Rotary Log: July 17, 2013 (Film Festival)

Newly minted President Dave Underhill introduced our guests and a record 6 visiting Rotarians including one from Bangladesh.  Everyone is invited to visit him in Bangladesh.  I say we plan a group trip!

Happy Rotary Anniversary to many members, some who are no longer in our Club? If they're not in the club anymore, can we still fine them? That's a question for the 4 Way Test Committee.  Co-Chair of the Thunder Chicken Road Race,  Justin Finn,  said they have made their goal for sponsorship thanks to help from Bob Davis and others on the Committee. 

 He said what they need now is runners!  The event is August 1st.  Dan Hoefle offered to run as long as Priscilla MacInnis did too, so take note Justin, that's two more runners for you!  We also still need volunteers for the water stations, registration, etc.  please call or email Justin to sign up.

Nicole Gregg from the NH Film Festival was our fill- in speaker after a last minute emergency prevented our scheduled speaker from joining us. For those who aren't aware, what they try to do is create a little bit of Sundance here in Portsmouth.  They get 500 to 800 submissions from film makers each year, and as the Festival's popularity has grown, these numbers have increased.  The submissions are filtered through a search company called "Without A Box" who whittle them down, at which point the selection committee has the difficult task of reducing them to 100 or so.  In prior years, Nicole shared, all submissions were screened by she and her husband over the summer.  Nicole estimates she has seen 6000 or more "no name" films in her career!  The screening committee will rate the films on a scale of 1 to 3 with 1 being a no go, 2 a maybe and 3 a winner.

Every year the Festival starts with NH Day and night. This showcases talented individuals from our state.  Competition has become so fierce that this has grown and has its own awards and is a mini-festival within the festival.   The Film Festival attracts 10,000 people to Portsmouth and introduces them to all that Portsmouth has to offer.  With 80-100 films per year, there's something for everyone.  The documentaries have become one of her favorite parts.  She showed a fun clip from a documentary on the Senior Olympics which was enjoyed by everyone.  The Festival runs from October 17th to the 20th this year. The folks involved are almost all volunteers.  It promises to be another amazing line-up.   Paul Whitcomb won the raffle!