November 2nd, 2024

Shirley Meeting House | 41 Brown Road, Shirley, MA

About Us

This community film festival at the Shirley Center Meeting House in central Massachusetts is a celebration of creativity, storytelling, art and music. We are delighted that this unique venue now offers an opportunity to enjoy and support both local and international film making.

Festival Producer, Nancy Beaudette, perhaps best know as a songwriter and performing artist, is also an accredited TV show producer. “StudioX-Pose Arts and Music” a series created and produced by Nancy ran throughout Ontario, Canada for three years, winning the “Cogeco Star Award – Entertainment Show of the Year” in its inaugural season. She also co-hosted the nationally broadcast show, “In Good Faith” for two years in Ottawa, Canada, with A-Channel Media. Nancy’s background in media production and community engagement drives her mission to connect diverse voices and audiences. Her enthusiasm for showcasing innovative work has made the festival a beloved event in the region, celebrating both emerging talent and established artists in the film industry.

FREE ADMISSION

(Cash donations to the Meeting House encouraged and appreciated!)

(Children must be accompanied by a parent at all times)

Light refreshments and snacks available for purchase
CASH ONLY

This historic building is best enjoyed with a cush for your tush

Shirley Film Fest is Sponsored by

2024 Festival Schedule

3:30 Music Videos / Short Films

Close to the Bone – Directed & Written by Ian Foster
A woman looks back on her life as a series of rooms. A film that melds a strong musical component with visuals, Close to the Bone is an inter-generational family story about illness, memory, and how one’s life feels both bigger and smaller as we move through time.

The Grateful Song – Directed by Nur Felix
Award-winning song of hope and love, produced with students at Manenberg Primary School near Cape Town, South Africa.

Lose This Number – Directed by Matthew Connor
Official music video for “Lose This Number,” the first single from Matthew Connor’s upcoming album Disappearances.

Company of Stones – Directed by Nancy Beaudette
A song about ancestry and the voices that linger beyond the grave. Filmed at Ross Errilly Friary in County Galway, Ireland.

4:10 Feature Silent Film

“Sherlock Jr” – 1924 Buster Keaton
with TAG VENNARD on Baby Grand Piano!
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend’s father’s pocket-watch.

5:30 Short Films

A Lovely Sight – Driected by Norah Laoui
The moment two people realize they have fallen in love.

We Gon’be alright – Directed by ACG影视动画
Wang Wei is a senior high school student. When he was about to face the college entrance examination, the boss of his uncle’s factory ran away.

Invisible – directed by Ryan Nunes
As she deals with the crushing weight of living with her chronic illness, Riley begins to reach her breaking point.

The Clunker – Directed by Robert Mattson
James sells used cars. Malcom is pushing his car into James’ lot. It happens every day in every city in America…but not quite like this.

Life Goes On – Directed by Hümam Özkara
A man sits at a cafe unaware he is in the courtyard of a mosque! All of a sudden, the Imam arrives and a funeral takes place.

Sisters – Directed by Norah Laoui
Two sisters reach a boiling point in their never-ending cycle of sibling bickering and arguing. Yet through the yelling, they start to learn more about the other.

Forgotten Fibre – Directed by Tristan Patrick Sherfield
Revealing wool’s forgotten potential in textiles, and the industry’s urgent need for sustainable solutions.

6:30 “Hunt for the Oldest DNA”
Feature Documentary Film

Directed by Niobe Thompson
(Sundance winner and double Emmy-nominated anthropologist and filmmaker)
Two decades ago, Eske Willerslev had a radical idea: Could DNA, the fragile chemical code of life, survive intact in frozen sediment for millennia? Fellow scientists called him crazy. But the Danish biologist set out to prove everybody wrong, and his perseverance paid off with a landmark breakthrough –with massive implications for how we understand the deep past.

8:00 “In The Whale”
Feature Documentary Film

Directed by David Abel
(Best New England Film-Mystic Film Festival, Audience Choice-New Hampshire Film Festival)
In the shark-filled waters off Cape Cod, Michael Packard has long tempted fate. In this award-winning feature-length film – arguably the greatest fish story ever told, the account of a man who survived to tell the tale of being swallowed by a whale, and what happened after he escaped.