Dee DeGeiso Works

Full Time Orchestrating

the Northampton Film

Festival

November 1-5, 2000

Dee DeGeiso is the co-founder and co-director of the Northampton Film Festival. In six years this spunky and festive festival has grown from a regional weekend festival to a five-day national event featuring independent films, a FilmMaking Forum, sidebars, and special presentations and tributes. Audience members and filmmakers come from all around the US at the perfect time of the year to be in Northampton. Fall is definitely in the air there in November excelerating the quaintness of the town.

Dee first became interested in film when she was an English major in college and was taught by Steven Early, who lectured and wrote extensively on the movies, both as an art form and a business. Although an avid movie-goer, Dee pursued other careers including teaching High School English, School Psychology, and Law, before taking a sabbatical in the early ‘90s to write fiction. She is a published poet and short story writer, and has an unfinished novel and two screenplays begging to be completed. Along with her husband, Howard Polonsky, Dee now works full-time on the Northampton Film Festival, which she considers a true grass-roots organization, with much of its staff made up of volunteers.

Northampton Film Festival 2000 takes place November 1-5 in Northampton, MA, showcasing dozens of films: features, animated works, documentaries and shorts made by North American independent filmmakers. Only the top 10% of films submitted have been selected for screening. These include award-winners and premieres, and events for children and teens, as well as for the general public.

In addition to screenings, the Festival will include Q&A sessions with the filmmakers and the popular Filmmaking Forum, a series of seminars on the art and craft of filmmaking led by industry leaders. Potential seminars include Musical Scoring and Composition, Animation, Women in the Business, and The Critics’ Picks, a panel discussion with producers and critics on how they determine the creative worth of a film.

Integral parts of Northampton Film Festival 2000 are two special sidebars: "L’Chaim!" featuring nearly a dozen works, and "Out & About," films with a gay and lesbian perspective. Both of these programs include films of interest to the general public. You don’t have to be Jewish and/or gay or lesbian to enjoy the films selected for these sidebars.

The Festival has announced the return of the world-renowned Alloy Orchestra, musicians known for their original scores for classic, silent films. The Orchestra will be performing live to Fritz Lang’s 1926 masterpiece, METROPOLIS, on Saturday evening, November 4. They will appear again on Sunday evening, November 5 to close the Festival with the New England Premiere of their newest work, a musical accompaniment to the all-time best vampire movie, F.W. Murnau’s 1922 classic NOSFERATU. Both films are beautifully restored prints. The Orchestra members will also be available for a discussion with the audience.

For more information and regular updates visit www.nohofilm.org