Fairhope Film Festival highlights culture and creativity
By Margaret Marchuk
October 27, 2025 at 11:46 AM CDT
The Fairhope Film Festival started as an annual film series run out of a tiny garage as a community service.
Mary Riser, Fairhope, Alabama, resident and former college literature professor, says she started the monthly event in 1998, “Because I thought the community deserved a better quality of movies than they were receiving at the big box theaters.”
Instead of complaining about the lack of good films, she took action in bringing 24 English-speaking and foreign films a year to Fairhope.
Eventually, Riser got together with some other like-minded folks and decided it was time to screen movies in a film festival manner. In 2012, the official Fairhope Film Festival was born. The four-day festival includes feature and short films, panels with filmmakers, a red-carpet event, and opportunities to network with filmmakers. It is Riser’s love of storytelling and the power of film to educate, evoke emotions, and challenge perspectives that fueled her passion to create a festival.
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“I really admire filmmakers, as I believe film is the ultimate artistic form because it encompasses all or most of the other art types: acting, music, architecture, and sculpture in set design, etc.,” Riser said. “Film plays a huge role in exposing us to others in the world. It is a way of understanding and accepting one another. Film offers an excellent cultural exchange of ideas, thoughts, and ways of being in the world.”
Films submitted and considered for the festival must meet certain criteria. First, it needs to tell a compelling story; second, it should not have been widely viewed yet, and third, it should have been nominated for or won at other prestigious festivals.
Her passion and persistence is how Riser has been able to lure producers and filmmakers to this seaside community. Over the years, celebrities like Paul Sorvino of “Goodfellas” and David Rodriguez of “Psyche” have come to the festival.
This year’s festival adds a new partnership with the Fethiye Film Festival in Turkey, made possible by Ali Efe Adali. Adali created a cultural connection between his hometown of Fethiye, Turkey, and his adopted home of Fairhope. Festivalgoers in Fairhope will enjoy a selection of short films from the Fethiye Film Festival, while audiences in Turkey will experience a curated collection of shorts from the Fairhope Film Festival.
Also returning is the expanded Fairhope Filmmakers’ 48-Hour Scramble, November 7-9. The competition challenges filmmakers to create a short film in just 48 hours, with entries premiering during the festival.
Riser recently stepped out of her position as executive director of the film festival and handed the reins to Melanie LeCroy, so she would have time for her own film project — the documentary “A Noble Experiment, The Italian Colony in South Alabama,” which will be screened at this year’s festival.
https://youtu.be/zJ2_1sIYLp8
She chose the subject because there is such a dominant force of Italians who were important in the development of Baldwin County. Riser wanted to know why they came to the area in the 1880s. There are 16 families left of the original 29, with some family members in their late 90s. Riser tells the story of how most of them were from the Dolomites of Italy, came to work the coal mines in the Midwest, and were eventually lured to south Alabama by an innovative and social-minded Italian newspaperman who set them up in farming.
The Fairhope Film Festival is Nov. 13-16 with screenings across various venues in Fairhope. Ticket and movie schedule information can be found at fairhopefilmfestival.org.
Mary Riser, Fairhope, Alabama, resident and former college literature professor, says she started the monthly event in 1998, “Because I thought the community deserved a better quality of movies than they were receiving at the big box theaters.”
Instead of complaining about the lack of good films, she took action in bringing 24 English-speaking and foreign films a year to Fairhope.
Eventually, Riser got together with some other like-minded folks and decided it was time to screen movies in a film festival manner. In 2012, the official Fairhope Film Festival was born. The four-day festival includes feature and short films, panels with filmmakers, a red-carpet event, and opportunities to network with filmmakers. It is Riser’s love of storytelling and the power of film to educate, evoke emotions, and challenge perspectives that fueled her passion to create a festival.
(735x735, AR: 1.0)
“I really admire filmmakers, as I believe film is the ultimate artistic form because it encompasses all or most of the other art types: acting, music, architecture, and sculpture in set design, etc.,” Riser said. “Film plays a huge role in exposing us to others in the world. It is a way of understanding and accepting one another. Film offers an excellent cultural exchange of ideas, thoughts, and ways of being in the world.”
Films submitted and considered for the festival must meet certain criteria. First, it needs to tell a compelling story; second, it should not have been widely viewed yet, and third, it should have been nominated for or won at other prestigious festivals.
Her passion and persistence is how Riser has been able to lure producers and filmmakers to this seaside community. Over the years, celebrities like Paul Sorvino of “Goodfellas” and David Rodriguez of “Psyche” have come to the festival.
This year’s festival adds a new partnership with the Fethiye Film Festival in Turkey, made possible by Ali Efe Adali. Adali created a cultural connection between his hometown of Fethiye, Turkey, and his adopted home of Fairhope. Festivalgoers in Fairhope will enjoy a selection of short films from the Fethiye Film Festival, while audiences in Turkey will experience a curated collection of shorts from the Fairhope Film Festival.
Also returning is the expanded Fairhope Filmmakers’ 48-Hour Scramble, November 7-9. The competition challenges filmmakers to create a short film in just 48 hours, with entries premiering during the festival.
Riser recently stepped out of her position as executive director of the film festival and handed the reins to Melanie LeCroy, so she would have time for her own film project — the documentary “A Noble Experiment, The Italian Colony in South Alabama,” which will be screened at this year’s festival.
https://youtu.be/zJ2_1sIYLp8
She chose the subject because there is such a dominant force of Italians who were important in the development of Baldwin County. Riser wanted to know why they came to the area in the 1880s. There are 16 families left of the original 29, with some family members in their late 90s. Riser tells the story of how most of them were from the Dolomites of Italy, came to work the coal mines in the Midwest, and were eventually lured to south Alabama by an innovative and social-minded Italian newspaperman who set them up in farming.
The Fairhope Film Festival is Nov. 13-16 with screenings across various venues in Fairhope. Ticket and movie schedule information can be found at fairhopefilmfestival.org.