First Night: Film Festival

First Night Film Festival
Monday, December 31
All movies will screen in Room 312 of the Hynes Convention Center, except for the Dylan at Newport feature, which will be in Hall D.
All indoor events are accessible with a First Night button ($15)
Official First Night site

First Night usually inspires thoughts of fireworks, ice sculptures, and outdoor activities. But movies are First Night's secret weapon because a) the lineup of movies is great and b) you can stay warm and entertained at the same time. The First Night Film Festival is only a slice of the action.

Music documentaries dominate this year's Film Festival. We Are Together follows a choir of South African orphans. Note by Note reveals how a Steinway piano is made. The title of Girls Rock! is almost too self-explanatory, but it's hard not to love a documentary in which rock icons like Carrie Brownstein teach young women how to kick some ass. Here's the trailer:

Wetlands Preserved! sounds like a straight-up environmental documentary, but it's really about a nightclub with activist inclinations. If you guessed that means Ani DiFranco shows up somewhere, you would be correct. The icing on the cake is Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965: The Other Side of the Mirror, which remembers when Bob Dylan discovered electricity.

The exception to the music-documentary rule is the feature The Air I Breathe, starring Kevin Bacon, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Forest Whitaker. Variety called the movie "morosely pretentious," but Forest Whitaker could probably just eat a bowl of Chex, and he'd still make it look interesting.

First Night buttons can be purchased for$15 at Shaw's and Star Markets, Store 24, L'il Peach, Tedeschi's, and Au Bon Pain. On December 31, you can get the buttons for $20 at the Hynes Convention Center and at booths on the Common and at the Public Garden. All button locations can be found at the First Night site.

First Night Film Festival schedule summary after the jump! Girls Rock! trailer from iFilm.