R.B. is center of universe for indie film Oct. 5-7
The seventh annual Red Bank International Film Festival (RBIFF) will open Friday to begin a three-day immersion in independent film.

"Greetings from the Shore"

The weekend festival, which runs Oct. 5-7, offers three days of screenings, filmmaker appearances, panels, parties, and awards showcasing independent and alternative films. Clearview Cinemas, 36 White St. in Red Bank, will be the venue for all screenings.

The festival will include more than 50 features, documentaries, foreign films, animation, shorts, classics and experimental films, many of which have played to applause in major film festivals such as Cannes, Tribeca and Toronto.

From Italy, "The Golden Door" tells the story of a Sicilian peasant and a genteel Englishwoman who meet crossing the ocean to America.

Paul Sorvino stars with an ensemble cast in "Greetings from the Shore," a coming-ofage story that is part memoir, part fairy tale, whose characters are brought together by fate for one chance summer. The film, based on the memoirs of writer and New Jersey native Gabrielle Berberich, was shot on Barnegat Island.

The festival's organizers have spent the last year selecting films that represent the best new offerings from young, unknown filmmakers along with such classics as the 1923 Lon Chaney silent movie classic "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and a midnight showing on opening night of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Local musicians Rotting Moldy Flesh will provide an original live musical score accompaniment.

The Freedom Film Society mission is to support the future of Jersey filmmaking through an educational program for area high school students. Emerging Filmmakers school filmmaking.

The festival offers work from all parts of the globe, including the series Spanish Fly, short works by artists from Spain and Mexico, all in Spanish with English subtitles.

By popular demand, the festival has expanded its animated film offerings this year, with a segment, Sex, Art, and a Dash of Politics, curated by Latvian animation guru Signe Baumane and intended for mature audiences. Awardwinning animator Bill Plympton's newest feature "Shut Eye Hotel" will be shown during the festival. The documentary "Snake Hill," which refers to New Jersey's infamous last stop for thousands of terminally ill patients, indigents, "lunatics" and prisoners from 1870 to 1962 along a stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike, returns to RBIFF for an encore presentation after screening to sold-out audiences during the summer's Freedom Film Series. The film, directed by Debra Higgins, Sandra Longo and Anna-Maria Vag, is part of the Jersey Fresh series on Oct. 6, highlighting the best of the year's crop of films from a variety of Garden State filmmakers. The series includes both features and shorts.

Festival passes are $85, day passes are $30 and individual films and shorts segment tickets are $10. Freedom Film Society members pay $8 per screening. Online sale of festival and day passes will be available through the festival Web site www.rbiff.org. During the festival, passes are available at Clearview Cinemas subject to availability. For a complete festival schedule, film descriptions and more information, visit www.rbiff.org or contact the Freedom Film Society at (732) 741- 8089.