How It Started

In the winter of 2001, Thomas Bena and a group of friends were desperate for good movies.

They had rented nearly every VHS and DVD at the only video store on Martha’s Vineyard, and the two movie theaters then open were only showing basic blockbusters. Although they had never even been to a film festival, they asked friends to help create an alternative movie experience—one that would feature fantastic films alongside nourishing food, art, and music.

They invited several independent filmmakers, each excited to present their work at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury. With a little notice in The Martha’s Vineyard Times and a heap of phone calls, the hall was packed. The projection booth doubled as a kitchen. Curries were prepared just a few feet from the gear. A series of interviews with Islanders played on television screens throughout the building. Strangers talked, friends were made, and people had a great time at the first annual Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival.

In the two decades that followed, the festival moved farther up Island and established itself at the Chilmark Community Center and surrounding buildings and businesses, becoming a much-anticipated March event that attracted filmgoers from far and wide, featured memorable guest filmmakers and film subjects, and expanded to include workshops, theater performances, and programming for children.

In 2022, under new leadership, the festival returned to the Grange Hall, following a new leasing and conversion of the historic building’s second-floor theater. Reimagining that communal space as the Island’s living room, Circuit Arts, the festival’s producing nonprofit organization, has ushered in a new era of film for the Vineyard community.