INGRID, AN AFFAIR REMAINS and FALLING SOUTH Play The Rhode Island International Film Festival

Marlyn Mason and filmmaker Lorraine Portman will be in attendance at The Rhode Island International Film Festival. Their short film FALLING SOUTH plays Wednesday evening August 8that 6:00 pm with award winning documentary film INGRID and another short film starring Marlyn Mason, AN AFFAIR REMAINS. RIFF represents the New England premiere for FALLING SOUTH and the world premiere for AN AFFAIR REMAINS.

Now in its 22nd year, New England's largest and most prestigious festival - Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) - will take place August 7-12, 2018. Ranked as a one of the Top 10 Film Festivals in the United States, this world-class event will be held at venues around Providence. The Festival has become a leading juried competition showcase for international independent filmmakers and their work. It features screenings, filmmaking workshops, meet-and-greet industry events and seminars. Aiming to promote Rhode Island as a filmmaking location and to celebrate the independent filmmaking spirit, FLICKERS also hosts a number of high-profile premieres and provides a showcase for international features, documentaries, and shorts.

This year's line up promises to engage and entertain while saluting RIIFF's unique status: out of more than 7,000 film festivals world wide, the Rhode Island International Film Festival is one of only 6 qualifying Festivals with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences-the Oscars in the live action, animation, and documentary short categories. It is the lone Festival in New England with this distinction.

Marlyn Mason, who stars in AN AFFAIR REMAINS and FALLING SOUTH, will be in attendance at the festival. She has been a special guest of the festival previous years, introducing other short films to the Providence audience.

Bright, vivacious Marlyn Mason has been engaging audiences for decades, as Elvis' leading lady in "The Trouble with Girls" and an incredible list of Television series. Marlyn added spark and sparkle to such sitcoms as "My Three Sons," "Father Knows Best," "Gomer Pyle," "Hey Landlord" and "Occasional Wife," while showing off her dramatic mettle on "Burke's Law," "Ben Casey," "Dr. Kildare," "Laredo," "Bonanza," "Run for Your Life," "The Invaders" and "Perry Mason."

The early 1970s brought Marlyn a regular role in the short-lived but critically acclaimed series "Longstreet" (1972), as a love interest to James Franciscus. It also presented her with a highly revealing change-of-pace movie role in "Making It" (1971) and the second female lead in the Barbara Parkins mystery "Christina" (1974). An abundance of guest star parts continued pouring in with roles on "Love, American Style," "The Odd Couple," "Vegas" and "Wonder Woman" and others. TV mini-movies became quite the rage as well and Marlyn graced a number of them -- "A Storm in Summer" (1970), "Harpy" (1971), "Escape" (1971), the Emmy Award- winning "That Certain Summer "(1972), "Outrage" (1973), "Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan" (1975), "Last of the Good Guys" (1978), and "The New Adventures of Heidi" (1978).

Since the 1980s, Marlyn has continued her career with appearances in film and TV. Most recently, has been seen in a few short films in which she worked in front and behind the camera: "Model Rules" (2008) (also writer/producer), "Big" (2009) and "The Bag" (2010) (also writer/producer).

Lorraine Portman, writer/director of FALLING SOUTH, was recognized with The Paul Schrader Best Screenplay Award during this year's Cayman International Film Festival for her screenplay THE KING'S INN. The award was presented by James V. Hart, who was presented with a lifetime achievement award the same evening for his work on HOOK, CONTACT, Bram Stoker'S DRACULA,

FALLING SOUTH premiered in the Cayman International Film Festival in July and has played over forty festivals to date, including The Nashville Film Festival and The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festiva, and won a number of awards.

Lorraine Portman is an award winning Playwright, Screenwriter, and Filmmaker. She taught Playwriting and Screenwriting at Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida for ten years. She holds a B.A. in Theater from Smith College and M.F.A. in Film from Florida State University. Lorraine also attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. She has written and directed seven short films and a feature. Her screenplays have been placing in national and international competitions. She won BlueCat's Screenplay Live! Award in 2010.

The cast of FALLING SOUTH is talent rich. Many of the actors have appeared in familiar television shows and movies. The film is the first starring role for lead actor Madeline Barr. She is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Experimental Theatre Wing. Madeline is the niece of Philip Seymour Hoffman. She followed in his footsteps, attending Tisch. He was a mentor and supportive of her training.

Other "Falling South" cast members include Neil Tyrone Pritchard and Eric T. Miller. Neil Tyrone Pritchard is a LAByrinth Theater Company.

Eric T. Miller is a New York City based actor who often brings new plays to life and has appeared on a number of television shows: "Person of Interest," "The Black List," "The Unusuals," "Elementary," and "Chicago P.D."

FALLING SOUTH is about a woman who puts Rochester in the rear view as she runs away from the life she has known. She has never been on her own and doesn't know if she'll make it as her resources are stripped away. She meets diverse women who offer connection, insight, and laughter on the road to Florida and a possible new life.

The cast and crew represent a very diverse group of people, with women in many key positions. Director of Photography Diana Matos has solid credentials as a camera assistant on TV Shows, "Younger," "House of Cards," and "Project Runway," major motion pictures, "Ricki and the Flash," "Ghostbusters," and more, and has been shooting indie movies as the head of the camera department.

The cast and crew went on a two thousand mile road trip in October 2016 to make the film. They shot on location in Niagara Falls, Ontario; Rochester, New York; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Tennga, Georgia; Crescent City, Pomona Park, and Pierson, Florida. There are worlds in this film that have never been explored on screen before. Tennessee is vividly and beautifully portrayed in the film.

During the shoot, Hurricane Matthew hit Florida and the filmmakers returned to find locations with downed trees and homes without air conditioning and water.

FALLING SOUTH has been recognized with a number of awards including Best Overall Foreign Short, the Audience Choice Award for Short Film, Best Produced Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Short Film, Best Director, and the "Every Woman" Award for best film, short or feature, about women's experience.

Several of the actors have been recognized for their performances in the film. Marlyn Mason has been awarded Best Supporting Actor. Madeline Barr has twice been runner up for Best Actress and won Best Lead Actor in a Mini Feature at The Bare Bones Independent Film Festival.

Ingrid tells the story of a prominent Dallas socialite/fashion designer in the 80s-- who dropped her life and ran off to the woods in order to pursue a personal and creative one. She has since become a reclusive hermit and spends her time creating ceramic sculptures and art out of rocks from the nearby creek. Ingrid peels off the layers of this woman's persona, questioning what would drive a successful Texas fashion designer to leave her profession and family to immerse herself in nature and become an entirely self sufficient woman of the woods.

An Affair Remains, directed by Ray Nomoto Robison, is about a man and a women who cross paths at a mortuary when they retrieve the belongings of their spouses.The film stars Marlyn Mason and Masayuki Yui. Masayuki Yui was born in 1947 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. He is an actor and writer, known for Ran (1985), Kagemusha (1980) and To End All Wars (2001).

FALLING SOUTH, AN AFFAIR REMAINS, and INGRID will play on Wednesday, August 8th at 6:00 pm. Woodman Performance Center Moses Brown School.

Festival website: http://www.film-festival.org

Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3566969