ALMetro 360 Magazine

A WarmWelcome Awaits at the Fairhope Film Festival L OCATED AT THE GEOGRAPHIC CENTER OF A MERICA ’ S G ULF C OAST , THE QUAINT , BEAUTIFUL AND HISTORIC BAYSIDE CITY OF F AIRHOPE , A LABAMA IS HOME TO THE F AIRHOPE F ILM F ESTIVAL . F AIRHOPE WAS FOUNDED AS A NINETEENTH CENTURY UTOPIAN EXPERIMENT . I T HAS FLOURISHED AS AN ART COMMUNITY FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS . airhope Film Festival began seven years ago in Mary Riser’s garage. Mary had screened films at US- ABC for 14 years prior, 24 films a year as a film series. But, because Fairhope is such a special (and artistic) place, she and some friends decided it was time to step up and start a full blown film festival. With a committee of 25 dedicated film-lovers, they got started and things have only been getting better ever since. The Fairhope FilmFestival is a film lover’s event held in lovely November weather (the second Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sun- day). This year’s festival will be held No- vember 14th through the 17th. It begins with an outdoor showing of the opening night film at the local amphitheater. There are five venues, all within walking distance around downtown Fairhope where each fall the festival screens 40 feature length films, both American and interna- tional, documentary and narrative. In- cluded with the festival are 20-30 amazing short films. The programmers travel to fes- tivals around the country and Canada to find the “Best of the Best” films and only include award winners. Submissions are ac- cepted on short films only. During the festival there are panels and talks by well-known filmmakers (for exam- ple: Talia Shire, Paul Sorvino, and Michael O’Neill, to name a few) and others you will want to know. There is a big street party, The Red Carpet Party, which this year has a casino night theme because it’s Lucky Year Number Seven. Wind Creek will be there as well as Interstellar Beer and the Journey2Mars Band. n Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter 0CTOBER 2019 27 th Annual Day s Fi lms Downt own Fai rhope , AL 7 40 4 F