Fairhope Film Festival Returns for Second Year With Strong Lineup

The Fairhope Film Festival returns November 6-9 in downtown Fairhope, Alabama for its second year with a lineup of acclaimed national and international films spanning narrative features, documentaries, and short films.

Known as a film lovers film festival, the event focuses on festival competition finalists from the past year, many of which never made it to mainstream theaters or appeared only briefly. Directors, actors and screenwriters will participate in screenings both in person and via live electronic transmission.

Highlights From the Lineup

Among the most anticipated titles is Alive Inside, a documentary that chronicles the revitalizing effects of music on individuals where prescription medication falls short. The film explores how natural rhythms can unlock connection in patients with neurological conditions.

Blood and Circstance, a psychological mystery from directors Tim Gordon and Wes Sullivan, follows a psychiatrist’s examination of an inmate who may not be fit for trial. As the narrative shifts between present day and the past, the audience must piece together what really happened.

Other notable entries include The Dance of Reality from filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, blending personal history with mythology and poetry, and Finding Vivian Maier, the acclaimed documentary about a mysterious nanny whose 100,000 hidden photographs were discovered decades later and are now considered some of the best photography of the twentieth century.

From Boxing to Gardening

Rounding out the program are stories ranging from a boxing legend in Maravilla, which examines the sport through the lens of celebrity and politics, to Sacred Rivers, which traces how national attitudes toward dam construction have evolved over decades. Patrons can also catch The Great Invisible, Mobile native Margaret Brown’s documentary about the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill and its aftermath along the Gulf Coast.

Festival passes are available through the website, with individual ticket sales at the door prior to screenings. Additional events and parties will take place throughout the four-day festival.

About the Films

Several titles arrive with notable festival credentials. Alive Inside, directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett, won the Audience Award for U.S. documentary at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Finding Vivian Maier, co-directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, tells how Maloof bought a box of Maier’s negatives at a Chicago auction in 2007, and The Dance of Reality marked Jodorowsky’s first feature in more than two decades. The Great Invisible won the Grand Jury Award for documentary feature at the 2014 South by Southwest festival.