BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Retreat, in collaboration with the Flickers North Country Film Festival, will host a two-day festival of more than a dozen full-length features and film shorts at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery, 139 Main St., on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 1 and 2.
Proceeds from the event will be donated to the United Way of Windham County Irene Flood Relief Fund.
Anna's Vision Film Fest is named after Anna Hunt Marsh, the New Hampshire visionary who in 1834 founded the institution that is known today as the Brattleboro Retreat.
“In keeping with the Brattleboro Retreat's ongoing commitment to the humane and dignified treatment of people with mental illness and addiction, film themes will center on explorations of the challenges and triumphs of life,” organizers write.
The event coincides with the start of Mental Health Awareness Month in October.
It is presented in collaboration with the Flickers North Country Film Festival, under the direction of George Marshall.
Marshall is also director of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, an Academy Award qualifying festival.
Representing an array of full-length features and short films, screenings will take place on Saturday, starting at 1 and 7:30 p.m., and on Sunday afternoon, starting at 2.
Saturday afternoon highlights include Family Band: The Cowsills Story, about the rise and fall of the 1960s pop music sensations; and Happy New Year, the story of a physically and mentally scarred veteran of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan who finds hope and struggle among peers in the psychiatric ward of a veterans hospital. A question-and-answer session with cast and filmmakers will follow the screening of Happy New Year.
Prior to the 7:30 p.m. screening on Saturday, Oct. 1, The Flickers Rhode Island Film Festival will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to screen star and Emmy Award winner Ken Howard.
Following the award ceremony, “The Road to Hollywood: A Film Shorts Presentation” will be led by the Vermont premiere of The Sea Is All I Know, starring Windham County native and Academy Award winning actress Melissa Leo as a parent dealing with the impending death of her daughter.
Sunday screenings include Johnny and Lyman: A Life Together, a short documentary that marks how life has changed for LGBT individuals by tracing a 65-year relationship from the days before Stonewall to the present; and The Green, a feature about a gay English teacher whose life is turned upside down and whose relationships are tested after he is accused of “inappropriate behavior” with a male student.
Tickets are $8, available at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery, on the days of the events. For more information, visit the festival website. .