Partners for a Healthier Community

The first annual Fall River Children's Film Festival was kicked-off on Saturday, May 7th, at the former Cherry & Webb Gallery in the UMass Professional Learning Center. The festival also included an exhibit of children's book illustrations titled "The Art of the Story". The multi-week event features videos of children's stories and the chance to meet children's authors, promoting literacy in Fall River, one of the Healthy City initiative priorities. Author Peter Reynolds opened the event with a showing of the film based on his popular book The Dot. Reynolds spent the day reading from his books, talking to children and signing copies of his books. Local illustrators were also available for talks and book signings both on the 7th as well as May 14th when the festival continues. The films shown are from Weston Woods Studios, which has produced more than 500 children's films. The film festival and exhibit were coordinated by the city, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Professional and Continuing Education, Fall River Office of Economic Development and various local businesses who sponsored the event. Three thousand area school children were scheduled to attend the film festival weekdays throughout the month. Click here to read the Herald News article about the event.

(Top row, center) Kenneth Fiola, Jr., Esq., Fall River Office of Economic Development's Executive Vice President, welcomed guests and introduced Lynne Berube of Baker Books, business sponsor Fernando Garcia of Fall River Ford, Comcast Manager of Government & Community Relations Nancy Leonardo, Assistant Chancellor Susan Lane of the University of Massachusetts, Postmaster Donna Blain (who introduced a new first day cover for the event), Victoria Mathiesen of the Cherry and Webb Gallery, and Mayor Edward M. Lambert, Jr. (Top row, right) Author Peter Reynolds introduced the film version of his book The Dot and described how he got the idea for it and several other books he has published, including Ish and The North Star.