s no excuse not to check out the first ever Live Free or Die Film Festival in Manchester this weekend. It promises to be a jam packed and exciting weekend full of discovery! I hope to see you there!
More information about the Live Free or Die Film Festival, including the list of films and tickets, can be found here:
- Live Free or Die Film Festival Website
- Live Free or Die Film Festival on Twitter
- Live Free or Die Film Festival on Facebook