The Martha's Vineyard Film Festival screening of The Power of Song at the Capawock Theater.
Audience members finding seats for the pre-movie music.
MV Film Festival founder Thomas Bena enjoying the Island folk session at Che's after the movie with Brad Tucker on the banjo.
Winter on the Vineyard is a great time to meet up with friends you don't get to see during the summer months and catch up on your movie viewing. Recently Thomas Bena combined these beloved off-season activities as the Martha's Vineyard Film Festival filled the Capawock Theater for a screening of Pete Seeger: The Power of Song - and then added live music for good measure.
Homegrown artists Willy Mason and Colin Ruel took turns playing about half an hour of songs at the one-screen film house while folks filtered in, found seats, and visited with friends.
Mason met the crowd's request for an encore with a minute-long ditty repeating "It's time for the movie to begin" (perhaps with the projectionist as its targeted audience), and then both young men found seats for themselves.
The movie itself was a pleasure to watch: chock full of interviews with music luminaries including Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, and - of course - Seeger himself.
An uplifting story of an unflappably kind and revolution-inducing man, the film included plenty of video from Seeger performances. Seeger was known for his love of audience participation, and when he asked for accompaniment on screen, his Vineyard Haven audience wasn't shy about singing or humming along too.
After the movie, folk-lovers crossed the street for more live music at Che's Lounge and were entertained by familiar faces of the island music scene with guitar and banjo pickers aplenty.
The Martha's Vineyard Film Festival will also be hosting the Martha's Vineyard Independent Film Festival March 14th through 16th, so get ready for more inspiring and thought-provoking films coming soon to a screen near you.
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