St. Lawrence 2015 Preview: ScreenAnarchy's Top Picks From The "Fourth Coast" Fest

THE BLUE BROTHERS: 35th Anniversary Screening

If one were to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the madcap caper from John Landis, there probably isn't a better way to do it than with star Dan Aykroyd in attendance. Not only that, a reception will be held in the Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of History (remember kids, Mr. Aykroyd is Canadian) with a performance from the Downchild Blues Band and Elwood Blues himself.

THE HUNTING GROUND

From Oscar winning documentarian Kirby Dick, The Hunting Ground explores the exceedingly common assaults and rapes of young women on college campuses across America, and the often bewildering harassment and backlash they face afterwards. As a work of social impact filmmaking this is a must-watch.

BRIGHT NIGHT

This pansexual drama with a supernatural bent comes from German filmmaker Florian Gottschick, and stars Benno Fuehrmann (The Princess And The Warrior, Jerichow) and Anna Grisebach as old friends who reunite for the weekend, their current lovers in tow.

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

Patrick Ryan's Slamdance selected debut feature is a modern western set in Ireland, featuring a teenage sharpshooter who is seeking vengeance for the murder of her sister. Should be quite the picnic.

DARKSIDE OF THE RAINBOW

1939's Wizard Of Oz perfectly synced to the music of Pink Floyd -- 'Nuff Said.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET... On Elm Street

Watch Wes Craven's seminal cinematic nightmare on Elm Street in Potsdam, NY. Back in the day Craven himself was a professor at the then Clarkson College of Technology, and as legends go this Elm Street is the inspiration for the movie.

THE CIRCLE

Based on the best-selling Swedish supernatural series, The Circle follows a group of teenage girls as they discover they are witches destined to save the world. Normally, we may roll our eyes at such plots, but the Swedes can get witchy with the best of 'em, so fingers crossed this is less 'Twilight' and more 'Let The Right One In'.

Since this is a brand spankin' new festival, tell us the origin story.

I love movies. I spend a lot of time up here with my family. The region is spectacular in so many ways and looking for ways to boost tourism through the year, a festival centered on the college populations and proximity to Ottawa, a great international capital, seemed like a great event. 

Diversity in film is an important topic these days. What is the festival doing to help diversify our filmgoing and filmmaking landscape?

We're thrilled to have films from all over the world as part of this inaugural year. From filmmakers across racial and sexual divides. We certainly don't have a mandate to show a certain kind of film from a certain kind of filmmaker. We DO have a mandate to show the best movies we can find out there regardless of the filmmakers race or sexual orientation or nationality. 

I noticed you've partnered with SUNY Canton. Do you have any student or young filmmaker initiatives attached to the fest, or hope to in the future?

This year we ran a student competition for just the four Associated Colleges of the St. Lawrence Valley (SUNY Canton, St. Lawrence U, SUNY Potsdam, Clarkson U). We chose finalists from each school in the Spring and they're competing for awards this week. Next year, we'll open up to the colleges on the Canadian side. We also want to reach out to younger filmmakers in the community and beyond. So many kids are organically video-conversant today, they understand masters and close ups and smash cuts and framing. I want THOSE kids here every year, too. 

And what's an event/screening you personally are amped for?   

It's such a toss up. I'm truly very impressed with so much of our programming this year. I never get to see enough docs in my life, so I'll probably hang out there. At the same time, our live orchestra playing to 1925's The Lost World in Brockville is going to be amazing.