Rick Groleau Has Expanded One of His Shorts Into a Haunting Look at Mental Illness in “The Bloodworm Festival” – review on 12/9

Monday, December 9th we will review Rick Groleau’s latest feature, The Bloodworm Festival which examines the often thin line between reality and fantasy.

LOGLINE:
Determined to attend an obscure film festival in Maine, a down-and-out filmmaker sets out on a journey that devolves into a psychological roller coaster.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rick Groleau is a multimedia producer who has spent most of his career at WGBH (Boston’s public television station), where he worked as a science writer, web producer, project manager, and editor (of content, not of film and video). He has written, storyboarded, and produced over 100 interactive features, mostly for Nova, but also for the American Experience, This Old House, and Mystery. He currently works at Harvard Medical School as a video producer/editor, focusing mainly on projects that help explain research being conducted at the school.

Although Rick studied film and television production at Emerson College in the late 1980s, it wasn’t until 2008 that he actually began to work on video and film projects. He submitted his first film to a festival in 2013. The film, which is about a father and son who surf 10 beaches in four states in five days, was an official selection of the Maine Outdoor Film Festival. Since then, four other films have been shown at 17 (smallish) festivals and have won Best Feature, Best Director, Best Maine Film, and Best of Festival awards.

In 2015 Rick wrote his first screenplay — a short called The Old Yard. That script won Best Screenplay in the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival’s screenplay competition. Other scripts have been recognized by Boston International Film Festival (finalist), New York Short Film and Screenplay Festival (finalist), Hollywood Hills Screenplay Competition (official selection), and the The Script Lab Free Screenplay Contest (semifinalist).

LOCATION:  66 Winthrop Street, Cambridge

TIME:  7:00 – 9:00 PM

COST:  $20.00 payable in cash or check.