The Martha's Vineyard Film Society Welcomes A New Board Member And Colleague!

This past summer at our annual Board Meeting in July, the Film Society welcomed to its board a new member: David Heilbroner. We also have the pleasure of announcing the hiring of Ayanna Fhagen-Smith full time, after she spent the summer as an intern at the Film Center.

David has been a summer (and occasional winter) MV resident since the early 1960's.

Formerly an assistant New York City DA and nonfiction author, David changed careers to become a documentary film director and producer. His many films have screened worldwide and have won the Emmy, two Peabody awards, an NAACP Image Award, and an Academy Award nomination.

Prior to joining the film society board, David served as president of the Hancock Beach Association for six years.

Ayanna Fhagen-Smith

Ayanna Fhagen-Smith joins our Film Center team as a Theater Manager and Communications coordinator.

Ayanna is a recent Champlain College graduate with a degree in Professional Writing. Ayanna grew up on Martha’s Vineyard and is delighted to return to the island and work somewhere she’s loved coming to for years. After a summer interning with the MV Film Society, she is excited to be joining full-time! Fun fact: she’s lived on the island for as long as the Film Center has been in its current location! She’s always been passionate about storytelling, whether written or on the big screen, and now she gets to help bring others to see various stories at The Film Society. When she’s not working, you can usually find her reading a book (the genres vary), watching a movie or TV show, or thinking up ideas for her next story.

Long-time Board Member is honored Kate Davis

Kate Davis has championed these past nine years the MV Film Society, especially during the early years of the MV Film Center, when our success was still uncertain. She believed in our mission and the programming we were doing in the community enough to join our Board and make a difference by advocating for films and filmmakers to collaborate with us at the center.

She was surprised to receive as a parting gift of gratitude, a custom flight on the Katama Airfield Biplane. For an adventurous woman, its always up up away.

The MV Film Society receives two grants this summer

The MV Bank's Community Impact Grant program was launched in 2020 as a way to engage the community to nominate and vote for local nonprofits that made a significant impact in the community.

Wow, the Vineyard community voted our very own MV Film Society the most deserving Island nonprofit -- for the second time in four years. The grant of $5000 will be used for future programming this Winter.

The award was presented by Jennifer Ray, MV Bank representative for its charitable foundation.