By Logan Hill, Staff Writer
Last weekend was the annual New Hampshire Film Festival, showcasing films that have been nominated to appear and be judged by a jury for a variety of awards. In addition to the film screenings, there are panels of producers, directors, actors and comedians, as well as talks and Q&A periods by some of them.
Throughout the weekend was also the Young Filmmakers Workshop, a program where teenagers interested in cinema come to learn and produce their own films in groups to be shown at the closing ceremony.
“Low Down,” a film based on a book by Amy Albany, is about pianist Joe Albany and his struggles with drug addiction as seen by his daughter. Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, was present before the show as well as after for a question-and-answer session.
Flea was the executive producer of the project and also played the character “Hobbs.” In his speech before the screening, Flea described his connection to main character and author Amy Albany; they both had parents who were jazz musicians and drug addicts.
“These guys were the high water mark for me as human beings,” Flea said about that era of jazz musicians, choking back tears.
Earlier that day, there was a Q&A segment by director and producer Michelle MacLaren. She showed clips of some of her work from “Breaking Bad,” “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones,” and then answered questions and told some behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the clips.
Comedian Mike O’Malley was also present, presenting the pilot episode of his new show, “Survivor’s Remorse.”
O’Malley was also present for a Q&A session, displaying his wit and humor as he answered audience questions about the series.
On Sunday, there was a screening of the documentary “E-Team,” a film about the Human Rights Watch’s Emergency Response Team deployed into areas where there is a fear of violations of human rights to document and expose any such violations.
The cinematography was done partially by James Foley, the journalist who was kidnapped in Syria and executed by ISIL in August.
The co-producer of the film, Ross Kauffman, presented an award to Foley’s parents in his honor.
Among the awards were “Low Down” as best feature film and “E-Team” as best documentary; the producers of each were presented a large slab of granite, boastfully the “heaviest film award,” said Nicole Gregg, executive director of the film festival.
