I've only just learned of the Lighthouse International Film Festival in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, but it seems to have made a huge splash over the past few years. From June 7-10, LIFF 2018 promises innovative programming, an insane amount of short films, big-name guests, and its "Write by the Beach" retreat, in which young female filmmakers converge for several days on the sandy shore of the Atlantic to brainstorm their new projects. I was astounded to see that there's a whopping 47 projects in the "Write by the Beach" there by my sisters. Color me impressed.
For audiences, films screening have been to top festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, and Hot Docs. Festival highlights include: narrative centerpiece film, Josephine Decker's Madeline's Madeline; opening night film Madeleine Olnek’s Wild Nights With Emily; documentary centerpiece The World Before Your Feet, executive produced by Jessie Eisenburg; and closing night film/documentary Anote's Ark.
Read on for film descriptions, and to see how you can attend.
From the press release:
The Lighthouse International Film Festival (LIFF) has announced the complete lineup for its tenth annual event, which will take place June 7-10, 2018 on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. The Festival will open with Madeleine Olnek’s acclaimed WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, a rousing Emily Dickenson comedy starring Molly Shannon that brought audiences to their feet at SXSW 2018.
“We knew immediately that we wanted to open our 2018 Festival with WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, it’s a special kind of comedy and a film that the LIFF audience will love,” says Lighthouse International Film Festival’s Eric Johnson. “Madeleine Olnek has consistently pushed the comedic envelope in her previous films and this film brings it all together, telling a terrific story with a ton of heart and laughs. It is punctuated by pitch- perfect turn from Molly Shannon and it all works in a sublime way. Kicking off the 2018 festival with Madeleine’s film allows us to present a superb piece of independent cinema to our audience while continuing to champion Madeleine as a director who embodies the independent film values that LIFF embraces.”
WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY will open LIFF on June 7th at the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts and Sciences in Loveladies, NJ, with director Madeleine Olnek participating in a Q&A following the screening.
LIFF will again present both Documentary and Narrative Centerpiece Films, including Jeremy Workman’s THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET as Documentary Centerpiece. The film tells the story of Matt Green, a man who has dedicated more than six years to walking every block of every street in New York City – a journey of more than 8,000 miles, as he seeks out moments of understanding about his world and the people who live in it. Executive Produced by Jesse Eisenberg, the film initially looks at a single city and its residents but as it progresses it transforms into a reflection on our larger world and its endless possibilities. THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET will screen at the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts and Sciences on June 9, with director Jeremy Workman and subject Matt Green taking part in a Q&A following the screening.
The Festival’s Narrative Centerpiece film is MADELINE’S MADELINE, the latest feature from dynamic director Josephine Decker. The acclaimed film received rave reviews out of its Sundance premiere and features a breathtaking debut of Helena Howard as a teenager who has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director (Molly Parker) pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother (Miranda July) into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women’s lives. A stunning film, one of the year’s best, MADELINE’S MADELINE will screen on June 8 at the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts and Sciences with Josephine Decker participating in a Q&A following the screening.
Closing the 2018 Festival will be ANOTE’S ARK, a documentary about the low-lying Pacific nation of Kiribati, which faces a daunting challenge: imminent annihilation from sea-level rise. As Anote Tong, Kiribati’s President, races to find a way to protect his nation’s people set against the backdrop of international climate negotiations and the fight to recognize climate displacement as an urgent human rights issue, Anote’s personal struggle to save his nation is intertwined with the extraordinary fate of Sermary, a young mother of six, who decides to migrate her family to New Zealand. At stake are the survival of Sermary’s family, the iKiribati people, and 4,000 years of iKiribati culture. In closing the 2018 Festival with the film, LIFF continues its dialogue on global climate change, particularly with regard to rising sea levels, an issue that is of particular sensitivity to LIFF’s audience following the devastation incurred on LBI following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. ANOTE’S ARK will screen on June 10 at the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts and Sciences.
The Lighthouse International Film Festival is proud to announce the inclusion of Sundance and Rotterdam Audience Award Winner THE GUILTY, New Jersey-subject and Hot Docs award-winner 306 HOLLYWOOD and Sundance Special Jury Prize winner CRIME + PUNISHMENT. Additionally, its Storytellers category will more than double in size, recognizing the increased importance of episodic content.
The Festival is also proud to announce the selected writers for the third edition of its WRITE BY THE BEACH writers’ retreat program for female filmmakers and screenwriters. The 2018 writers that will participate in a week of writing on LBI prior to and encompassing the Festival are Sharon E. Cooper, Anne Hu and Rose Schimm. WRITE BY THE BEACH is a program designed to foster female writers’ creativity by providing a motivating environment for writing, professional mentorship and dynamic inspiration from participating Festival filmmakers – the Festival has 47 works with female directors in the 2018 lineup.
Additional filmmaking talent attending the festival’s 2018 edition include Xin Xu (director, A YANGTZE LANDSCAPE), Carra Greenberg (producer, DAUGHTERS OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION), Onur Tukel (director, THE MISOGYNISTS), Andrea Magnani (director, EASY), Alex Huston Fischer and Rachel Wolther (co-directors, SNOWY BING BONGS ACROSS THE NORTH STAR COMBAT ZONE), Emmy Harrington (director, TWO LITTLE B*#CHES) and Cath Gulick (director, THE FEVER AND THE FRET.)
Inspired by the historic Barnegat Lighthouse, which has beckoned travelers to LBI since 1859, LIFF has emerged as New Jersey’s leading international film festival. The festival will feature award-winning films from countries around the world, as well as nightly parties and panel discussions.
Full schedule and ticket information on the 2018 festival: www.lighthousefilmfestival.org
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Wild Nights With Emily, Madeleine Olnek, USA
NARRATIVE CENTERPIECE FILM
Madeline’s Madeline, Josephine Decker, USA
DOCUMENTARY CENTERPIECE FILM
The World Before Your Feet, Jeremy Workman, USA
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Anote’s Ark, Matthieu Rytz, Canada
SPOTLIGHT FILMS
Easy, Andrea Magnani, Italy/Ukraine
Snowy Bing Bongs Across The North Star Combat Zone, Alex Fischer and Rachel Wolther, USA
The Guilty, Gustav Moller, Denmark
The King, Eugene Jarecki, USA
The Misogynists, Onur Tukel, USA
NARRATIVE COMPETITION FILMS
1985, Yen Tan, USA
Banana Season, Sanghoon Lee, USA Don’t Forget Me, Ram Nehari, Israel
Night Comes On, Jordana Spiro, USA
The Fever And The Fret, Cath Gulick, USA Two Little B*#ches, Emmy Harrington, USA
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION FILMS
306 Hollywood, Elan Bogarin and Jonathan Bogarin, USA/Hungary A Yangtze Landscape, Xin Xu, China
Beautiful Things, Giorgio Ferrero, Federico Biasin, Italy/USA Crime + Punishment, Stephen Maing, USA
Half The Picture, Amy Adrion, USA
Phantom Cowboys, Daniel Patrick Carbone, USA
Daughters of The Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys
Cheerleaders, Dana Adam Shapiro, USA
STORYTELLERS EPISODIC CONTENT
Adventure Capital, Everett Glover and Zach Myers, USA Benefits With Friends, Shaina Feinberg, USA
First World Problems, X. Dean Lim, USA
From Jappan, Raj Trivedi, USA
Hold To Your Best Self, Emily Hagins, USA Keep Me Posted, Hillary Nussbaum, USA Lost Kings, Terrance Smalls, Jr. USA Mandated, Jesse Tendler, USA
Mondays, Arnon Manor, USA
One Eye Small, Jane Stiles, USA
Royally, Don Downie, USA
The Big Nothing, Lucy Campbell and Peter Ninos, Australia Unspeakable, Milena Govich, USA
SHORT FILMS
A Daughter, Stephanie Cheng, USA/China
A French Film (kind of), Aymeric Goetschy, France
A Hand of Bridge, David Miller and Frank Borin, USA Acting Her Age, Claire Dub, USA
All For This, Eric Jenkins-Sahlin, USA
Atlantic City, Miguel Alvarez, USA
Being Keegan, Stephanie Zari, UK
Between Seconds, Nora Jaenicke, USA
Black People Are Dangerous, Donaldo Prescod, USA Blood Wolf, Diana Cignoni, USA
Brooklynn, Charles A. Mysak, USA
Cake, Anne Hu, USA
Casting, Katarzyna Iskra, Poland
Choke Artist, Melanie Notinger, USA
Compliance, John Michael Kennedy, USA
Cross My Heart, Sontenish Myers, Jamaica/USA Death Metal Grandma, Leah Galant, USA Disconnect, Oisin Byrne, UK
e.ro.sion, noun, Catriona Rubenis-Stevens, USA
En Route, Pamela Harris, USA
Fall Repeat, Elise Sievert Bhushan, USA
Fanman’s Basement, Drew Lewis, USA
Feng Shui, Nada Stjepanovic, USA
Glass Bubble Project, Fernando Lopez, USA
Greater Good, Andrea Ashton, USA
Hair Wolf, Mariama Diallo, USA
Head Above Waer, Eric Shahinian, USA
Hiatus, Kevin Haefelin, Switzerland
Kent Stays In The Woods, Jackson Devereux, USA Laboratory Conditions, Jocelyn Stamat, USA
Layam, Assaf Machnes, Israel
Lemon, Timothy Michael Cooper, USA
Lonesome Willcox, Ryan Maxey, Zack Wright, USA Loser Leaves Town, Mark Nickelsburg, USA
Marital Arts, Anthony Marinelli, USA
Men Don’t Whisper, Jordan Firstman, USA Missed Connection, Nikolai, Basarich, USA Mississippi Minute, PJ Leonard, USA Native, Linda Bhreathnach, Ireland
Nobody Loves Me, Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman, USA/Colombia One Day Home, Drew Denny, USA
Options, Michael Wooldridge, USA
Ovum, Cidney Hue, USA
Peach and Cherry, Noah LePage, France/USA Piano, Brendan Walsh, USA
Premonicion, Leticia Akel Escarate, Chile Refugee Wave, Jane Chow, USA
Rooftops Of My City, Maya Jasmin, USA
Sam Did It, Dominic Burgess, USA
See Ya, Brusi Olason, Iceland
Space/Time Conundrum, Fernando Lopez, USA Still Water Runs Deep, Abbesi Akhamie, Nigeria Stronger Together, Stacey Maltin, USA Suddenly, Banana, Debby Caplunik, USA/Israel The 5th Stage, Luke Searles, USA
The Dollmaker, Al Lougher, USA
The Driver Is Red, Randall Christopher, USA
The Game, Michael Cohn, USA
The Music Lesson, Adam Brown and Kyle Kelley, USA
The PA Stays In The Picture, Claire Dub and Arielle Apfel, USA
The Velvet Underground Played At My High School, Robert Pietri and Tony Jannelli, USA
Tide, Margarta F.A. Orkan, Norway
Tightheads, Tim Miller, USA
Tiphany, Justin Ferrato, USA
Twice Upon A Time, Vojin Vasovic, Canada
Unwelcome, Ida Theresa Myklebost, USA/Norway
Veronica, Reiko Aylesworth, USA
Wake The RIderless Horse, Michael Langman, USA
Yuna’s Lunch, MyeongJin Park, USA
Zoe+Ari, Rachael Meyers, USA
The Lighthouse International Film Festival was founded in 2008 by a collection of filmmakers, film critics and film industry professionals who share a passion for film and wanted to create an event aimed first and foremost at film enthusiasts. Taking place on Long Beach Island, NJ -- one of the East Coast's most popular surfing destinations -- the festival celebrates three days of new, exciting and challenging films in honor of Long Beach Island's historic Barnegat Lighthouse