May 13, 2008
IN BRIEF: TOURISM, FILM AND THE ARTS NEWS

Maryland Film Festival wraps up successful weekend

Though final figures are not yet available, pre-event sales for the tenth annual Maryland Film Festival, May 1-4, were up 54 percent, according to Jed Dietz, director of the festival. Opening night tickets and all-access passes sold out, while “sales were up significantly during the festival,” he said.

“In a world full of film festivals,” he said, “this one is special - it's not about awards or the marketplace, it's about the movies and the people who make them. All the visiting filmmakers love being here.”

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Jack Gerbes, director of the Maryland Film Office – a founding sponsor of the festival – joined local filmmakers for a Tent Village panel discussion about Maryland and the movies. Tents were set up across the street from the Charles Theatre to accommodate ongoing free-admission events.

One of the films that sold-out, Gerbes said, was I.O.U.S.A. – a documentary about the federal deficit produced by Addison Wiggin, executive publisher at Agora Financial, located in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon section. Gerbes also mentioned John Water’s appearance as a guest host Friday evening as a festival highlight.

“Any film festival that has Barry Levinson hosting its opening night and ends with Melvin Van Peebles hosting a screening of his newest movie,” Dietz said, “has got to be doing something right.”