RED BANK: INDIE FILM FEST GETS UNDERWAY

Lead festival organizer Jay Webb, right, with guests at Wednesday night’s opening reception on the patio of the Count Basie Theatre. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

With a display of carved-surfboard art, a New Jersey premiere screening of Dave Made a Maze and a DJ’d after-party at three separate venues, the second annual Indie Street Film Festival officially got underway in Red Bank Wednesday evening, ushering in a four-days-and-nights slate of screenings, panels, workshops and get-togethers with an admirable “Cannes-do” spirit.

A project of the fillmajer cooperative Indie Street (working in partnership with Red Bank RiverCenter), the sequel to last year’s inaugural event looks to make a long-running “tentpole franchise” of the venture. It’s a multi-venue happening that offers plenty of reasons to visit the borough’s theaters, restaurants and nightspots — or even its best-kept-secret middle school auditorium — during that time of year when the beaches make their biggest bid for buzz.

Take it here for info on individual event tickets and festival passes — and read on, for a rundown of goings-on between through Sunday.THURSDAY

Panel: STREET TALKS – Adaptation in Storytelling  (students admitted free) / 10 a.m. at Count Basie Theatre

Screening: HOTEL COOLGARDIE  A lonely tavern in the Australian outback is the setting for this documentary feature on isolation, misguided adventure, and clash of cultures. / 11:30 a.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Screening: COUNTRY (narrative shorts)/ 2:30 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Screening: BARBECUE Documentary feature on the culinary tradition of barbecuing, as practiced by cultures around the world./ 5:30 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas, followed by a free BBQ outside of the theater after the screening.

Screening: COUP D’ETAT (feature; NJ/NY premiere) Michael Caine stars as a deposed dictator who seeks refuge with a teen pen pal (Odeya Rush); moving into her garage and advising her on mounting a hostile takeover of her high school./ 8:30 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

After-Party at Jamian’s (festival passholders only) Hosted on the outdoor patio./ 10 p.m. at Jamians Food and Drink

FRIDAY

Panel: STREET TALKS – Meet the Festival Programmers  (students admitted free) / 10 a.m. at Two River Theater

Screening: BEAT BEAT HEART  Two generations of women cohabitate and contend with “self-discovery, newfangled love concepts and worldly wisdom” in the feature from director Luise Brinkman./ 11 a.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Screening: PERSON TO PERSON Michael Cera tops an ensemble cast, in Dustin Guy Defa’s shot-on-16mm study of urban characters dealing with death, guilt, love, opportunity and life changes./ 1:30 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Screening: CITY (narrative shorts)/ 4 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Happy Hour Meet & Greet at Jamian’s (festival passholders only) Featuring representatives from indie film advocates Seed&Spark and Big Vision Empty Wallet./ 5 p.m. at Jamians Food and Drink

Screening: THE RING THING Two women who are mulling getting married to each other explore the possible ramifications of their big decision, in the dramatic feature by director William C. Sullivan that incorporates footage of interviews with real-life couples./ 6:30 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Screening: UNREST Documentary director Jennifer Brea “turns her camera on herself and her community,” as she explores her experiences with the affliction of chronic fatigue syndrome./ 8 p.m. at Two River Theater

Screening: LIKE ME A shoplifter finds social media celebrity and friendship among social outsiders, in the feature from director Robert Mockler./ 9 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

After-Party at Elks Lodge (festival passholders only)/ 10 p.m. at Red Bank Elks Lodge #233

SATURDAY

Panel: STREET TALKS – Documentarians Tackle Fake News  (students admitted free) / 10 a.m. at Two River Theater

Screening: Documentary Shorts/11:30 a.m. at Two River Theater

Screening: JERSEY SHORT FILMS Program includes Count Basie Theatre Project FX winner Red by Peter Dolshun./ 12 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Workshop: Liquid Lights  (festival passholders only) Artists from Clockwork Orange teach selected community members this amazing form of expression (all workshop participants take part in a Liquid Lights performance at the festival’s Closing Party)./1 p.m. at Two River Theater

Screening: OLANCHO A documentary portrait of musicians whose lives in the Honduran province of the title finds them performing for — and often glorifying in song — the drug cartels who rule their home./ 2:30 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Happy Hour (festival passholders only)/ 4 p.m. at Two River Theater

Screening: LIFE HACK  A comic thriller about our age of non-privacy, in which a “white hat” hacker contends with a cyber-bully mastermind who possesses some very embarrassing material on his best friend./ 5:30 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Closing Night Party feat. Liquid Lights performance (festival passholders only)/ 9:30 p.m. at 26 West on the Navesink

SUNDAY

Filmmakers Brunch (festival passholders only)/ 10 a.m. at Molly Pitcher Inn

Screening: Animated Shorts/ 11:30 a.m. at Red Bank Middle School

Screening: JERSEY SHORT FILMS Program includes Count Basie Theatre Project FX winner Trick Question by David LaPorta./ 12 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

Screening: POLINA Dancer Anastasia Shevotsova stars as an aspiring ballerina whose rigorous training is thrown for a loop when she discovers the joys of modern dance; Juliette Binoche co-stars./ 2 p.m. at Red Bank Middle School

Screening: BROTHERS (world premiere) Director Jack Ballo (Destiny’s Bridge) hosts a screening and post-film discussion of his 33 minute documentary on a pair of Middlesex County brothers who are faced with a major decision after living “off the grid” in the woods for four years./ 2 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas

ISFF Awards Ceremony (festival passholders only)/ 5 p.m. at Buona Sera