We are thrilled to announce the Opening Night Film, Centerpiece Film, and Closing Night Film for the 2025 Green Mountain Film Festival! Coming March 14-16 to Downtown Montpelier, Vermont!
~ Our Opening Night Film is: 78 DAYS dir Emilija Gašić
78 DAYS
Directed by Emilija Gašić
Serbia | 2024 | Narrative | 82 min | Serbian with English subtitles | US Premiere
As bombs drop from NATO planes in the skies of former Yugoslavia in 1999, three sisters use the family’s Hi8 camcorder to document their everyday lives for their father who was recently conscripted into the army. Through this lens we see them playing games, developing crushes, getting in fights, and throwing birthday parties. But despite these attempts, they are always reminded by the bombs—and their mother—that normalcy cannot exist. The film, which could easily be mistaken for a documentary, powerfully recreates the feeling and sound of a piece of media pulled from a family’s archive. Its reinvention of the found footage technique captures the intimacy of the sisters’ relationships and the moments they share, and highlights the collective memory created by coming of age in the shadow of conflict. This is the film's U.S. premiere.
78 DAYS is sponsored by: Good Girl Production
~ Our Centerpiece Film is: SEEDS dir Brittany Shyne
SEEDS
Directed by Brittany Shyne
USA | 2025 | Documentary | 125 min | English | Vermont Premiere
A community of black farmers in the south is painted in stunning black and white in Brittany Shyne’s debut feature Seeds, a film as sensitive and patient as farming itself. Following several farmers at work and in their community, the film captures the daily fight and the deep fulfillment of owning land while black. One older farmer, eyes watering, struggles to get his glasses prescription filled (let alone paid for). Another farmer runs around with his granddaughter on land that will one day be hers. We watch huge expanses of cotton slip through the teeth of a harvesting machine, an image both simple and profound given the history of slavery in the United States and the continued barriers to black farmers in this country.
SEEDS is sponsored by: NOFA-VT and Rural Vermont
~ Our Closing Night Film is: THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT dir Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk
THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT
Directed by Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, Pedro Kos
USA | 2024 | Documentary | 96 min | English | Vermont Premiere
Through archival footage, The White House Effect traces the evolution of the United States’ climate policy, from the first memo given to Jimmy Carter about climate change in 1977 to fossil fuel companies sewing seeds of doubt in the minds of the American public in the 90s and into the present day. Environmental protections go from a bi-partisan, top agenda item to an extremely partisan battle. Thoroughly researched and captivatingly edited, this documentary is an insight into the power of media to twist public opinion and government policy and leaves the audience with the painful knowledge of how much farther along we might have been with fighting for our climate.
THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT is sponsored by: Catamount Solar and VTDigger
>> Tickets go on sale March 1st! <<
Stay tuned for our full program coming soon and sign up at our website for our newsletter updates!
Special thank you to our Premiere Sponsor: North Country Federal Credit Union and Leadership Sponsors: AARP Vermont and Minuteman Press
More soon!
💖 GMFF Team
