CCB MEDIA PHOTO
The filmmakers of “Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson” sit for a panel discussion with Provincetown Art Association and Museum Executive Director Christine McCarthy during the Provincetown Film Festival. From left, cinematographer, editor and executive producer Barbara Green; executive producer and archival researcher Tess Ayers; PAAM Executive Director Chris McCarthy; director, co-writer and executive producer Michelle Boyaner; and co-writer and executive producer Jane Anderson.
PROVINCETOWN – The Provincetown International Film Festival’s audience award for best documentary went to the film “Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson.”
The film has been picked up by HBO and will air on July 20 at 9 p.m.
The film was co-written and directed by Michelle Boyaner of Greenie Films and Barbara Green served as the cinematographer and editor.
But the film is the culmination of a lifetime for Jane Anderson, an Emmy Award-winning screenwriter who set out in search of information about her great aunt Edith. That search, which Anderson embarks on with her partner, Tess Ayers, forms the basis of the film.
Anderson, who is also an artist, said she has felt her aunt’s influence from an early age when Edith’s artworks decorated her childhood home.
Years later, she learned that Edith had been a part of the early days of the Provincetown art colony but she met tragedy later in life when at age 57 she was sent to a mental institution. The attorney who signed the papers was later found to have stolen her inheritance.
The film chronicles Anderson’s search for clues about Edith’s life and leads to some surprising findings.
“Packed in a Trunk” had its Cape Cod premiere during the Provincetown Film Festival. At the first screening on Thursday, the audience gave the movie and the filmmakers a standing ovation.
Anderson said the response to the film in Provincetown, which has such a big role in the movie and likely in Edith’s life, was gratifying.
“It’s about bringing my great aunt Edith back to this incredible place where she lived and thrived as an artist. This was her soul location,” Anderson said.
She said that when the audience stood up at the end of the film, she felt a mystical connection.
“I felt like I had Edith by my side. I felt like justice was done, and this entire town was welcoming her back. It was incredibly moving,” she said.
The filmmakers took great care to represent Provincetown’s history with regard to the early years of the art colony.
“The good citizens of Provincetown are just a little suspicious of outsiders coming in and portraying their town and the fact that they were pleased with what we did really, really meant a lot to us,” she said.
The other awards given out Sunday night, the last night of the festival, were the HBO Audience Award / Best Narrative Feature for LEARNING TO DRIVE directed by Isabel Coixet; the John Schlesinger Award, presented to a first time documentary and narrative feature filmmaker to BREATHE, directed by Mélanie Laurent (narrative) and OUTERMOST RADIO directed by Alan Chebot (documentary).
As for awards for short films, the HBO Short Documentary Award went to THE FACE OF UKRAINE: CASTING OKSANA BAIUL directed by Kitty Green; and the Jury Award / Best Narrative Short Film went to MYRNA THE MONSTER directed by Ian Samuels.
The Jury Award / Best Animated Short Film went to SYMPHONY NO. 42 directed by Réka Bucsi; and the Jury Award / Best New England Short Film went to AWESOME_FCK directed by Isaak James.
The Jury Award / Student Short Film went to SHARE directed by Pippa Bianco.
The Short Film Jury consisted of documentary filmmaker Jeff Dupre, producer Laura Heberton and Mark Elijah Rosenberg, founder and artistic director of Rooftop Films.
Bobcat Goldthwait was presented with the 2015 Filmmaker on the Edge Award in conversation with festival resident artist John Waters at Town Hall on Saturday night. Jennifer Coolidge received the Faith Hubley Career Achievement Award in conversation with film critic and professor B. Ruby Rich.
The festival also announced the dates for next year’s event as June 15 to 19, 2016.
By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
