The 6th Montclair Film Festival that ran from April 28th to May 7th, had its closing night celebrations. The closing night film was Zoe Lister-Jones's directorial debut BAND AID. A house-full screening at the iconic Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, and a live discussion with Zoe herself, was followed by A filmmakers party at MFF's new & beautiful headquarters at Cinema505. the party was joined by several filmmakers and film lovers from New Jersey, New York and nationwide, enjoying delicious food by Events by Joni and drinks by New Jersey Beer Co. The Filmmaker Party was the perfect ending to ten days of great cinema, conversations, and community!

Closing night film BAND AID came to MFF on the heels of Sundance, where the film had its world premiere. It well deservedly got great response there, and got picked by IFC & Sony Pictures Worldwide for theatrical release on June 2, 2017.

The film is a beautiful tale of a couple (played by Zoe and Adam Pally) who love and hate each other. Maybe more fighting than loving. But that hate and fighting inspires them to write hate songs. And they love that. They end up forming a band, with their weird sexaholic neighbor and drummer, Dave (played wonderfully by Fred Armisen). The film is very musical and very funny, thanks to the wonderful cast and good writing. The film also gets quite emotional and the right moments, making it a good mix of drama and comedy.

The film does tend to be very feminist, for some people's taste, but it does not really get offensive. For many people, its close to truth (Ben dealing with his pain through video games!). Zoe mentioned that it was entire women crew that made the film. And the diversity/inclusion in her casting is quite evident. Zoe does a great job of making an impactful first film.

The screening was followed by a discussion with Zoe. You can watch it here