Film Festival Theme Reveal: Honoring The Capital Gazette

Recently, The Annapolis Film Festival revealed the new 2019 theme poster created by the Fest’s Art Director, Joe Barsin of Citizen Pride & JEB Design, at the newly renovated Market House near City Dock in Annapolis. AFF’s Creative Directors, Lee Anderson and Patti White, introduced Barsin and his seventh poster he has created for the Fest since its founding in 2013 (See poster series here). 

The AFF 2019 poster theme is a tribute to our friends at The Capital Gazette who died defending Freedom of the Press and for the survivors who continue to fight for truth. The interweaving of the film reel into the Maryland State Capital visually represents a printing press and symbolizes how the film community and the free press are interconnected. They rely on each other and allow for strong voices to open minds. The flame at the top blazes a bright light of hope and serves as a reminder to our community to Stay Strong and Press On.  — Joe Barsin, AFF Art Director

More is explained in this video but the poster and the entire theme for AFF is dedicated to our friends who died at The Capital this past June. The tagline, Voices Strong. Minds Open., speaks to the spirit of the Free Press which was acknowledged, a few days before this reveal, by The Capital being named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year: The Guardians and the War on Truth.

We honor and remember the victims of the shooting in our beloved city of Annapolis: Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Advocate for Film Festival and good friend, Wendi Winters.