Parties & Openings

New Marlborough - May 21 The Old Inn hosts a dinner benefit for VIM.

Pawling - May 19 Raw Art at Gallery on the Green.

Sharon - May 19 The 12th annual Trade Secrets at Lion Rock Farm.

BIFF’s Sixth Season Announced at Haven

Rural Intelligence Parties and Openings Cultural corespondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Lenox: Cineastes and supporters gathered at Haven Cafe in Lenox on Thursday, April 28 to be among the first to hear the roster for the Sixth Annual Berkshire International Film Festival. Founder and executive director Kelley Vickery (left, with Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Molly Boxer) drew applause when she announced that the 2011 festival, fondly known as BIFF, will kick off on June 2 with the hit documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, followed by the June 3 Pittsfield opening night screening of the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary Buck, a portrait of real-life horse-whisperer Buck Brannaman. More than 70 features, documentaries, and shorts from 15 countries made the final cut, including about a dozen made by local filmmakers or featuring local cast, crew, or locations. BIFF also features the return of renowned film critic and historian Kent Jones to his hometown, Pittsfield, for the Beacon Cinema’s screening of A Letter to Elia, which he made with longtime collaborator with Martin Scorsese. His appearance, sponsored by Berkshire Film & Media Commission, includes a Q&A and discussion of the life and work of Elia Kazan, followed by a screening of Kazan’s 1960 film Wild River. In all, two dozen filmmakers will attend BIFF, which expands again this year to Simon’s Rock, and passholders will have the chance to rub shoulders with these auteurs at the festival’s plethora of parties. Vickery kept her audience in suspense as to the identity of the festival’s honoree, whose work will be celebrated at a tribute to be held at the Mahaiwe Theatre on Saturday, June 5.