Rhode Island Film Festival Is 'Writing a New Narrative'

Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the United States, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have success in the film industry.

More than 300 films screened at the 42nd Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, which took place in Providence from August 6-11, a diverse lineup of narrative features, documentaries and shorts representing 51 countries around the world. One of 10 international festivals that serve as official qualifiers for the Academy Awards' live-action, animated and documentary short film categories, the festival received more than 7,000 nominations this year.

For Executive Director Shawn M. Quirk, who has been with the festival for 13 years, RIIFF has a two-pronged approach to serving filmmakers both in Rhode Island and beyond. “It’s really about building this global community, as well as helping our local filmmakers who need that access,” Quirk says. DAY.

“I like the idea that we are a global film. [destination]”, adds Quirk. “Rhode Island, when it was founded as a colony, thought of itself as a small country: they always tried to be a little independent from everyone else.”

Among the films scheduled at the festival are also the three films officially presented to the Academy: the live-action short film Hearts of stonedirected by Tom Van Avermaet; the animated short film And the grandmother danceddirected by Maryam Mohajer; and the documentary short film Eternal Fatherdirected by Omer Sami. These three shorts will join an impressive list of RIIFF nominations. Since 1998, 87 films that have premiered at RIIFF have earned Academy Award nominations, and 14 RIIFF nominees have won an Oscar in the short film category. (The festival also serves as a qualifier for the BAFTAs, the Canadian Screen Awards and Spain’s Goya Awards.)

While RIIFF has always been “a haven for short films,” Quirk emphasizes its commitment to feature filmmaking. This year saw the world premiere of Chakib Taleb's crime drama Bendiab Algierswhich won the award for best feature film and is the first Algerian feature film to win an award at a major American film festival.

Other notable films include the sci-fi comedy Alien Country by directors Renny Grames and Boston McConnaughey, which won the first prize for best comedy; a darling of the festival Extremely unique dynamicsa meta-stoner comedy starring Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung (co-directed with Katherine Dudas) that won the Alternative Spirit Award; and Bad faith from director Stephen George Ujlaki, winner of the Best Documentary Award, which examines the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States from the founding of the Moral Majority to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Another highlight was the screening of Richard Stanley's repertoire Color from spacethe cult director's 2019 HP Lovecraft adaptation starring Nicolas Cage (and his first feature film after being famously fired from The Island of Doctor Moreau). Stanley appeared in person to announce his next project: another adaptation from the horror master's (and Providence native's) catalog, this time an ambitious two-part adaptation of The Dunwich Horror.

Programming a regional festival in the digital age raises a big question: When there’s so much content available to stream at home, and there’s a perception that viewers are less likely to see films in theaters than they were before the pandemic, what can a film festival offer potential audiences? But Quirk doesn’t see streaming as a threat. In fact, he theorizes that access to a broader catalog of programming has made audiences hungrier for what the festival can offer them. “They’re watching TV from all over the world,” Quirk says. “I think their tastes have become more nuanced. Ten years ago, people might have said, ‘I don’t like reading so many subtitles.’ But I don’t hear that anymore.”

And it’s a chance to offer RIIFF audiences cinematic visions of the world they’ve yet to encounter. “I think sometimes there’s too much emphasis on trying to meet the audience,” Quirk says. “You can really provoke the audience, and they’re really happy to follow you.”

The festival puts this into practice when selecting its lineup of films. “I don't think it's so much a question of this film, will this film fit our audience? It's more a question of finding a great film and the audience will need it. There are a lot of films that people are dying to see. They just don't even know what they are.”

This year's festival also celebrated its founder, George T Marshall, who passed away in 2022. A professor of film at both the University of Rhode Island and Roger Williams University, Marshall launched the non-profit organization Flickers, the Newport Film Society & Arts Collaborative, in 1981. It was in his memory that RIIFF launched the George T. Marshall Production Grant, an annual award of $10,000. awarded to two RIIFF alumni filmmakers seeking funding for a new project.

Tiffany Kimmel was an early winner, whose pilot episode of the stop-motion animated TV series Civil service is in development with Nihil Declarandum Productions. The other was Reshad Kulenovic, whose feature film Selma is in development with the support of the Bosnian National Film Fund, BH Telecom and Tallinn ScriptPool and will star emerging Balkan actor Muhamed Hadžović.

The grant is just one of Quirk’s ambitions for RIIFF’s future: The Rhode Island native also wants to see the festival develop a development and production arm, similar to Sundance’s various labs and fellowships. “We’re writing a new narrative,” Quirk says. “We want to be a cutting-edge festival that reflects the world today.”