Utopia Film Festival Reaches 7th Heaven

The Seventh Annual Utopia Film Festival opens this weekend in Greenbelt with more than 40 film productions playing on Saturday and Sunday.

The list of contenders for the Seventh Annual Utopia Film Festival includes these buzz-makers and more:

• “At the End of Slavery,” will play, narrated by Danny Glover. With undercover footage and first-person testimony from former slaves, the film goes inside the violent and ugly business of slavery and human trafficking.
• “Puker,” will take viewers inside the world of a northern Virginia skateboarding whiz who disappeared for 20 years before resurfacing. Tim "Puker" Whistler will be on hand for the showing. Stick around, because afterward he has plans to head out to the Greenbelt Skate Park. Whether he’ll skateboard for fans is up in the air.
• Keeping up its reputation for offering creepy Halloween fare, the festival will feature several horror films—including “Die Farbe,” hailing from Germany with subtitles and “The Hounds” from the UK.
• A shorts program for kids.
• “Breaking Through the Clouds,” which shows rare footage from the 1929 Women's National Air Derby, where pioneer women pilots came out in force to prove that women could be competitive, daring and good pilots. Among their ranks flew Amelia Earhart.
• "Worlds Apart," a short animation, part sci fi, part thriller and part cautionary fairytale—that festival submissions coordinator Mark Hildebrandt says has quality as high as a Pixar film.
• Blocks of short films for a blitz of shorts creativity.

Tickets can be purchased starting at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at the door of all venues—with cash or check. The festival venues are the at 25 Crescent Road and the at 123 Centerway Road. The cost is $5 for program block tickets or $25 for a festival pass. 

Susan Gervasi, the festival’s promotions chair, said she’s really excited about the films this year. “I think we have some extraordinary work from filmmakers locally and all over the country that represent what independent filmmaking is all about.”

With more than 40 films vying for recognition, picking four winners won't be easy. Stay tuned to see the films selected for—the Utopian Vision Award; Best Short Film Award; Ellie Award for Originality (in honor of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt) ; and Best Animation Award.

The festival will also include Docs in Progress on Saturday by executive director Greenbelter Erica Ginsberg, a free program where the audience gets to give feedback to the filmmakers who are screening documentaries they are working on. It’s in the Greenbelt Municipal Building from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Utopia hosts a private filmmakers’ reception and several film showings on Friday. The festivals' primary sponsor is Greenbelt Access Television (GATE).

The public kickoff begins Halloween weekend on Saturday and Sunday, with a variety of film genres and styles scheduled to play in the Greenbelt Municipal Building and the Greenbelt Arts Center. Gervasi said at least half-a-dozen filmmakers will also be present at their film showings.

On Sunday night, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., festival goers will get a chance to see “The Best of Utopia” at Academy 8 Stadium Theaters in .