In recent years, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival has called the Grange Hall in West Tisbury its main hub. But on Wednesday, the festival rang in a new era by opening at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse.
The annual festival produced by Circuit Arts is officially underway, running through March 29 and featuring a rotation of documentaries, narrative films and shorts sourced from all over the world. Screenings are interspersed with live music, art exhibits, discussions and catered dinners, all Island-grown.
For Kelly Kaye, managing director of Circuit Arts, the festival’s aim is not just to curate a robust slate of films, but to curate a “third space,” separate from home and work, where people can enjoy art, food and each other.
“Even if you don’t make it into a movie, there’s still something happening,” she said.
Mark Cronin, a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival board of directors, kicked off the festival before the Playhouse’s sold-out crowd Wednesday night. He said that even as a child visiting the Vineyard he could feel the strong, steady presence of arts here.
“[The Vineyard] seemed to be alive with the arts,” he recalled. “It seemed to have photographers and dancers and singers and bands and plays. You could see Spalding Gray here on this [Playhouse] stage trying out his material for Broadway.”
“Circuit Arts is continuing that and enhancing that and driving that forward,” he added.
Mr. Cronin looks forward to what the merger between Circuit Arts and the Playhouse will bring, both at the festival and beyond.
“If the big Hollywood studios can do it, why can’t we?” he said with a smile.
When the house lights went down, the screen came to life with the festival’s own video introduction — a technicolor, MTV-meets-Adult Swim affair, held down by a breakdancer with a camera for a head.
Then the first film began, a documentary from Judd Apatow and Neil Berkeley called Paralyzed By Hope: the Maria Bamford Story.
The film follows the career and life of Ms. Bamford, a stand-up comedian whose several Netflix specials, late-night show appearances and television roles have gained her notoriety. It explores Ms. Bamford’s lifelong difficulty with her mental health as it presents itself on and off the stage.
After the film, Ms. Bamford and Mr. Berkeley took part in a Q&A moderated by Circuit Arts executive director Brian Ditchfield. When asked by an audience member if she considers herself brave for telling her story, Ms. Bamford, wearing her bejeweled catseye glasses from the film and holding a pint-sized dog named Mama, said absolutely not.
“I’m in a gravy boat filled with gravy,” she said. “I’m paid for some of my experiences and get to be dressed up and go to fancy things… whereas plenty of my friends who have mental health issues are not lauded. There’s no documentary being made about them.”
Mr. Berkeley told Mr. Ditchfield he was moved by the fullness of the Playhouse crowd.
“I’m struck by this room full of people,” he said. “Look at this. This is amazing. My view is so wonderful.”
By the screening’s end, the festivities had just begun. In the playhouse lobby, festival patrons enjoyed drinks and snacks from concessions, heard music from Island folk duo Wolftrap, and perused an art exhibit curated by Vineyard artist Kate Lizotte.
Among them were Miriam Louise Arens and Mitchell Arens, directors of the film Heartworm, screening tonight at the Grange Hall and Friday at the Playhouse. Both said they were big fans of the documentary and Ms. Bamford herself.
“She’s so funny,” Ms. Arens said. “She was on the front edge of a lot of things.”
Ms. Arens and Mr. Arens are thrilled that Heartworm, which was filmed entirely on the Vineyard, has found a home at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. Ms. Arens, who grew up in Edgartown and is Mr. Ditchfield’s sister, looks forward to playing the thoroughly Vineyard film for an audience of Vineyarders.
“One of the opening scenes of the film takes place here [at the Playhouse],” Ms. Arens said. “That will be very meta.”
The opportunity to show a film at the festival, they said, is a unique and precious one. For them, its magic comes down to community.
“The audience is so supportive,” Mr. Arens said. “The community is very engaged, they sell out the theatre… I think that’s really rare. There’s no corporate ownership or anything. It’s all driven by the interest in filmmaking as an art.”
This article appears in March 27, 2026.
“For 25 years, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival called the Grange Hall in West Tisbury its main hub.” Really? I don’t think so. For most of those 25 years, we enjoyed the Film Festival at the Chilmark Community Center. I believer that their first year at the Grange was in 2022, four years ago.
Editor’s note: Thank you Hugh. It has been corrected.