Maryland Film Festival

T he party had all the makings of a Hollywood A-list affair: a red carpet with reporters and photographers corralled behind velvet ropes, famous directors and lots of local glitterati. However, this event was in Baltimore. And all about Baltimore. Baltimore-based filmmakers John Waters and Barry Levinson , as well as "The Wire" creator David Simon , were the guests of honor at the Maryland Film Festival's second fundraiser. Although the evening's main event would be an open conversation among the three - moderated by TCM's Elvis Mitchell - a couple of hundred folks had paid top dollar to mingle with the Baltimore favorites at a dinner reception beforehand.

Katherine L. Vaughns, a University of Maryland School of Law professor and secretary of the Center Stage board who immersed herself in the arts community, died of pancreatic cancer May 4 at a Sinai Hospital hospice unit. The Bolton Hill resident was 68. "She was a great, great citizen of Baltimore," said Jed Dietz, director of the Maryland Film Festival. "We dedicated the opening night of the Maryland Film Festival to her. She was the most perfect board member. She did more than you asked, often before you asked.

It used to be that the Maryland Film Festival was just a cool neighborhood event for Courtney Knipp - a bunch of obscure movies being shown just up the street from her home in Mount Vernon. Not anymore, not with thousands of film fans massing in and around the Charles Theatre , watching movies - 127 this year - - and comparing notes with hundreds of filmmakers from all over the world. This tiny corner of the Station North Arts District becomes the center of the film universe for one weekend every May. And that is so cool by Knipp.

It used to be that the Maryland Film Festival was just a cool neighborhood event for Courtney Knipp - a bunch of obscure movies being shown just up the street from her home in Mount Vernon. Not anymore, not with thousands of film fans massing in and around the Charles Theatre , watching movies - 127 this year - - and comparing notes with hundreds of filmmakers from all over the world. This tiny corner of the Station North Arts District becomes the center of the film universe for one weekend every May. And that is so cool by Knipp.

For five days ending Sunday, thousands of film fans and scores of filmmakers watched movies together at the 15th Maryland Film Festival. From three-minute comedic shorts promoting horror films to gripping documentaries about the rise of Napster and cutting-edge narrative features about the relationship between a teacher and one of her students, the festival offered local cineastes the chance to lose themselves in the boundless possibilities of film....

The 14 t h Maryland Film Festival proved the most popular yet, with ticket sales up from 5 to 10 percent daily and advance sales up more than 25 percent, according to festival officials. The four-day festival, which ran through Sunday at the Charles Theatre , MICA's Brown Center and the Wind-Up Space, included 22 sold-out screenings, MFF director Jed Dietz said. People had to be turned away from the John Waters pick, "Wanda," the set-in-Baltimore "LUV" and the closing night local premiere of Todd Solondz's "Dark Horse," among other films.

Baltimore films, rock documentaries, movies from Thailand and Portugal and one described as a "stylish gangster thriller from the Democratic Republic of Congo" are just a few of the films that will play at this year's Maryland Film Festival, which announced a partial list of its lineup Tuesday. Overall, 115 or so features and short films will be played at the festival, which runs May 5-8 at The Charles Theatre and several locations in the city, said the festival's director, Jed Dietz.

In one day at this year's Maryland Film Festival, you can see a Cannes Palme d'Or winner, like Thai director Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul's "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," and watch a homegrown documentary, like Ramona Diaz's "The Learning,' about Filipino women recruited to teach in the Baltimore school system. "One of the exciting things I've noticed this year is that, simultaneous to the festival's continued growth into international cinema, we're also seeing an explosion of world-class filmmaking here in Baltimore," said programming director Eric Hatch.

Station North was abuzz with thousands of cinema addicts and more casual moviegoers this past weekend, for the 14th annual Maryland Film Festival. The Festival brought some 100 films and an even higher number of filmmakers to the neighborhood. As always, the Charles Theatre was the hub for the action, which included favorites such as a screening with devious filmmaker John Waters, and newer fare such as a disturbing flick starring a 12-year-old. Festival director Jed Dietz, who's seen attendance at his annual event grow every year, said he was surprised by the adventurousness of the crowd.

Baltimorean Matt Porterfield's "Hamilton" received its East Coast premiere at the Maryland Film Festival and became a breakaway critical success just a few years ago. Now he's being heralded as a standout director in a rising generation of groundbreaking moviemakers. Greta Gerwig, who had festival fun at the Charles Theatre while promoting the no-budget "mumblecore" films "LOL" and "Nights and Weekends," currently stars with Ben Stiller at the Charles in "Greenberg," the season's most acclaimed and high-profile comedy.

For five days ending Sunday, thousands of film fans and scores of filmmakers watched movies together at the 15th Maryland Film Festival. From three-minute comedic shorts promoting horror films to gripping documentaries about the rise of Napster and cutting-edge narrative features about the relationship between a teacher and one of her students, the festival offered local cineastes the chance to lose themselves in the boundless possibilities of film....

Lotfy Nathan spent some five years putting together his film about West Baltimore's dirt-bike culture. Now, with national acclaim for "12 O'clock Boys" promising to turn it into one of the year's breakout documentaries after a February premiere at the South by Southwest arts festival in Austin, Texas, he's happily basking in the acclaim. "The reception in Austin was incredible," Nathan said last week from Toronto, where the film was being shown at the annual Hot Docs festival. "It was more than I could have asked for. " This week, a distribution deal with independent film distributors Oscilloscope Laboratories safely in hand, the Maryland Institute College of Art -educated Nathan is bringing his film home.

Joe Tropea thought he was writing a research paper on the Catonsville Nine, a group of Catholic anti-war activists who set draft records ablaze outside a Selective Service office in 1968. But what he was really working on was a movie script. "I just got hooked on telling the story," Tropea says of the six-year film project, undertaken with co-director Skizz Cyzyk, that will be getting its local premiere during this week's 15th Maryland Film Festival. The festival starts Wednesday and runs through Sunday.

Every spring, the Maryland Film Festival takes over Station North, drawing thousands to the Charles Theatre and nearby blocks. Since 2008, a smaller, more experimental video exhibit has run the same weekend inside the Metro Gallery - across the street from the Charles. Called Videopolis, it showcases features which don't meet traditional formats, according to 35-year-old curator Guy Werner. We caught up with Werner, who is married to Metro Gallery founder Sarah M. Werner, and talked about RVs and old TVs. Worst pet peeve?

A dozen films to be shown at this year's Maryland Film Festival have ties to Baltimore or Maryland — a record number, organizers say. Here are some of the highlights: "12 O'Clock Boys" Maryland Institute College of Art grad Lotfy Nathan's documentary follows a teenager nicknamed Pug as he tries to get in good with the West Baltimore dirt-bike gang that gives the film its title. The film, Nathan's first, was a big hit at this year's South by Southwest festival. 7 p.m. Friday (MICA's Brown Center)

A request by the former owner of the Parkway Theatre for a new condemnation trial was denied Tuesday by Maryland's high court . A&E North LLC argued that the city should have paid to remove “automobile parts and other assorted junk” stored in the theater before the start of the 2010 condemnation trial. During the trial, jurors would tour the property to determine its fair market value and A&E “hoped the theater would show better without the junk” - thereby resulting in a larger “just compensation” award for the city's taking of the property.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the Baltimore Development Corp. have selected the Maryland Film Festival's proposal for the renovation of the historic Parkway Theatre at 3 W. North Ave., according to an official who spoke Thursday morning at the BDC's monthly board meeting. The city hopes to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Film Festival shortly, said Darrell Doan, a BDC staffer who manages the corporation's real estate transactions. The Film Festival is partnering with the Maryland Institute College of Art and Johns Hopkins University on their proposal for the Parkway.

A slimmed-down Edna Turnblad shared the stage with her creator, John Waters, last night, much to the delight of scores of star-crazed fans. Well, it wasn't exactly Edna, the zaftig stage mom from Waters' "Hairspray," who took to the stage at the Maryland Institute College of Art . Rather, it was actor John Travolta, who brought Edna to the big screen in the 2007 musical version of Waters' film, up there on the stage. But the crowd embraced him like one of their own. "You've always been my favorite actor," one fan said from the audience, noting that she spent her teen years with pictures of Travolta plastered to her wall.