Each year, the Garden State Film Festival has a soft start with a Thursday night screening and benefit for a fellow non-profit, preceding the official opening festivities on Friday. This year, on March 19, 2015, GSFF will host a benefit for the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City and present the film, Greetings from the Shore, at 7:00p.m. at the Claridge Hotel Showroom on the third floor.
Representatives of the Atlantic City Boys and Girls Clubs will be on hand as well as The Champions of Youth who will act as ushers for the evening. The evening will begin with a short film about Sparkle Prevard who was the Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year in 2014.
The Feature film of the evening was written, produced, directed and acted by mostly New Jersey natives, the film stars
Paul Sorvino as a wise and kindly line cook - with a past - who takes a young waitress, played by
Kim Shaw, under his wing at a yacht club. The romantic and intriguing plot is enhanced by a strong supporting cast and Lavalette locations later ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. A GSFF fan favorite, it was presented in 2008 to standing room only audiences, and won best Home Grown Feature and the audience choice for Pick of the Flix. Director Greg Chwerchak will be available for a Q&A after the screening. Tickets are $12.00, with donations accepted to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City.
Last year, for its inaugural year in Atlantic City, GSFF partnered with the Historic Organ Restoration Committee (HORC) for their spring benefit on April 3, 2014 in Boardwalk Hall. HORC is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Midmer-Losh Pipe Organ, the largest pipe organ in the world. The 1926 silent classic starring
Douglas Fairbanks, The Black Pirate, was screened with live organ accompaniment on the smaller Hammond organ in the Adrian Phillips Ballroom.
In 2013, GSFF teamed up with long-time presenting sponsor, the Asbury Park Press, for "Restore the Shore" which benefited the American Red Cross Jersey Shore Chapter and the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau. The proceeds of a commemorative photo book published by the Press exceeded $80,000, and were donated to the worthy causes.
"Hosting a screening to support another worthy cause is part of the festival's mission," explains Executive Director and Founder Diane Raver, "We selected Greetings from the Shore because of its historic relationship with the festival as the most successful premiere of a New Jersey-based feature since founding. It can deliver a crowd which is the ultimate goal in supporting the Boys & Girls Club."
For more information on the festival and its films, please visit
www.gsff.org where individual screening tickets ($12.00 ) and weekend passes ($45.00) are available for purchase, as well as at box offices located on site. An Atlantic City Jitney will be available to ferry guests between locations.
About the Garden State Film Festival: The Garden State Film Festival was envisioned by 25-year film industry veteran Diane Raver and the late Hollywood actor Robert Pastorelli in 2002 and launched the following year. Since 2003, thousands of films have made their public premiers, hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have attended; and the total infusion of cash to local businesses since inception exceeds $5 million. Until 2013, it was held in Asbury Park. In 2014, it moved to Atlantic City as a major component of DO AC, the marketing campaign to promote arts and culture the city spearheaded by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. The GSFF is a 501-c-3 non-profit organization.
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