Here are the official NHFX blurbs for the three films in the order they are being shown. Remember, for the full viewable/ downloadable schedule, and complete information, go to www.nhfx.com.

(I couldn't find a promo pic of "Drunkboat," so I grabbed the next bext thing I could find when I Googled "Drunkboat" on the Web.)

Drunkboat: 6:30 to 8 p.m., followed by Q&A
Drunkboat, Directed by Bob Meyer, Starring John Malkovich, John Goodman, and Dana Delaney, Works in Progress Special Screening.

After twenty years of drunken bottles and empty hallways, Mort Gleason (John Malkovich) witnesses his nephew being beaten while in a drunken stupor. The short contact with family brings Mort back to what are left of his senses and he returns to the last home he remembers in Chicago.

His sister Eileen (Dana Delaney) lives there now with her sixteen year old son, Abe. Her older son, Moo the now missing nephew that had sparked Mort’s return. Three, four, five weeks pass. Mort makes a tenuous re-entry into family life.

Abe dreams of a sailboat and distant horizons. He saves money and sees an advertisement for the Kathy II. He and his friend calculate a way to buy the vessel from two unscrupulous rogues who make ends meet wholesaling liquor and operating a sometime boatyard.

Eileen, however, is unaware that her youngest son is planning his escape. Comfortable enough with Mort’s presence to allow herself
a night away from home, Eileen’s departure allows Abe to seize the opportunity that his mother’s absence provides. He purchases a beat up wooden sailboat that he scheduled to be delivered to their house while Mort is in charge.

The men selling the boat, Fletcher (John Goodman) and Morley (Jim Ortlieb), require a bill of sale signed by an adult. Abe pressures Mort to sign, but his uncle is not so easily swayed. It is only with Fletcher’s whiskey bottle and the disappointment of his nephew’s manipulation, that Mort capitulates.

The Shovel, followed by You Are Alone: 9 to 10 p.m., followed by Q&A

The Shovel, Directed by Nick Childs. Starring Academy Award Nominee, David Strathairn. Among its many awards is the pretigious Golden Remi at Houston World Fest 2006 and Best narrative Short 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

When weekender Paul Mullin discovers his neighbor digging a hole in the middle of the night, he writes it off as simply a bizarre encounter. Until the neighbor... and his cheating wife... disappear. Worried he’s stumbled upon more than he’s bargained for, he calls on the local sheriff to help unearth the truth. And finds out that, in a small town, some secrets are better left buried.

You Are Alone, Directed and written by Gorman Bechard. Starring Jessica Bohl Richard Brundage. Feature drama. You Are Alone has won 6 numerous awards including Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Visionary, and Best Feature at various festivals. It has been screened at over 20 prestigious film festivals worldwide.

"We're gonna play a game of Snap! Pick a bracelet. Pull it hard!" But it’s a game of desperate consequences in YOU ARE ALONE, a dark exploration of just how far a man and a woman will go to escape loneliness, if only for an hour. Daphne, a Yale-bound high school senior whose depression has blurred her sense of reality, works as an escort, advertising her services online. It's a little bit of a "fuck-you" that helps get her through the day, until her next door neighbor catches her as the "entertainment" at his nephew's bachelor party. With her hidden life precariously hanging in the balance, Daphne agrees to spend one hour with her neighbor.

Initially confrontational, Daphne and her neighbor begin to shed their bitter layers of personal disappointment and general cynicism by talking about sex. It's eye-opening for her neighbor: BBBJs, dining at the Y, salad tossing, and, of course, Snap! But behind this teenager's jaded fantasies hides the very essence of heartbreak, acceptance, need, and desire...ironically paralleled by a broken man’s desperate attempts to test the limits of her advertised promise to do anything and everything.

“An extraordinary film” David Kleiler, Director, Boston Underground Film Festival

“Last Tango in New England” Justin Fielding, New England Film

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