March 19-28—MIDDLEBURY—The exciting online monthly movie series Split/Screen resumes with its March edition, coming up March 19-28. Co-presented by the Vermont International Film Festival [VTIFF] and the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival [MNFF], Split/Screen will continue through June 2021, with each festival curating a selection of four films in alternating months. MNFF takes the wheel for Split/Screen March with a terrific mix of compelling documentaries and engaging dramas as spring draws ever nearer:
“The Dissident” — Director Bryan Fogel’s riveting documentary brilliantly details the shocking murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. An employee of the Washington Post, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2, 2018, simply seeking marriage-related documents, and never came out. The world subsequently learned that he had been brutally murdered that very same day.
“Some Kind of Heaven” — Referred to as the “Disneyland for retirees,” The Villages in central Florida, America’s largest planned retirement community, is home to over 130,000 seniors. It offers residents a utopian version of the American yesteryear: wide, safe streets, perfectly manicured lawns, and countless activities all to enhance the enjoyment of their golden years. While most residents have bought into The Villages’ packaged positivity, “Some Kind of Heaven” revolves around four residents living on the margins, striving to find happiness. Married couple Anne and Reggie wrestle with Reggie’s deteriorating grip on reality; Barbara, a widow, seeks second love; and Dennis, an 82-year-old bachelor living out of a van, looks for a way out of a peripatetic existence.
“The Climb” — Meet Kyle and Mike, best friends who share a close bond — until Mike sleeps with Kyle’s fiancée and then tells him about it amidst a rigorous bicycle ride in the French Alps. A most engaging comedic drama from director Michael Angelo Covino, “The Climb” is about a tumultuous but enduring relationship between two men across many years of laughter, heartbreak and rage. It is also the story of real-life best friends [the film’s director and producer] who turn their deep connection into a rich, humane and frequently uproarious film about the boundaries (or lack thereof) in all close friendships.
Imbuing traditional comic set-pieces – family Christmas, disastrous bachelor party, interrupted wedding – with genuine cinematic flair, “The Climb” expertly shifts gears between full-blooded slapstick and wince-inducing studies of romantic and fraternal relationships, which sometimes crash but always seem to find the friends getting back in the saddle.
“The Auschwitz Report” — This remarkable and challenging drama, from director Peter Bebjak, strikingly depicts the incredible true story of Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, a.k.a. Freddy and Walter, two young Slovak Jews who were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942. “The Auschwitz Report” is Slovakia’s candidate for the 93rd Academy Awards in the best international feature film category and this will be the Vermont and New Hampshire premiere of the film. At the distributor’s request, viewing will be limited to Vermont and New Hampshire-based audiences only.
Monthly passes for Split/Screen March are $40, entitling you to watch all four films this month, and individual tickets are $12.50. Both passes and tickets are on sale now at middfilmfest.org/split-screen. The films won’t be available on the portal until the morning of March 19 but the film descriptions and the trailers are up now.
