2012 Festival
2011 Festival
2010 Festival
2009 Festival
2011 Festival


Schedule of Events                                                                                   

2011 Film Awards 
2011 Feature Film Descriptions 
2011 Documentary Film Descriptions
2011 Short Film Descriptions





  View/download Program Grid





Tickets for all events and film screenings may be purchased at the venue box office.
No advanced ticket purchases necessary, but please arrive early for films for best seating.

Many screenings are expected to sell out. Please arrive early.
Box office opens 30 minutes before first screening of the day.

Wednesday, April 6

Opening Night Party & Art Exhibit

» PeaceLove Studios, 200 Main St., Unit 3, Pawtucket, RI 02860  map
(free parking in lots behind building)

6:00 pm to 11:00 pm (doors open at 5:30)

Admission is $10 (free for members)
Includes free hors d'oeuvres and dessert by Chelo's, complimentary beer by Magic Hat and complimentary wine.

Bring a non-perishable food item for the RI Community Food Bank and receive a free ticket to any SENE festival film screening.  Limit one per person.


SENE kicks off this year's festival with a lively event featuring an artists reception, live musiic, an artistic film showcase and a special preview of coming attractions.

Artists Reception
Artists include Ray Almstrom, Joanne Thorne Arnold, Mark Aubrey, Larisa Colantonio, Roon Das, Nancy Ferrante, Nan Hass Feldman, Jay Gidwitz, Viktoria A. Mullin, Sabra Park, John Pitocco, Veeda Rubio, Miles Small and Ellen Salter Wallstrom.


Artistic Film Showcase
This hour-long film program includes A Sand Grain's Dream, Come & Go: with apologies to Samuel Beckett, Punctum, ATR 1, A City Symphony Underground and (Black) Light.  Filmmakers from (Black) Light and A City Symphony Underground in attendance.   Short Film Descriptions


Live Music Performances          View musician bios

            
    Sarah Ann McGinnis               Lindsay Adler                  Allysen Callery                 Pat & Sarah Tallarico


Thursday, April 7

Film Screenings

Tickets for all events and film screenings may be purchased at the venue box office.
No advanced ticket purchases necessary, but please arrive early for films for best seating.

Many screenings are expected to sell out.  Please arrive early.
Box office opens 30 minutes before first screening of the day.


» Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main St, Providence, RI  map

4:00 pm   Thinking Through the Drink  (free program)                        
Encore presentation of the student films created for the "Stay on the SENE...live well, drive safe, be creative!" program.  Preceded by the 30 minute behind the scenes documentary "Thinking Through the Drink".             more info


5:30 pm   Thompson Chemical                                                              Documentary Descriptions

January 12th, 1964, Thompson Chemical Plant in Attleboro, MA exploded killing seven people. The story of Thompson Chemical is not a single strand that runs in a simple, straight line from beginning to end because the story of Thompson Chemical is not about an event, but rather it's about people and their individual reactions to the tragedy of the explosion.

Filmmakers in attendance for Q&A.




7:00 pm   The Frost  website & trailer                                                  Feature Film Descriptions

After the accidental death of their only son, Rita and Alfred feel such remorse that they engage in a fierce fight of mutual destruction. Guilt confronts them with a painful recognition: obsessed by their selfish little needs, they forgot to love their son. As truth is revealed all their inner demons are unleashed and they desperately try to make amends for all those things they left undone in the past.





9:00 pm   Friends and Lovers  website & trailer                                    Feature Film Descriptions

Sometimes the Heart Needs a Mechanic. After a failed relationship with a waitress, a young gay man is challenged by his love for a straight mechanic.








Friday, April 8

Film Screenings

Tickets for all events and film screenings may be purchased at the venue box office.
No advanced ticket purchases necessary, but please arrive early for films for best seating.

Many screenings are expected to sell out.  Please arrive early.
Box office opens 30 minutes before first screening of the day.



» Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main St, Providence, RI  map
  
3:30 pm   Documentary Shorts (free screening)                                 Documentary Descriptions

3:30  Rapping in Tehran

4:00  Mezzanotte Obscura

4:30  Haiti: Triumph, Sorrow and the Struggle of a People

Filmmakers from Mezzanotte Obscura and Haiti: Triumph, Sorrow and the Struggle of a People  in attendance for Q&A.



5:30 pm  Documentary Program                                                      Documentary Descriptions

5:30  We Were the Vanquished
 
6:10  In the Footsteps of Elie Weisel

Filmmakers from We Were the Vanquished  and In the Footsteps of Elie Weisel will be in attendance for Q&A.



Many screenings are expected to sell out.  Please arrive early.

7:30 pm  I.M. Caravaggio   website & trailer                                        Feature Film Descriptions

When life imitates art there are killer consequences. Set in the seedy and rarely photographed ghetto of Las Vegas known as 'Naked City', witness the rise and fall of a modern day Master, Ian Milano, who works and lives as 17th Century Italian Painter Caravaggio in order to forge his artistic genius and unlock his own sociopathic nature. Gods and saints: the subjects. Beggars and prostitutes: the models. 'I am an orphan. I am a drunk. I am a murderer. I.M. Caravaggio.'  Filmmaker in attendance for Q&A.






9:30 pm  Falling Overnight   website & trailer                                      Feature Film Descriptions

The day before twenty-two year old Elliot has surgery to remove a brain tumor, he meets Chloe, a young photographer who takes him on an exhilarating journey through what could be his last night.









Music Video Competition

» Fat Belly's Pub-Providence (upstairs), 125 Canal St, Providence, RI  map

9:00 pm  Music Video Competition (free screening)                          Short Film Descriptions

 An exciting mix of independent music videos from around the world. 

Vote for the Audience Award for Best Music Video.

Filmmakers from Closer, Winterthru and The Demon in attendance for Q&A.

Sponsored by Narragansett Beer

Saturday, April 9

Film Screenings

Tickets for all events and film screenings may be purchased at the venue box office.
No advanced ticket purchases necessary, but please arrive early for films for best seating.

Many screenings are expected to sell out.  Please arrive early.
Box office opens 30 minutes before first screening of the day.



» Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main St, Providence, RI  map

» Chace Center (Metcalf Auditorium) - RISD Museum of Art, 20 North Main St, Providence, RI  map

Film venues are on Main St. within a 5 minute walk from each other


12:00 pm  Animated Shorts - Cable Car Cinema                                Short Film Descriptions


This hour-long program includes a wide variety of genres and animation styles.  Program includes Bait, Black Box, Denmark, Surviving Hunger, The Machine, Thought of You, Factory Girl, Trees and Adveniat Regnum Meum.  

Filmmakers from Black Box in attendance for Q&A.





1:30 pm  Short Film Program I - Cable Car Cinema                            Short Film Descriptions


Program includes Broken Hart, Conquests, The Broken Heart of Gnocchi Bolognese, Quarter 'til Two and Swimming.

Filmmakers from Broken Hart and Swimming in attendance for Q&A.




Many screenings are expected to sell out.  Please arrive early.

3:30 pm  Short Film Program II - Cable Car Cinema                            Short Film Descriptions


Program includes A Step in the Wrong Direction, Duet, Hands of the Nocturnal Clock, Spin and Red Princess Blues.

Filmmakers from A Step in the Wrong Direction, Duet, Hands of the Nocturnal Clock and Spin in attendance for Q&A.






3:30 pm   Art Documentaries - Chace Center     website and trailer      Documentary Descriptions

Hidden Treasures: Stories from a Great Museum
Last year over five million people visited the Metropolitan Museum. How many were able to find the secrets and powers hidden in the works of art? Museum staff reveal some of the magic they have discovered. Their stories include a wish-granting statue, a sword with a secret compartment, a time traveling melody, a portrait that has become a trusted mentor, a famous landscape with an unexpected population, and the rooms where a dying woman found joy.   (Screens with Life Model and Philip Pearlstein: Naked Vision). 

Filmmakers from all three documentaries in attendance for Q&A.


Many screenings are expected to sell out.  Please arrive early.

5:15 pm   Give and Take (Music Documentary) - Cable Car Cinema          Documentary Descriptions

Offers an in-depth look at the diverse backgrounds and experiences of New York subway musicians. Contrasts the lives of a professor who auditions for a permit to play in the subway and a homeless man who puts an ad on Craigslist for a free guitar.  Through interviews and musical performances the story highlights the different perspectives the two men have on art and community.  Their story reminds us of the common need for humans to communicate and connect with each other.   Website

Filmmakers in attendance for Q&A.




5:30 pm  Regional Shorts (RI, CT, MA) - Chace Center                     Short Film Descriptions


Program includes The Phantom Pervert of Poquamuck, Bird Talk and There She Is...

Filmmakers from all three films in attendance for Q&A.





Many screenings are expected to sell out.  Please arrive early.

7:00 pm  The Bad Penny - Cable Car Cinema                                         Feature Film Descriptions

Undefeated boxer, Jack "The Ripper" Stemmons had his career destroyed by a St. Louis bookie. In a rage Jack attacks the gangster and is forced into hiding. Now, six years later, exiled in Bangkok, Jack is tracked down by a mysterious fight fan who lost everything on the rigged fight.

Filmmakers in attendance for Q&A.






7:00 pm  LGBT Shorts - Chace Center                                                  Short Film Descriptions


Program includes HIV: RI, Now & Forever, Broken Hart, Henry & Anthony and Candy Apple Red.

Filmmakers from HIV: RI, Now & Forever and Broken Hart in attendance for Q&A




Many screenings are expected to sell out.  Please arrive early.

8:45 pm  A Lonely Place for Dying - Chace Center     Website              Feature Film Descriptions

It is 1972. An abandoned Mexican prison sits alone in the dusty Chihuahua desert. KGB mole Nikolai Dzerzhinsky waits for his contact from the Washington Post. Dzerzhinsky holds explosive evidence against the CIA; information he will trade for asylum in the United States. Special Agent Robert Harper must obtain this evidence and kill Dzerzhinsky or risk the end of his CIA career. As the two men hunt each other they discover that the sins from their past destined them for this deadly confrontation.  Winner of 12 film festival awards including 7 for Best Picture.  




9:00 pm  Short Film Program III - Cable Car Cinema                               Short Film Descriptions


Program includes The Bully, Raspberry, Perspective, Ties and Afghan.

Filmmaker from Ties in attendance for Q&A.

Sunday, April 10

Closing Music & Poetry Event

» The Spot Underground, 15 Elbow St @ corner of Chestnut (Jewelry District), Providence, RI 02903  map

2:00 pm to 7:00 pm
$5 suggested donation
Refreshments provided, cash bar

The festival will wrap up with an exciting afternoon of music and poetry.  SENE will be welcoming New York musicians JeffersonThomas and Matthew Foster-Moore.  Also performing will be The Duende Project, Yunus Quddus, Melissa Guillet and Sarah Sapienza,  View performer bios

              


The evening concludes with a special Film Screening


5:30 pm   It's a Bash!    trailer                                                              Documentary Descriptions

An in-depth look at seminal Rhode Island punk rock band Neutral Nation, and, by extension, the Providence live music scene. Neutral Nation were an active band in the scene throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, filling local rock clubs like the Living Room and Club Babyhead, with rabid punk rock fans. Neutral Nation opened for many national acts as they passed through Providence, including the Dead Milkmen, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Ramones, before their 'retirement' in 1993. The band has since played a series of well-attended and regarded 'reunion' shows in the intervening years...Neutral Nation has been playing live music in Rhode Island for over 25 years!

Director David Bettencourt in attendance for Q&A.