Local film premieres at the Orlando Film Festival | community

Local film premieres at the Orlando Film Festival | community

The family-friendly feature film, A Small Town Nutcracker Story, has been selected to screen at the Orlando Film Festival this month. Written and choreographed by Wild Rivers Dance owner, Sky-Marie MacDonald, directed by New York cinematographer, Robert Douthat, and produced by Wild Rivers Coast Foundation for Dance, the film has already taken awards for best first time director of a feature (New York Cinematography Awards), along with best cinematography and best feature film (Pure Magic International Film Festival).

Shot in some of the area’s most scenic locations, from Pistol River to Stout Grove in the Redwoods, director of photography, Bryan Wolfinger, and sound engineer, Liam Fox O’Brien, help create a sense of magic with the local cast and the Wild Rivers Dance Company.

Sarai Ell plays the lead, Rosie, a young dancer who has been preparing for her first Nutcracker performance. Jack Sorenson plays her brother, a teen who is disillusioned by the reality of the pandemic.

Their parents, (Chris Ell and Annemarie Berg), are doing the best they can to hold things together. But when the annual Nutcracker performance is canceled due to COVID, something unexpected occurs, leading the Nutcracker, (Korinne Luis) and Clara (Meriwether McDonald) on a journey where everyone must learn to navigate new territory.

Now in its 17th year showcasing the best in new independent cinema from around the globe, the Orlando Film Festival has been named one of the Top-25 “Coolest Film Festivals in the World” by Moviemaker Magazine. This year, OFF will host an immersive eight -day experience that includes more than 350 films along with industry panels and workshops, all geared to the 300+ indie filmmakers.

With an expected audience of 12,000, the festival will culminate in an award ceremony, with prizes valued at more than $1 million. A Small Town Nutcracker Story has been supported through grants by the Oregon Cultural Trust, the Curry County Cultural Coalition and Allcare Health. Major donors include Ione Trapp, Amanda McVey, the Ell Family, David Brock Smith and Sarah Racho.

Many thanks to Stephanie Gorman and Brenda and Cliff Dodson who helped house the film crew and to those who helped with filming on location–The Whaley Family, Coreen Smith/First Rise Bakery, Jessica Kuskie/Cosmic Grind Coffee, Summer Thompson/ Brookings Blooms, and Kyle Aubin/Tidewinds Sportfishing.

Hurt in an accident? Get the help you need instantly by calling 888-577-5988

The post Local film premieres at the Orlando Film Festival | community first appeared on Daily Florida Press.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Committee week in Florida’s Capitol: Welcome to the festival of ignorance

Image
Legislators came to town for the autumn ritual of political harlotry they call “committee week.” Tallahassee’s collective IQ dropped by a good 60 points. That’s bad, but what they propose doing to Florida is worse. Seems Sen. Joe Gruters, R-$ara$ota, who also is chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, was intimately involved with a plot to quash the Democratic vote. Remember that “ voting reform ” bill the governor signed on “Fox and Friends” last May? The one that restricts access to ballot drop-boxes, limits vote-by-mail applications, forbids giving people standing in long lines a bottle of water, and lets partisan poll watchers police canvassing boards? Even though Florida ran an immaculate election in 2020, Republicans goose-stepped in time with the Madman of Mar-a-Lago and claimed with straight faces they merely wanted to prevent election “fraud” — which is about as common as polar bears in Miami. (What fraud there was, was courtesy of the GOP .) Joe Gruters ...
Read more

U.S. House GOP would make it easier for feds to give public lands away to states

Image
U.S. House Republicans included in the new rules for the chamber they passed this month a provision meant to make it easier for Congress to give away public lands. The provision is a fairly technical piece of the 55-page  rules package . It affects internal House accounting and requires that anytime Congress were to give any federal lands to a state, municipality or tribe, it would not be counted as a loss to the federal budget. House Republicans had an identical rule when they controlled the chamber from 2017 to 2019. Advocates and critics agree the measure would be helpful to any effort by the House to transfer federal lands to states. But they disagree about the wisdom of such giveaways. Republicans and conservative groups see states as preferable stewards of most public lands. Those closest to the land are in a better position to make decisions on how to manage them than those in Washington bureaucracies, they say. Environmental groups and Democrats see federal divest...
Read more

Democratic governors press U.S. Senate to act on voting rights legislation

Image
WASHINGTON — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and 16 other Democratic governors are urging the U.S. Senate to pass two bills that aim to protect voting rights. Both measures need 60 votes to advance under Senate rules but have been stalled by Republican opposition in the evenly divided Senate. “Without decisive action by the federal government this year to protect voters’ access to the ballot and ensure the integrity and transparency of our elections, the voices of Americans across the country, especially Americans of color, will be suppressed,” the governors wrote in a Monday  letter  to U.S. Senate leadership. Governors who signed the letter include Jared Polis of Colorado, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Steve Sisolak of Nevada, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Kate Brown of Oregon, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania and Tony Evers of Wisconsin, among others. One bill, known as the  John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2...
Read more