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GreaterUpperValley.com

Calling All Film Lovers To Billings Farm & Museum For Vermont Film Festival

Jan 03, 2024 01:12PM ● By Elise Renaud
To start the new year, the Vermont Film Festival will have three-weekend showings at Billings Farm & Museum. On Friday, January 13, and Saturday, January 14, Joan Baez: I Am a Noise will be showing starting at 3 pm. The film portrays the life and musical career of legendary folk singer/activist Joan Baez through the lens of the end of her career.

“Drawing from Baez’s extraordinary archive, filmmakers Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O’Boyle construct a deeply honest portrait of the living legend who was the voice of her generation, reflecting on her life on and off the stage, personal emotional struggles, and family secrets—revealing for the first time the full truth of her life,” the description reads.

On Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28, All That Breathes will be showing at 3pm. “In one of the world’s most populated cities, cows, rats, monkeys, frogs, and hogs jostle cheek-by-jowl with people. Here, two brothers fall in love with a bird—the black kite. From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement, the ‘kite brothers’ care for thousands of these mesmeric creatures that drop daily from New Delhi’s smog-choked skies. As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between this Muslim family and the neglected kite forms a poetic chronicle of the city’s collapsing ecology and rising social tensions,” the description reads.

On Friday, February 3 and Saturday, February 4, Joonam will be showing at 3pm. The film documents filmmaker Sierra Urich embarking on a journey to learn more about her family roots in Iran. As she navigates barriers of language and culture, Urich turns to Mitra and Behjat to construct a portrait of three generations of women and their complex relationship to an Iran of the past. 

“Named for a Farsi term of endearment, Joonam is infused with humor and heart like only a film about family could be. Interrogating family history and memory, including her grandmother’s experiences as a preteen bride and her mother’s rebellious teenage years during the Iranian Revolution, Sierra Urich constructs a rich, personal film that poignantly reflects the experiences of the Iranian diasporic community and speaks to anyone affected by the dislocation that accompanies immigration,” the description says.

Tickets are $15 per person per film or $12 per Billings Farm member per film.

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