Kerry Kazokas, a respected local artist, teacher, actor and filmmaker will share her experiences as a screenwriter and film director on Sunday, December 12, from 4:30 to 6:00 PM at the Pioneer Valley Regional School’s Kiva Auditorium. Her talk is the third in a series of presentations by local professional filmmakers, held this fall as part of the Transition Towns film project, “Envisioning Our Communities in 2030—Looking Back to Our Future.”

A PVRS graduate, Kazokas spent much of her childhood in Northfield. She plans to speak about the process of writing the screenplay, “Free to Fly”, which then led to co-directing and co-producing, with Michael Schena, the film with a local production company, Northern Lights. Kazokas will elaborate on the process of character and story development and will discuss, from an artistic perspective, the importance of camera angles and shots to effectively create the tone of the story. Additionally, she will talk about engaging local talent and working with a “zero budget project.”

The local professional filmmaker series is sponsored by the Northfield and Warwick Transition Towns, Bernardston Northfield Community Television (BNC-TV), and the Pioneer Valley Institute. Following this filmmakers series, in early 2011 a new series of “Tools of the Trade” video training workshops will be conducted by BNC-TV to teach budding filmmakers, of all ages, how to shoot and edit video films. In late spring 2011, participants may choose to enter a local film festival planned by the sponsors. BNC-TV will provide free use of video equipment and technical support throughout the project. Film Festival entries will relate an element of life in their community’s history to new
ideas and practices that will help the communities become economically and environmentally sustainable over the next 20 years. The film festival committee is available to answer questions and provide information about film entry guidelines. Volunteers from the community are encouraged to get involved and share resources, guidance or expertise. For more information, contact the Film Festival Committee: Judy Phillips, 978.544.2653 judy-dharma@crocker.com or Sue Ross, 413.498.2700 suross@comcast.net.

Local filmmaker Steve Alves will be speaking at the Pioneer Valley Regional School on Wednesday, November 10, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. The talk is part of a series of presentations featuring local filmmakers being held this fall.Alves is a documentary filmmaker who owns his own film production company. His films focus on  intergenerational ties and the role of community in American life. They have been featured in dozens of film festivals and have won numerous awards.  His talk will feature highlights from “Where We Live,” his collection of six films about the culture, landscape, economy, and people of western Massachusetts. Currently Alves is working on a documentary about the history of the cooperative movement in the United States and the role that food co-ops play in the creation of regional food systems.

The local filmmaker series is sponsored by the Northfield Town Transition Group, Bernardston-Northfield Community Television, and the Pioneer Valley Institute. In addition to hearing from local filmmakers about their work, the talks are an opportunity to learn about upcoming video training workshops and about how to make films and enter them into a local film festival. Anyone living in the Northern Pioneer Valley is encouraged to participate by creating a short film that depicts some element of historic life in their community that we can learn from in order to become economically and environmentally sustainable over the next 20 years. A local film festival featuring these films will take place in 2011. BNCTV will be providing free use of video equipment and technical support throughout the project and will provide assistance with filming and editing. The film festival committee will be available to asnwer questions and provide information about film entry guidelines. Volunteers from the community are encouraged to get involved and share resources, guidance or expertise.

For more information, contact the Film Festival Committee: Judy Phillips, 978.544.2653 judy-dharma@crocker.com or Sue Ross, 413.498.2700 suross@comcast.net