Autumn has become the busiest season for film lovers in the country. Three festivals open within a month of each other, and for the first time all three are adding open-air screenings, with blankets, mulled cider and a sky that turns orange before the first reel. Here is what is worth your evening.
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The Elmbridge Open-Air Film Week, held in the town’s riverside park from the middle of the month, opens with The Salt Keepers, a quiet, beautifully shot documentary about the last family of oyster farmers on the Coastal Region’s northern shore. It is slow, but its final twenty minutes are among the most moving on any screen this year.
At the Port Alden Harbor Film Festival, the one ticket to fight for is Low Tide in October, the second feature from director Ines Kaur. A ferry captain and his estranged daughter are stuck together during a three-day storm, and the film turns that small premise into something funny, tense and warm.
Families should not miss Paper Lanterns, an animated story about a girl who makes a lantern for every person who has left her village. It screens in the afternoons at the Riverton Documentary and Animation Days, with a short workshop for children afterward.
Open-air screenings bring in people who would never buy a festival pass. Half of our audience last year had not been to a cinema in months.
Jonas Feld, program director of the Elmbridge Open-Air Film Week
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Not everything on the programs deserves your time. Iron Courier 3, the big action sequel chosen to close the harbor festival, is loud, long and remembers its plot only in the final scene. It reaches regular cinemas a week later anyway.
The much-hyped The Orchard at Westmoor, a period drama set in a country manor, looks stunning but never decides whether it is a romance or a murder mystery. Wait for it to arrive on a streaming service.
Practical tips
Open-air screenings start at dusk, which means a little earlier each week as the season goes on. Bring layers, a waterproof blanket and a flask. The Elmbridge screenings allow your own food, while the harbor site in Port Alden has food stalls only. Weekend shows tend to sell out, so book a weekday screening if you want a spot near the front.
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