Gershon Hinkson. (Dustin Schoof Photo)
Movies at the Mill founder Gershon Hinkson is looking to the past to help bolster the film festival’s present — and, in turn, its future.
This year’s “Speakeasy Edition”-themed event will be held Saturday at the Sigal Museum in downtown Easton. Attendees will be able to participate in one of four screenings that day, the first of which starts at 3 p.m.
Hinkson said during an Aug. 11 interview that he and his fellow organizers were inspired by the intrigue and mystery that surrounded the very first Movies at the Mill in 2009. By relocating to the museum, Hinkson said, the festival is “returning to the mission.”
“After seeing the success of that (first one), we quickly expanded the mission to have the festival serve as an instrument to showcase underutilized locations as well as new locations all over Easton; locations that in their own right are already benefitting Easton and our guests but could stand to benefit from the patronage and sort of attention the festival attracts,” Hinkson said. “And the Sigal Museum fits squarely in the center of our scope this year. They’re the leading source of local history here. They do a lot to educate their guests, or visitors, about (all) things Easton, things Lehigh Valley, things America, if you will."
He added, “it sort of ups the ante and increases the cache and the experience by having it in something as distinguished as a museum.”
Movies at the Mill was previously held at Hugh Moore Park, the State Theatre, and the parking deck behind Easton City Hall. In 2018, the festival returned to its namesake location at the Silk complex — located on grounds of the former Simon Silk Mill— for its 10th anniversary (where it was held from 2009 through 2012.)
Since its inception, Movies at the Mill has showcased short films directed, written, and produced by Lehigh Valley-based and international filmmakers, as well as guest submissions from such Hollywood talent as actor-director Danny DeVito and actor Matthew Modine. (DeVito's short film Curmudgeons won the 2017 Movies at the Mill Best in Show award.)
Hinkson's lengthy resume includes editing credits on such Hollywood blockbusters as Spider-Man 2, Edge of Tomorrow, True Grit, and Ocean's Eight. He directed the 2011 short film The Turtle & the Nightingale.
“As curators of the (film) slate, we’re only interested in the product because we need to share and display a product with an audience that has learned to expect to be engaged and entertained when they come to Movie at the Mill Easton and for that i’m extremely proud,” Hinkson said.
The nine independent short films that make up this year’s offerings run the gamut from visually compelling animation (La Noria) to a gripping look at a young man’s journey from his drafting and enlistment in Vietnam to his service and his life afterward. The aforementioned La Noria follows a child mourning the loss of his father and the monsters he (literally) faces as he searches for light within his darkness.
“The movies that we’ve curated this year are quite special on several levels. Given the current goings-on in our country and abroad, some of our filmmakers felt that they should use their voices to speak about it,” Hinkson said.
Other highlights include Black Hat, which follows a Hasidic Jewish man who, as Hinkson explained, “leads a double life and things get pretty awkward when his two worlds collide.”
Then there is Agua ‘e Panty.
“It’s about a woman whose trying to, how do I say, lock in, the affections of a man who pays all her bills,” Hinkson teased. “She’s getting older now and concerned he may have eyes for others and she feels she need to put a spell in him to achieve this and that includes the ingredients of water and panties.”
As for the popular festival afterparty, Hinkson is keeping the location close to the chest. So close, in fact, that the location is not being publicly revealed. Attendees will be given a password and directions to the post-screening “speakeasy” when they check in for their screening block. The “speakeasy” will be open from 5 to 10 p.m.
When they arrive, guests will be treated to a carefully curated drink and food menu, Hinkson said, as well as a live band. “The same you would experience at a speakeasy in the 1920s, through the ‘40s even,” Hinkson said. There will also be free giveaways to coincide with the decade.
“To be honest, it’s not always about doing something extremely brand new, it’s having the freedom and the space to do something as thoughtful as reimagining something that’s already existing,” Hinkson said. “Movies at the Mill is extremely grateful for our MMErs… The more support you give us, the more inspiration it gives us to keep doing our thing.”
“If it’s not August 24, it’s not Movies at the Mill Easton.”
Tickets for Movies at the Mill cost $30 in advance, $40 at the door, and can be purchased at moviesatthemill.com. Tickets can also be purchased on the day of the event at the Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton St, between the hours of 3 and 9 p.m.