To the Editor:
Recently I read of West Tisbury folks attending a selectmen’s meeting to discuss the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival’s purchase of 12 acres of land in the town. The lot to be purchased is off Old County Road. I live off Old County Road. I couldn’t attend the meeting; if there, I would have spoken to the positive.
The new and permanent home of MVFF will be a gift to West Tisbury and to the Island. The MVFF has for 16 years contributed mightily to the educational, communal, intellectual, and creative avenues built for the public on Martha’s Vineyard. This nonprofit organization has proved itself to be dedicated to the Island community and to Island children. I wonder how many of us are aware of the ongoing work of the MVFF within our schools. Here’s a sampling for your consideration.
Reel Diversity at the West Tisbury School: The MVFF works to empower youth to become critical thinkers.
Animation in the Chilmark School: The head of the school, Susan Stevens, approached the MVFF about creating a filmmaking project to explore the issue of bullying.
Preschools: At the Oak Bluffs and Chilmark libraries, MVFF offers film literacy classes for preschool-age children to provide them with experience decoding and interpreting film.
Filmmaking in the West Tisbury School: The MVFF collaborated with ArtFarm Enterprises to create a theater and filmmaking workshop for fourth grade students that was rooted in their language arts and science curricula.
Filmmaking Camp: Where kids can make a movie and run a circus in one week.
Cinema Circus: Produces family events engaging children with films, discussion, and activities that promote film literacy and community interaction.
Professor Projector: a fun, silly, instructive video character (a production of MVFF) who teaches kids about green screens, special effects, sound tracks, stop-motion animation, and transitions.
And that’s just for our children and their schools. We adults see stimulating films, participate in post-film discussions, listen to special guest speakers, enjoy live yet quiet music and eat lovely food while sitting on straw and sipping hot coffee or chilled white wine. To provide such amenities, the proposed building will need a kitchen (as was provided in the Chilmark Center) and will need to provide parking (as the Ag Hall does, albeit on a much larger scale). During the many evenings over the past decade that I’ve spent at the MVFF, I don’t remember any raucous events. If there were some wild goings-on, I’m sorry I missed them.
The MVFF needs a permanent home. Sometimes new is good.
Valentine Estabrook
West Tisbury
