2nd ARts & Film

After a successful first festival last year, the 2008 Rockaway Literary Arts & Film Festival will take place on Saturday, June 7 and Sunday, June 8, giving visitors a chance to take part in a wide variety of activities.
Having a festival such as this is one that Stuart M. Mirsky, an author and resident of Rockaway, wanted to see happen for several years. Last year, he and the Rockaway Music and Arts Council (RMAC) were able to make it happen. RMAC is also sponsoring this year’s festival, in association with the Rockaway Artists Alliance and the Rockaway Theatre Company.
“It was a great response last year,” Mirsky said. “That’s why we decided to do it again this year.”
Mirsky said that a festival insofar is important to bring writers together, since writing is often done in solitude. Through the festival, writers are able to make many valuable connections.
“For a long time there’s been some movement here to bring the arts to the Rockaways,” Mirsky said. “There’s a lot of value to networking and becoming part of the larger writing community.”
The festival, which is being held at Fort Tilden’s Gateway National Park, will begin on Saturday, June 7 with film screenings at Post Theater. Last year during the festival, only brief portions of the films were shown at the same time the literary part of the festival was going on. This year, the two will be completely separate.
The screenings will run from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and will feature local filmmakers as well as visiting ones. Films will also be screening from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday, June 8. The film screening schedule includes Brett Morgan’s “The Kid Stays in the Picture” at 8:10 p.m. on Saturday and Rockaway resident Debra Eisenstadt’s “The Limbo Room” at 8:25 p.m. on Sunday.
From 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, there will be various panels, workshops and book signings at Studio 7. More than 40 authors will be participating in them, including Irish novelist Tom Phelan.
Mirsky said that during the 2007 festival there were about 30 authors who participated. Along with there being more this year, he said they also represent a broader range and include playwrights, fiction and non-fiction writers, and journalists.
Among the topics that will be discussed in the panel sessions and workshops are getting published, contemporary fiction, local journalism, historical fiction, the Holocaust and copyright laws.
At noon on Sunday, there will be an awards ceremony for the Student Writing Competition. The competition began last year after local schools in the Rockaways were approached about it. Winners in the categories of poetry, personal essay and short stories will be recognized.
There will also be poetry readings, staged readings, musical performances and, for children, arts and crafts and storytelling. Food and refreshments will be provided by Rockaway Seafood and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Mirsky said that he hopes the 2008 festival will be as good, if not better, than the 2007 festival. He said last year’s event “turned out to be quite exciting and people really enjoyed it.” This year he wants to see more people come and have more of them make important connections.
For more information on the 2008 Rockaway Literary Arts & Film Festival, which is free, contact 718-945-6700, e-mail rockirreg@aol.com or you can also visit https://www.rockawaymusicandarts.org/news2.htm.