The weekend of May 31-June 1 sees Sanford open the venue doors for the town’s first international film festival. Thirty films are slated to play at four locations over the course of the weekend, with over 25 local restaurants and shops offering discounts for festival attendees and filmmakers alike. It’s an impressive feat considering the entire event was less than two months in the making.
Why the short timeline? “The story starts with the Lewiston-Auburn Film Festival [LAFF] being shut down 10 days before opening night,” says James Harmon, a teacher at Sanford High School and spearheader of the Sanford Film Festival.
Harmon teaches a class called Rebound for at-risk students at SHS; last year, a filmmaking class that was part of the program’s summer curriculum. The kids were enthusiastic to say the least. “We had an 85-page script in less than 10 days, cast it immediately and took 22 days to film it,” Harmon recalls. All students participated in the editing process, or “they had to create a DVD extra.”
The film, #YOLO, which centers on a group of young misfits and their misadventures, took the better part of the fall semester to finish. Harmon downplays his contribution. “I just filled in the blanks. Some color correction here and there,” he says. “It’s the kids that did all the work.” Harmon did, however, submit the film to LAFF, where it was accepted and slated to screen during the first weekend in April. Imagine the collective disappointment when Joshua Shea, LAFF founder, was arrested on the charge of possessing child pornography in late March.
“[Shea] had the keys to the kingdom,” Harmon says. “All the contracts were under his watch.” There were attempts to salvage the festival, but none succeeded. With filmmakers scrambling to find new places to show their films, Harmon decided to bring his students’ film home to Sanford for a screening. He reached out on March 27 to both Mayor Tom Cote and Synergize Sanford, a group dedicated to local creative and entrepreneurial growth. From there, the Sanford Film Festival was born, with 15 (out of 50) films from LAFF joining in along with five films from outside the United States. “We more than doubled our count after putting up the website,” Harmon reports.
The support of the Sanford community has been equally overwhelming to filmmakers — both local and international. Andrew Bard, director of Dystopia, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film, was especially surprised. “I spoke to the manager of Premiere Rentals to see about renting one — just one — television to show film trailers at the reception, and they gave me four!” he says. Several local businesses are extending discounts throughout the entire month of June. The committee is still finalizing this information and will publish it on the website (sanfordfilmfest.com) in the coming days.
The festival opens at 10 am on Saturday, May 31 and runs through Sunday June 1 at the Curtis Lake Church, City Hall Auditorium, The Little Theater (Horror/Adult only), and Sanford High School.
