The mission of the nonprofit newportFILM, she said, “is working to bring the spirit of film festivals in a year-round way, to use film to make a difference.’’
It keys on documentaries of the human spirit, the environment, and also children’s films and the occasional narrative movie, she said. The last mini-festival, held in the fall, included two documentaries that left many in the audience teary eyed: “The Sound of Mumbai,’’ an alternately uplifting and heartbreaking film about children from the city’s vast slums chosen to perform songs from “The Sound of Music’’ with the Bombay Chamber Orchestra, and “Undefeated,’’ about the resolve of an inner-city North Memphis high school football team that had not won a playoff game in the school’s 110-year history.
“I look first and foremost for films that really stick out above the rest, films with a strong human interest element to them,’’ said van Beuren, who along with Tom Hall, colleague and Sarasota Film Festival director, chooses all titles. “Films in which the subject matter becomes almost irrelevant since the story and characters are so compelling.’’
A few of her favorites from last year were “Being Elmo,’’ about the man behind the puppet who had dreamed of being a Sesame Street puppeteer since childhood; “Buck,’’ a documentary about a real-life horse whisperer; and “Project Nim,’’ about a landmark experiment that aimed to show an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised like a human child.
The next mini-festival is Friday and Saturday with “The Island President’’ airing Friday night at the Casino Theatre. It is a documentary about Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and his crusade to save his country from flooding as sea level rises, and includes his impassioned speech about global warming before the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009.
