Michael Koryta

Bates Film Festival
2026-05-16 | Bates College, 305 College Street, Lewiston, ME, 04240, United States
The Bates Film Festival was founded in 2018 and has grown rapidly with each iteration. Initially conceived as a way to connect current students interested in film with alums who work in the industry, the festival quickly evolved to embrace a social justice perspective. Over our first three festivals (2018, 2019, 2022, and 2024), we have programmed over 100 films and welcomed over 70 guest experts and filmmakers. Collectively, the films come from 6 different continents, and our guest list includes artists and activists who are Academy Award-, Emmy Award-, and Grammy Award-winners, Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-nominees, and a Rhodes scholar.
Students are involved in every aspect of the festival’s planning and execution. This is what makes our festival unique! Students help to craft the mission statement; select the films; lead promotional efforts; produce festival events; moderate post-screening Q&As and panels; determine festival awards; and much more. Their involvement is intense, multilayered, and essential, and it is deeply valued by our visiting filmmakers.
Ultimately, the festival exists to bring people together around a shared love of movies. In a culture that seems to grow more divided every day, the BFF aspires to initiate and facilitate substantive conversations between individuals who might not have met were it not for a shared interest in movies. Involving students in the planning of the festival allows them to not just witness and engage in those conversations, but also to lead them.

Christopher Golden's Carry Me To Your Bookshelf Tour
2026-08-08 16:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Off Cabot Comedy, Music, & More, 9 Wallis St, Beverly, MA, 01915, United States
With Christopher Golden, Paul Tremblay, Eric LaRocca, Tony Tremblay, Kylie Lee Baker, Errick Nunnally, Nicky Gonzalez, John McIlveen, Lindy Ryan, Bracken MacLeod, Thomas Sniegoski, Jeannine Acheson…and Scott Carson
