Now in its eleventh year, the Southeast New England (SENE) Film, Music & Arts Festival will run from May 15 through May 18 at multiple venues in Rhode Island.
The Festival will showcase 127 films from filmmakers across the country and around the world, live music, and art exhibits.
One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the feature film “Guest Artist”, written by and starring Jeff Daniels and directed by Timothy Busfield. “Guest Artist” is the story of a young man coming face to face with his hero (Jeff Daniels) and exploring the tangled relationship between the dreams of youth and the wisdom of age.
Narrative features with Rhode Island connections include “Oildale” by director David Mueller, about homeless veterans finding family as they rent rooms from an eighteen-year-old girl struggling to support her thirteen-year-old brother while discovering her voice in Americana music.
The film features a music performance by Rhode Island native Grant Maloy Smith. “The Wrong Todd”, by Rhode Island director Rob Schulbaum, tells the story of Todd, who faces losing everything after his evil twin from a parallel universe arrives to steal his girlfriend.
In the horror feature “Tear Us Apart”, written by Rhode Island screenwriter John Kelley and directed by Devin Clarke, a young couple is taken to a cottage in the woods for counseling following the disappearance of their daughter and struggle to identify what’s real and what is a figment of their mental recovery.
Documentary features include “Boom”, which tells the untold story of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s wildest and most influential bands, The Sonics, and “Coalesce: A City Composed”, where a visual artist and a musician search for beauty and inspiration in the alleyways, intersections, power lines, and utility poles of a sprawling desert city.
Over the course of the four-day festival, SENE will screen 17 short film programs featuring drama, comedy, animated, documentary, LGBT, sci-fi, and horror programs.
Included in these programs are 20 short films from local area filmmakers.
Screenings will be held in the Columbus Theatre and Brooklyn Coffee House in Providence, the Jamestown Arts Center, and the Warwick Center for the Arts.
Tickets to most film screenings and events are $10 and are available at the door. $25 passes are available which allow access to unlimited film programs during the festival. Festival passes and tickets to select film programs are available in advance online.
Visit www.senefest.com for complete program information.