Provincetown International Film Festival Announces Honorees and Opening Night Film

The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) has announced that Oscar-winning writer/director Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette) will be named the 2017 Filmmaker on the Edge. Coppola will be in attendance to accept the award in conversation with resident artist John Waters on Saturday, June 17, at Provincetown’s historic Town Hall.

Additionally, the festival announced that actress and director Chloë Sevigny  (Kids, Boys Don’t Cry, The Last Days of Disco) will receive the Excellence in Acting Award. Sevigny will accept in conversation with Eugene Hernandez, deputy director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and co-founder of Indiewire.

This year’s festival, which runs June 14 – 18 at various venues in Provincetown and Wellfleet, will open with the new film Mr. Roosevelt, written, directed by, and starring Noël Wells (Netflix’s Master of None). The comedy tells the story of a struggling comedian who returns to her college town of Austin, Texas, after a loved one falls ill, and must come to terms with her past while staying with her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend. Wells will be in attendance for the Opening Night Gala on Wednesday, June 14.

For information about the Festival or to purchase passes, visit ptownfilmfest.org. Individual tickets go on sale on May 22.

Cape Cod Festival of Arab & Middle Eastern Cinema Returns

The biennial Cape Cod Festival of Arab & Middle Eastern Cinema is back with four days of film in Chatham, Wellfleet, and Provincetown. This year’s festival runs May 4 – 7 and features an opening night reception and screening at the Chatham Orpheum Theater, 637 Main St., Chatham, as well as a closing night co-sponsored by WOMR (92.1 FM) Outermost Community Radio at WOMR Studios, 494 Commercial St., Provincetown. In between, there are three screenings at Wellfleet Preservation Hall, 335 Main St., Wellfleet. Films from Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, and the Arab diaspora are included, ranging from documentaries to comedies.

You’ll meet  Lebanese Muslims hilariously trying to work out their romantic entanglements without violating the rules of their faith on May 4; witness an Armenian-Syrian filmmaker in Aleppo filming the war from his window on May 5;  revisit the work of Iranian master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami with a special tribute on May 6; meet “the Egyptian John Stewart” trying to broadcast political satire in Cairo also on May 6; and listen to underground Arab musicians and artists talk about the power of the arts to bring about progressive change in the Arab world on May 7.

The Cape Cod Festival of Arab & Middle Eastern Cinema was founded in 2012 by Rebecca M. Alvin, an independent filmmaker, Associate Teaching Professor of film at The New School, and editor of Provincetown Magazine. The biennial festival celebrates the cinema of the Arab World and the Middle East, focusing on works made by filmmakers of Arab and/or Middle Eastern descent living around the world, with the goal of sharing films most Americans are unable to access and fostering cross cultural understanding by accentuating the ability of the cinema to generate empathy and dialogue. Now more than ever, the Festival is a great opportunity to experience the cultures of the Arab World and the Middle East and to recognize Arab-American filmmakers.

For information and trailers for all of the films, as well as tickets, visit capecodfilmsociety.com.

ACLU of Massachusetts Bill of Rights Dinner

In response to overwhelming demand, the ACLU of Massachusetts has added another ballroom for their annual Bill of Rights Dinner. The extended ballroom will be on the third floor of the Westin Hotel in Boston, one floor below the main ballroom. Dinner guests in the extended ballroom will enjoy dinner and view the program live on screen.

In addition to joining the general reception at 5:30 p.m., guests purchasing tickets for this extended ballroom are invited to a special reception at 6 p.m. with Khizr Khan.

ACLU of Massachusetts will honor Mr. Khan, a Gold Star father, lawyer, and civil liberties advocate who implored then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Democratic National Convention to read the United States Constitution and “look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law.’”

Also speaking is Mr. Charles Blow, an author and op-ed columnist at The New York Times. Mr. Blow’s column tackles critical issues such as racial equality, presidential politics, police violence and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The event is Monday, May 15 at 5:30 p.m. at the Westin Copley Place Hotel, 10 Huntington Ave., Boston. Tickets start at $200 and can be purchased at action.aclu.org/additionalseats. For additional information email [email protected] or visit aclum.org.