"Bouncing back from the low point of 2023, when the event was postponed for a year due to financial constraints, MdFF looks to continue growing its reach-a herculean effort in 2025 as arts institutions across the country are under attack by crackdowns in free speech and having their federal funding gutted. "We were awarded [an NEA] grant, then it was taken away," Nancy Proctor, the new executive director of the Parkway tells me. "It was awarded again, then the government shut down.""
"The government shutdown also affected the actual programming: festival director KJ Mohr was looking to show Lois Weber's silent film Hypocrites on 35mm with live accompaniment, but given the state of the archival print they decided to switch to a copy of Where Are My Children?, Weber's film from the following year. That print was housed by the Library of Congress and became completely inaccessible during the shutdown, forcing them to go back to Hypocrites, this time playing a DCP of Kino Lorber's restoration."
The 26th Maryland Film Festival solidified a new direction after a 2023 postponement caused by financial constraints. Federal funding disruptions and a government shutdown affected programming and archival access, including an NEA grant awarded, rescinded, and complicated by the shutdown. Festival programming adapted: plans to screen Lois Weber's Hypocrites on 35mm shifted to a DCP restoration after archival prints became inaccessible. Hypocrites connects historically with the Parkway, which opened in 1915. CineTech expanded to include video games, VR, AR, and expanded cinema and will have a growing year-round presence at the Parkway. Parkway renovation plans include equipment replacement and added live accompaniment capabilities.
#maryland-film-festival #parkway-theatre #lois-weber-hypocrites #cinetech--vr--expanded-cinema #federal-funding--nea
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