“The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” wins Best Long Short Movie at the Millesimo – Cairo Montenetto International Film Festival

Officially “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre“, the first of my now three short film musical Edgar Allan Poe adaptations (the second being “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre“, the third being filmed right now), concluded its film festival run years ago. But the occasional invitation and public screening still occurs, and this Saturday it both screened and was rewarded at the Millesimo – Cairo Montenetto International Film Festival in Italy.

The festival took place over two days in the quaint neighboring towns of Mellisimo and Cairo Montenetto in the Province of Savona in the Italian region Liguria, located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Genoa.

Friday there were screenings and live concerts in a refurbished castle ruin in Mellisimo, top left in the photo above.

There are three levels of performance space in the modern renovation of the hollowed out castle ruin.

Friday’s program included screenings of festival films, followed by live performances, including excerpts from a 1911 silent film of Dante’s Inferno, with four handed piano performance of the original score especially composed to be performed in 1911 along the silent film’s public performances.

There was a startling amount of nudity in this 1911 film, particularly when depicting poor souls in various circles of hell.

Clearly every castle requires a suit of armor.

View of Millesimo from the castle.

This bridge tower is 800 years old.

A modern, bouncy foot bridge connects to the remnants of the old bridge.

Saturday’s festival program took place in the Cinema Teatro in Cairo Montenetto.

“The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” was very well received.

Because of the Covid pandemic most of my Tell-Tale festival experiences were virtual. The film did still screen live in several actual movie theaters, but travel restrictions kept me from attending those screenings at the time. So for me this was the largest screen I had ever seen my first short film in – this wide-lens photo from the back doesn’t fairly relate just how large this screen is to anyone sitting in the lower rows.

Cairo Montenetto also has a lovely old town and a prominent medieval ruin.

The old town gate tower, nestled between two more modern constructions.

After a day of screenings and live musical performances, the awards presentation commenced.

Being the first award announced threw me for a minute. At least that’s my excuse for my goofy walk down the stairs and going blank during the speech.

That’s festival directors Andrew Vandaele and Alberto Bellavia handing me my certificate.

Actor/Producer Brittany Christine took the above video. Here we are on the red carpet: