Search for Vince Martin on Amazon and you’ll find a review by a man who calls himself Martin’s nephew and claims the legendary folksinger has been cheated of royalties for music he created as long as 50 years ago. A rehabilitation effort for Martin seems under way. The Ohio Independent Film Festival at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern is playing its part.
Martin was part of the pre-Dylan Greenwich Village folk scene and worked with John Sebastian and Felix Pappalardi when they were session men. He may be best-known for his brief association with fellow South Floridian Fred Neil, the singer-songwriter who wrote “Everybody’s Talkin’.” Martin is the star of Vagabondo, a documentary by Clevelander Todd Kwait and John Sebastian’s kid brother, Mark. It will be shown at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Beachland as part of the Ohio Independent Film Festival.
Martin is expected to show up at the screening, part of a benefit for Independent Pictures, the festival’s parent company. Tickets at $75 gain entrée to a 6 p.m. social hour (complete with drinks and food), the hour-long Vagabondo, and a performance of Martin’s material by the Gems, a band from New York headed by singer Alana Amram. (Alana Amram is the daughter of the noted modern classical composer, David Amram.) A $25 ticket gets you everything but the social hour.
Martin, who recorded an album with Neil in 1965, may have hit his peak with the 1969 album “If the Jasmine Won’t Get You, the Bay Breeze Will,” a lanky, jazzy disk that occupied terrain similar to that of Tim Buckley. It featured many of the same musicians who mellowed out Dylan on “John Wesley Harding.”
Vagabondo is the highlight of a series of screenings that begins at noon Saturday at the Beachland. The festival actually kicks off Friday, when Kwait hosts a 6 p.m. meet-and-greet at the Arts Collinwood Café.
Founded in 1993, the Ohio Independent Film Festival was designed to showcase locally made films. Now, it features movies from all over the world. All are films “that have not been fortunate enough to get traditional methods of distribution,” says Bernadette Gillota, founder and artistic director of the non-profit organization.
Unlike other film festivals, the OIIF is a standalone that “you have to enter to get into,” she says. “There’s a little-known secret in the film festival business: Most festivals farm from other festivals. But the way we program is strictly from submissions; we’re not invitational.”
How wide a net does OIIF cast? “This year, we’ve got films from Australia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Canada,” says Gillota. “We also do screenplay contests. We get scripts from all over the world.”
A prize of $250 will go to the winner of a competition among six Ohio college-based films. The winner will be announced at noon Saturday.
Other key events:
- Sixteen to Life, directed by Mandy Hutchings and produced by Rocky River resident Cigdem Slankard. This will show at 2 Saturday afternoon. It’s about two teen-aged girls dealing with their families and peers against the backdrop of the punk rock they love.
- Mad World, directed by Corey Cataldo. This deals with teen-aged boys and, according to Gillota, doesn’t stint on violence. Sunday, 4 p.m.
- Do no Harm, a film by Rebecca Schanberg about two men who expose corruption in how a non-profit hospital in Georgia treats the uninsured. 7 p.m. Monday.
The festival will conclude at 9 p.m. Monday with Forgotten Pills, David Heffner’s movie about a group of elderly childhood friends who experiment with “blue-and-whites,” pills that cause amnesia at the stroke of midnight.
Gillota said that when the festival began, films were shot in 16 millimeter or Super 8; now they’re all digital video. “We started really as an outlet for ourselves and our friends,” she says. “Now, that’s dramatically changed.”
When OIIF began, the Cleveland International Film Festival didn’t show “locally made films,” says Gillota. “Now they do, because it’s a good idea.”
For a complete schedule, visit www.ohiofilms.com. For more detailed ticket information, call Independent Pictures at 216-926-6166. Both the Ohio Film Festival and Independent Pictures are on Facebook. Check out www.vincemartin.net for some interesting history.
