The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) is a celebration of cultures as well as a platform for recognizing the common global human experience. The festival’s mission aims to foster appreciation for different cultures by exploring the lives of people around the globe through independent film — to nurture the next generation of filmmakers within our community. The festival features narrative, documentary, experimental and animated features and shorts, including a special category of short submissions from local high school and college filmmakers. Several World, East Coast, and Massachusetts premieres will be featured during the five-day festival.
The second AIFF, scheduled for October 17 – 21 at Regent Theatre, will open with the film awarded Best of Festival, “All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert.” Filmmaker Vivian Ducat and subject Rembert will be participating in a moderated discussion/Q&A session following the screening.
On Saturday, October 20, among the films that will be shown will be “Grandma’s Tattoos.” At 6:45 p.m., Martin Haroutunian and friends will perform Armenian music, with a discussion with the director after the film. Filmmaker Suzanne Khardalian makes a journey into her own family to investigate the terrible truth behind her late grandma’s odd tattoos. Her grandma was always a bit strange, never liking physical contact and covered with unusual marks. Everybody in the family seemed to know the story, but no one ever spoke about it. So when grandma’s mystery is slowly unveiled, family taboos are broken down and Suzanne exposes the bigger story – the fate of the Armenian women driven out of Ottoman Turkey during the First World War. The painful journey behind Suzanne’s grandma’s tattoos unfolds through Armenia, Lebanon, Sweden and Syria, finally bringing out the truth.
