From the beginning, Story Screen Beacon Theater had visions of hosting film festivals and events. That vision has been achieved, and continues in the form of new film festivals, especially ones that may be a new concept for the area, or anywhere.

On Saturday, February 29, and Sunday, March 1, 2020, the Makers Film Festival debuts and includes a lineup of films featuring makers and mediums from all over the world. It will include both full-length and short films, panel discussions, a maker market, and more.

The festival is inspired and co-curated by Melanie Falick, the Beacon-based author of “Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live” (buy/order it at Binnacle Books or wherever books are sold, even Anthropologie!). Read A Little Beacon Blog’s interview with Melanie about her inspiration for the film festival here.

In Melanie’s travels across continents, she met quilters and potters, weavers and painters, metalsmiths, printmakers, woodworkers, and more, and uncovered truths about making objects by hand that have been speaking to us for millennia, yet feel urgently relevant today. “Much of my adult life, both personally and professionally,” Melanie reflected to A Little Beacon Blog, “has revolved around making by hand. It has guided how and where I live, who I spend time with, the work I do, and the places to which I choose to travel.”
(Did you spy the same little detail we did? Note the use of pencil in the title on the book cover.)

According to Story Screen Beacon’s press release: “This Maker Film Festival is focused on ‘making by hand,’ and the power it has to give our lives authenticity and meaning… Films were chosen to foster discussion about making by hand and artistic expression, and why they remain vital and valuable in the modern world. Making helps us to slow down, express ourselves, develop competence, and connect with and develop empathy for others, past and present, near and far, similar and different.”

Mike Burdge, the founder, programmer and co-owner of Story Screen Beacon curated the selection of films with Melanie. “For me, the festival is all about diversifying the type of films that we get to show at the theater, utilizing an engagement event to set up a personalized film curation that goes beyond what we typically show,” Mike told A Little Beacon Blog. “We really think this is the start of an awesome new age of festivals and curations at the theater, and working with Melanie on this selection of worldwide films has been a blast and we really think the public is going to love everything about it.”

Film screenings will be held Saturday, February 29, and Sunday, March 1. A pop-up Maker Market, featuring local artisan makers, will be held on Sunday, March 1 from 1 to 5 pm in the Story Screen Beacon Theater lobby. Tickets for screenings may be purchased at the Story Screen box office or online at storyscreenbeacon.com.

About The Films: Schedule and Descriptions

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020:

1 pm: Yarn the Movie
1 hour 16 minutes

Starting in Iceland, this quirky and thought-provoking film takes us on a colorful, global journey as we discover how knitting, crochet, and other forms of yarn manipulations connect us all. “A fanciful art doc for the craft-y among us.” –The Hollywood Reporter

3 pm: Woven Lives: Contemporary Textiles from Ancient Oaxacan Traditions
1 hour 16 minutes

Woven Lives traces the development of weaving traditions among the Zapotec communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, demonstrating the vibrant, important role textile-making continues to play in their identity and daily living.

5 pm: Assorted Short Films
1 hour total

Six short films featuring makers whose stories are included in the book Making a Life, as well as the artists who inspire them. Among those featured are weaver Jessica Green, slow-fashion pioneer Natalie Chanin, and multidisciplinary artists Louise Bourgeois, Ann Hamilton, and Tanya Aquinga.

Viewers are invited to stay afterward to talk about the films and the role of making by hand in our own lives. Bring some handwork if you like!

7 pm: Wax Print

Nigerian-British filmmaker and fashion designer Aiwan Obinyan takes us across the globe to trace the 200-year history of African wax print (also known as batik) fabric. Traveling from West African sewing schools and North American cotton fields, to fabric mills in the Netherlands and bustling markets in Ghana, Obinyan tells the story of how the iconic fabric came to symbolize a continent, its people, and their struggle for freedom.

Official Selection 2019 African Film Festival New Zealand, Official Selection 2019 Pan African Film Festival, Official Selection 2019 San Francisco Black Film Festival

SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2020:

1 pm to 5 pm: Pop-up Maker Market in the Story Screen Beacon Theater lobby featuring local artisan makers.

1 pm: The True Cost
1 hour 32 minutes

The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs of production have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary, filmed in countries all over the world, about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the clothing industry is having on our world. “A sweeping, heartbreaking, and damning survey of the clothing economy.” -CNN

After the Screening: We will follow our screening of The True Cost with a Ted Talk about creating regenerative, distributive economies that support human and environmental health, plus a panel discussion with local makers involved in the slow-fashion movement: a growing force focused on countering the destructive fast-fashion economy by making and mending their own clothing, minimizing consumption, and tracking the sources of their purchases

4 pm: Assorted Short Films
1 hour 50 minutes total

Six short films featuring makers around the world, including Rediscovering Jajam, in which Rajasthani craftsmen share their stories about block-printing large, traditional textiles on which community members traditionally gather, and Stitch, in which northwest Alabamans talk about old-time quilting in their region.

Viewers are invited to stay after the screening to talk about the films and the role of making by hand in our own lives. Bring some handwork if you like!

6:30 pm: The New Bauhaus
1 hour 29 minutes

A documentary about Hungarian-born artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, one of the instructors at the Bauhaus in Germany, who emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazis, and the impact he made on design, photography, and arts education through his emphasis on experiential learning in the schools he founded in America.

Official Selection 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival/ Official Selection 2019 Chicago International Film Festival

Tickets for screenings may be purchased in person at the Story Screen box office or online at storyscreenbeacon.com.