12th Annual Pawtucket Arts Festival Brings Variety to the Public

The Pawtucket Arts Festival is celebrating its 12th year in 2010. The festival has grown by leaps and bounds. The City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island has the right to be proud of the growth since the Festival includes more events, more sponsors, more venues, and more attendees.

The Pawtucket Arts Festival is truly a family festival with music, dance, and craft workshops, even Chinese Dragon Boat Races. There is something for everyone and all events are carefully planned and of high quality. This year the festival is dedicated to the memory of Louie Gugliotti.

Within the Pawtucket Arts Festival, which runs from August 26 to September 27 is the Mirror Film Festival - now known as The Pawtucket Film Festival. Produced and programmed by Rick Roth, Anthony Ambrosino and Nicholas Delmenico, the Film Festival was off to a strong start on opening night, Saturday, August 28.

The evening began with an opening reception at Tollman High School in Pawtucket. The attendees were treated to drinks and delicious food provided by Raymond Norman Cooks and Iggy's Bread. Each ticket also came with a beautiful festival T-shirt with a festival designed logo on it.

The crowd was then invited inside to the auditorium. Inside, Dennis Brennan treated the audience to live music. Brennan is a versatile musician who performed a mixture of blues, jazz and a little country on his guitar. He even invited the audience to sing along if they knew the words.

The prize presentation of the evening was the film "Metropolis". Scenes of workers marching emotionless to work are used frequently on television. "Metropolis" is a brilliant gem from the silent era of film. It is a black and white, science-fiction extravaganza from 1927 and it was shown in its most restored version to date. Additional footage discovered in Argentina was added, making the story line and characters more understandable. The story is a familiar one of the elitist rich and the downtrodden poor. The special effects, done in 1927 must have frightened people out of the theater at first viewing. It was spectacular.

Accompanying the film was the famous Alloy Orchestra. The Alloy Orchestra is a favorite musical group who travels to festivals and events throughout the world to accompany silent films. Unlike the improvised music by the theater organist in the 1920's, the Alloy Orchestra actually writes specifically for the silent film.

The Alloy Orchestra, whose recordings are available on CD, uses an unusual collection of electronic and percussion music makers to create their sounds and music. They have collaborated with some of the world's best archives and collectors to present audiences with the very best available prints of historic films.

The festival continues until September 27, please go to www.pawtucketartsfestival.org to check the rest of the schedule of events. Additional sponsors for the Film Festival are the 989 Project, The Boston Beer Company, The Rhode Island Film Collaborative and the City of Pawtucket.

Additional staff includes Erica Mills, Patrycja Pawlak, Emily Douglas, Nathan Shorty, Jon Klein, Brit MacFarland and Keri Ambrosino.