Attention film lovers! The Providence Children’s Film Festival (PCFF) returns for its 16th year this month, featuring 10 days of family-friendly screenings, interactive workshops, and free programming around the capital city. Running February 14-23, the festival showcases about a dozen feature-length films and over 25 movie shorts, providing an exciting mix of live-action, documentary, and animation produced by filmmakers from around the world.
Notably, the festival will be the first major event in the newly renovated Hope High School auditorium. “That’s our opening night,” says PCFF interim managing director Cristin Searles. “We’re really excited about it. They invested a lot to completely revamp their auditorium, and we wanted to have an East Side location at a public school.” Films will also be screened at the Mount Pleasant and South Providence libraries, the RISD Museum auditorium, the Providence Athenaeum, and the Wheeler School.
Films are selected through a rigorous process. “Every year, we screen over 700 films to put the program together,” Searles explains. “Most of them are submitted through our online platform, with many of those being short films. We also search for films from other film festivals by looking at their programs.” A community film jury consisting of children, parents, and often grandparents assists artistic director Eric Bilodeau. “We sit down and watch a selection of, say, 10 short films,” adds Searles. “We discuss every film; kids always talk first because what they have to say is perhaps more important than the adults. We fill out ballots and tally them up.”
Searles is particularly excited about three feature-length films that will be showcased at this year’s festival, including one that is voiced in Swahili. After the Long Rains, a Kenyan film screened with English subtitles, is the story of a 10-year-old girl who dreams of becoming an actress. “She’s told that acting is only for boys, but she decides to figure out a way to become an actress,” says Searles. “It’s a beautiful film, with stunning cinematography, about her
unwillingness to accept ‘no’ for an answer.”
Another inspired feature is Los Tonos Mayores (The Major Tones), an Argentinian film voiced in Spanish. “It’s about a young woman who has a metal plate put into her arm during surgery,” says Searles. “After she heals, she starts receiving these rhythmic pulses through her arm. She decides to put the vibrations to music. A military officer tells her the beats she is making are Morse code, saying, ‘Don’t forget me.’ Her arm acts like an antenna, which leads to the mystery of who is trying to communicate with her.”
Searles says that children enjoy foreign films, even if they are not always able to follow the subtitles. “For the most part, kids can follow along, even if they don’t catch a subtitle. They are very intuitive about reading what’s happening on screen,” she says, noting that films are geared toward ages eight and up.
A British film, Robin and the Hoods, tells the story of a group of kids who play in a forested area in their neighborhood they call “The Kingdom.” “They have a whole mythology about it, with characters fighting battles, like a magical fantasy land,” says Searles. When a developer makes plans to raze the area for housing, the kids stage an uprising. Chaos ensues.
The festival highlights diverse programming aimed at serving underrepresented populations within the state. “Part of that is seeking out Spanish-language films; in recent years, we’ve put together a Spanish-language short film reel to make the festival as accessible as possible,” says Searles. PCFF also provides year-round programming and conducts in-school and outdoor screenings in city parks during the summer.
One of the best parts for 2025: all festival events are pay-what-you-can. “We felt it was critical that we support our mission that everyone has access to exceptional films and the conversations that ensue afterward,” adds Searles. Learn more at ProvidenceChildrensFilmFestival.org.
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