Described by executive director Mystelle Brabbée as a film festival “incubator” 30 miles out to sea, the annual Nantucket Film Festival celebrates screenwriters and storytellers and promotes signature programming, including garden conversations and “Morning Coffee With,” designed to bring the island community together.
Sibling duo and Nantucket natives Jill and Jonathan Burkhart founded the festival in 1996; Brabbée joined the team the following yearand has helped expand its programming over the decades to include interactive, live events that put attendees in discussion with those in front of and behind the camera. Noteworthy appearances this year include screenwriter Kerry Ehrin, actor and comedian Jason Mantzoukas, and documentarian Ken Burns.
“This festival is able to thrive because the town supports it, and people want to come,” said Brabbée. “All the audiences that we bring in, they love that festival environment.”
“The Water Connection” is one of the overarching themes of this year’s festival, Brabbée said, noting that programming includes films and live events related to the impact of climate change on water both locally and globally. “Chasing Time,” for instance, is a short film following environmental photographer James Balog, while “Shaped by Water” is a documentary exploring the relationship between athletes and water.
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Nantucket Film Festival, June 19-24, nantucketfilmfestival.org
A still from “Shaped by Water.”Nantucket Film Festival
Roxbury International Film Festival
For the 26th year, the Roxbury International Film Festival, a staple of the Boston film festival circuit, brings films from around the world to locations throughout the neighborhood. The festival returns this summer for in-person and online events, including feature-length and short film screenings, live script readings, filmmaker hangouts, and more.
The festival originally was a local showcase before growing into an international film festival, though it’s still committed to displaying the creative lifeblood of Roxbury.
Lisa Simmons, artistic and executive director of the festival, said the people “in this community are storytellers. Whether it’s through music, poetry, visual arts, theater, there are a lot of folks in this community who are creative people.”
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For the past two-plus decades, the festival has devoted itself to telling the many unique experiences of people of color, at home and around the world.
“For audiences who can come to a festival over 10 days and at any given moment see themselves on the screen, that’s the most important thing,” Simmonssaid. “This community is not a monolith.”
Roxbury International Film Festival. In person June 20-28, online June 27-July 2. roxfilmfest.com
“Luther: Never Too Much,” which documents the life of legendary R&B/soul musician Luther Vandross, screens at the Roxbury International Film Festival this year. It was highlighted by artistic and executive director Lisa Simmons as one film she is particularly excited to show.Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Matthew Rolston
Woods Hole Film Festival
Mainland Cape Cod boasts the oldest film festival in the state. The Woods Hole Film Festival has held annual screenings for more than 30 years; its upcoming programming will showcase 100-plus films over the span of eight days.
“Our programming tends to include films that are relevant to the work that happens here,” said founder and director Judy Laster. “We probably have more of a science focus in our selections than other festivals might.”
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Following this theme, the WHFF will screen “76 Days,” a film that follows Steven Callahan as he navigates the open ocean after a whale sinks his sailboat, and “Follow the Journey,” a deep dive into the lives of whales.
Woods Hole is a hub for ocean science, with severallocal institutions dedicated to education and research about the planet’s largest ecosystem. Laster recommends checking out the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Science Discovery Center, the Nobska Lighthouse, and area restaurants.
“We include lots of films around music or comedy or animation, things that are a little bit lighter because our main competition isn’t other festivals — it’s the beach,” said Laster.
For those interested in attending,Laster recommends solidifying travel plans as soon aspossible: “It’s the height of summer,” she said. “It can be crowded around here.”
Woods Hole Film Festival, July 27-Aug. 3, woodsholefilmfestival.org
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A still from “76 Days,” being shown at the Woods Hole Film Festival.Handout
Martha’s Vineyard Film Society Documentary Week
The Martha’s Vineyard Film Society’s Documentary Week kicks off its annual programming in late July, in time for the island’s busy season. The organization hosts half a dozen film festivals annually, the majority of which take place between May and August.
Executive Director Richard Paradise recognized Doc Week as a need nearly a decade ago, opting to show one documentary each night for eight nights. Programming this year includes “Girls State,” a documentary that considers what our democracy would look like in the hands of teenage girls, and “Donyale Luna: Supermodel,” which follows the life of a pioneering Black supermodel.
“It’s a little easier to get the filmmakers to come and attend — like, who wouldn’t want to be on Martha’s Vineyard in August?,” said Paradise. “Each documentary we show, we always have people there to talk about the documentary afterwards, and it’s become a mainstay of our August programming.”
Martha’s Vineyard Film Society’s Doc Week, July 29-Aug. 2, mvfilmsociety.com
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Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay, and Music Festival
California resident Hammad Zaidi started his film festival in Arlington because “I wanted to find a city with an incredibly high level of intelligence, with a lot of universities, and with a lot of open-mindedness,” he said, calling from his home in Redondo Beach.
Since 2018, Zaidi’s Lonely Seal Festival has been a fixture of Arlington’sRegent Theatre, with feature-length films, documentaries, shorts, and music videos from around the world. The festival’s full lineup will be revealed next Thursday, but a few highlights he teased include the documentary “The Water of Life: A Whisky Film” and the 45th anniversary screening of The Who’s 1979 film “The Kids Are Alright,” directed by Jeff Stein, brother of Regent Theatre co-owner Leland Stein.
Zaidi, who heads a distribution company called Lonely Seal Releasing, said a mission of the festival is to spotlight diverse voices — including female, LGBTQ+, and disabled filmmakers — and stories that other festivals wouldn’t typically show.
Zaidi says he’s had great experiences at other film festivals, but “I’dalways tell my friends, if I ever had one, I would do this differently.”
Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay, and Music Festival. Aug. 20-25. Use code “GLOBESEAL” for 20 percent off tickets and passes. lonelysealfestival.com
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A scene from “The Kids Are Alright,” which will screen at this year’s Lonely Seal film fest.Courtesy of American Genre Film Archive
Parks Movie Nights
Throughout August, 11 public parks across the Greater Boston area will become free outdoor movie theaters as a part of the city’s annual Parks Movie Nights program. From “Encanto” in East Boston to “A Million Miles Away” at Jamaica Pond under a meteor-shower sky, there are plenty of opportunities for people to camp out under the stars and screens.
“I love parks, I love being outside, and it’s so fun for me to be able to activate [the parks] in this way,” said Steve Kruszkowski, program manager of Parks Movie Nights. “Good memories are created with your friends and family at movie nights.”
Other films and locations include “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” at Peters Park in the South End, “Elemental” at Healy Playground in Roslindale, and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” at Malcolm X Park in Roxbury. Each movie begins at dusk, and free popcorn will be provided while supplies last.
Parks Movie Nights. August. boston.gov/movie-nights
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Adri Pray can be reached at adri.pray@globe.com. Follow her @adriprayy. Henry Bova can be reached at henry.bova@globe.com.
It’s been a stormy start to the weekend, and we’re not even close to done just yet!
As a storm moves south through New England, we’ll have more rain, wind and March-like temperatures. Let’s start with the timing and the rain. Showers and some heavy rain will come in waves from north to south, and leave in the same direction. That means, the further north you live, the earlier you saw the rain this morning, but the sooner you’ll see the rain leave this afternoon.
In fact, folks in areas like Worcester County could even see some sunshine before sunset.
On the flip side, if you’re on the South Shore, South Coast, Cape & Islands, the rain takes longer to reach you, but won’t be gone until 3-5 PM or so, and the clouds will take longer to break as well.
Now for the wind. We’ve already seen gusts in the 20s, 30s & 40s. But with the strength of this storm, we could see more up to 55 mph for most of the coast, and 65 mph for the Cape and Nantucket.
For that reason, we have a Wind Advisory and a High Wind Warning until 8 PM this evening. We could even see a few power outages because with the potential of winds blowing weak tree limbs onto power lines.
Finally, the chill. Temperatures early this morning were largely in the low to mid 50s. Not the worst start for this time of year.
But as the cold air associated with this storm kicks in, temperatures go down instead of up. We’ll be in the 40s for most of the afternoon.
If there’s a bright side to this forecast, it’s that the storm is gone and clouds clear in time for us to see the only blue moon of 2026! It will rise tonight, and peak illumination will be at 4:45 AM tomorrow morning! It will be a micromoon, meaning it’ll look smaller than normal, as the moon is at or near apogee, its farthest point in orbit from the earth.
On the note of tomorrow morning… it’ll be beautiful! It’ll be a cold start with temps in the 40s. However, we’ll have some beautiful sunshine as well, and by the afternoon, temperatures will reach the mid to upper 60s and low 70s– not far from normal! That said, clouds increase in the afternoon and we’re keeping an eye out for a few spotty showers as well.
We’ll keep a few showers around on Monday, though they’ll stay spotty. Temperatures will be cooler as a front comes through with highs in the low 60s. We’ll keep a shower around on Tuesday, with a mix of clouds and sun and a shower or two remaining.
The weather finally takes a turn on Wednesday! We’ll be mostly to partly sunny, and the chance of a shower is incredibly slim. Highs will be in the upper 60s. Thursday is mostly sunny and even warmer, with highs in the mid to upper 70s!
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It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
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Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
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Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
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Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
