(L to R) Filmmakers Nina Either, Nino De La Cruz, Rachel Napoliello, and Gustavo Rosa, and the Somerville Media Center’s Erica Jones. — Photos by Courtney Young

By Courtney Young

It takes a substantial amount of expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to take only 90 minutes and use it to empower a community, but that is exactly what the filmmakers and organizers did during the 3rd Annual Cinema Somerville Outdoor Film Festival on Saturday evening.

The theme this year was “Local Voices,” centered around “voices of creativity, voices of change, voices of protest, hopes and dreams, and giving a voice to the voiceless.” Some issues that the audience saw brought to life were immigration, sexuality, identity, gentrification, mental health, and racial politics.

Throughout the 90-minute screening, members of the community gathered around to support the filmmakers who projected their creativity into misrepresented topics and unheard voices within Somerville.

The venture to give social issues a voice that are often undiscovered and ignored in the world was the prerogative of everyone involved in production of this event. Included in the screening was a multitude of perspectives from various demographics, some of which focused on: non-materialistic qualities of African American women and girls highlighting strength, love, and beauty; to discussing the rights of those obtained by law enforcement; to nods at artificial intelligence and a comical approach at how it can inconvenience us in our dating efforts.

The 16 short films were exceptional in film quality and healthy in humor, emotion, and passion.

Erica Jones and Nina Either welcome attendees to the festival.

Working in collaboration to host the event this year were partners Erica Jones from the Somerville Media Center, [SMC], and Nina Eichner with the Somerville Arts Council, [SAC], both publicly funded entities that also receive grants from the city and state.

Although the Annual Cinema Somerville Outdoor Film Festival doesn’t aim to formally educate its attendees, they do hope to reach a point of community building within members, to allow for the share of emotional responses to films, and open a dialogue about appropriate ways of approaching sensitive topics in public context. SMC and the SAC also states the annual screenings are a way for artists to simply celebrate local filmmaker pride.

The SMC is very passionate about educating the public on filmmaking as well as providing the community resources and equipment necessary for production. “We were not trying to push any issues or agendas into anyone’s film, we just wanted the participants to be heard in whatever regard they felt,” Jones commented after the showing.

“There was no strict formula determining what would make the screening, and intentionally our guidelines for submissions were vague and left up to interpretation. Although we wanted there to be a message included, we also looked at the quality of production value and audio components. The main thing we wanted as a result of our submissions, though, was to make people think,” Jones concluded.

The SAC is passionate about working with organizations within the community to highlight social unification on multiple platforms, aiming to help people understand the overall make-up of Somerville, as in who is here and what’s going on. “Somerville is a place that encourages its community members to grow because when it comes to creativity and the arts, there isn’t a lot of red tape. It has become a place that is safe to try out new ideas that may be risky or unconventional, and in our eyes, progressive is good,” Eicher said in reference to Somerville’s efforts to bring fellowship to the community through creativity.

In conjunction with events like the Film Festival, Somerville has a festival part of the Arts Union Series, where local groups come to events to share resources, agency and non-profit information, and open a dialogue about how to help become a stronger community. You can view more of their events on their website at https://www.somervilleartscouncil.org.