The Essex FilmFest Turns a Centerbrook Mill Into a Two-Day Look at One Producer's Career

The second annual Essex FilmFest runs Friday, Nov. 6, and Saturday, Nov. 7. All four of its films come out of one man's filmography. Scott Macaulay is the festival's guest filmmaker. He co-founded Filmmaker magazine and was its editor-in-chief, and he has a producing credit on every title in the lineup. Film Independent's biography lists him as a producer or executive producer of What Happened Was…, Raising Victor Vargas and Gummo. Rotten Tomatoes credits him as a producer of The Assistant.

That makes the weekend a retrospective of a single career, shown in an auditorium on Main Street in Centerbrook, and admission is free. The Essex Library Association organizes the festival. Optional donations go to the library, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Four Films, One Producer's Shelf

Macaulay's credits span three decades of American independent film. The Film Independent biography says he produced with his partner Robin O'Hara through their company, Forensic Films, and that the two won an Independent Spirit Award in 1998 for their producing work. Before he worked in film, he was programming director of The Kitchen in New York. The four films in Centerbrook give a sample of that range.

• What Happened Was… Tom Noonan wrote, directed and stars in this two-person story of an awkward first date between co-workers. It won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. After the screening, Karen Sillas and Macaulay will hold a conversation.
• Raising Victor Vargas is Peter Sollett's coming-of-age story set on the Lower East Side. It premiered in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section and won the Grand Special Prize at the Deauville Film Festival. Sascha Paladino moderates the Q&A.
• The Assistant is Kitty Green's film about a single workday at a powerful production company, with Julia Garner in the lead role. It won the Louis Roederer Foundation's Directing Prize at Deauville. Sophia Harvey moderates.
• Gummo is Harmony Korine's portrait of teenagers in a small Ohio town after a tornado. The festival calls it one of the most influential and controversial American independent films of the 1990s. Alex Calvo moderates.

All four films are rated R, and the festival's listing gives the reason for each rating. Gummo's rating is the most extensive.

Seeing all four in one room shows how a producer's taste carries from project to project. The same name sits behind a Sundance prizewinner, a Cannes premiere, a Deauville prizewinner and a cult film nearly thirty years old. The weekend ends with Macaulay himself in a Q&A.

The Schedule, Friday Night Through Saturday Evening

Most of the festival takes place at Centerbrook Architects, 67 Main Street. The opening reception is at Essex Library, 33 West Avenue. Ticket listings on Humanitix give these times:

1. Friday, 5:30 p.m. Opening reception at Essex Library.
2. Friday, 8 p.m. What Happened Was… in the Centerbrook Architects auditorium.
3. Saturday, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Producing masterclass with Macaulay. The ticket details describe a 45-minute lecture and ask attendees to arrive 15 minutes early.
4. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Raising Victor Vargas with Q&A.
5. Saturday, 2 to 4 p.m. The Assistant with Q&A.
6. Saturday, 5 to 7 p.m. Gummo with Q&A.

The library describes the masterclass as a walk-through of producing an independent film from concept to distribution. It is aimed at filmmakers, writers and anyone curious about the business side.

Tickets on Humanitix are free, and the page asks attendees to reserve a spot. A closing night party follows. To attend, you need to have been to at least one screening, and party tickets are handed out at the screenings. The venue had not been named in the festival's materials.

Why the Screenings Are in an Architecture Office

The building's history explains the venue. Centerbrook Architects works out of a 19th-century mill on the Falls River. The firm says the property has been a water-powered industrial site since 1697. The firm describes the offices as a former factory compound with open spaces, rough wood floors and brick walls.

The firm took over the building in 1975. In its own history, the firm says its principals inherited the factory that year from their mentor, Charles Moore, when he left for Southern California. Jeff Riley, Mark Simon and Chad Floyd carried on the practice.

Centerbrook usually gets less attention than Essex Village's waterfront or the Ivoryton Playhouse. For two days, a former Falls River factory in the middle village hosts Essex's most concentrated cultural program of the fall. The site was built for industry and has since been home to a design firm for half a century.

How Year Two Differs From Year One

The festival began in 2025 with the same basic format. The library sponsored it, tickets were free with a suggested donation, the screenings were at 67 Main Street, and one guest producer was featured. The programming has changed.

The first lineup had strong Connecticut ties. The Missing Girl was shot in New London and was written and directed by A.D. Calvo, the founder of the Essex Film Fest. Let's Scare Jessica to Death, a 1971 cult film, was shot in Essex, and the screening came with a guided tour of the house where it was filmed. Junebug was shown for its 20th anniversary.

The second year looks outward. The 2026 lineup is built around one guest's body of work, so the festival now works more like a career retrospective than a hometown showcase. The setting has stayed the same.

Eating on Main Street in Centerbrook

Saturday has two breaks between screenings, from 1 to 2 p.m. and from 4 to 5 p.m. That isn't much time, so a meal close by is useful.

Bella Canggio is the newest name on this stretch. In July, Patch and the Norwich Bulletin reported that Canggio would leave Norwich and reopen in Centerbrook as Bella Canggio. Co-owners Julio Cancho and Elena Lettieri planned to add lunch service and a produce-and-herb greenhouse. The restaurant's website now lists 78 Main Street, Centerbrook, and describes the food as modern Peruvian cuisine with handcrafted cocktails. The site says the greenhouse "will soon become an extension" of the kitchen. The town's Economic Development Commission tracked the move. Its July minutes noted a restaurant moving into 78 Main Street that "has been in business for 10 years."

For something quicker, Cooked Marketplace & Mercantile at 5 Main Street, Centerbrook, sells prepared foods and market goods.

The village has more businesses on the way. In August, the commission's minutes listed a fireplace store moving into Centerbrook and a bakery in town that had its permits but had not yet opened.

Then the Calendar Moves to the Other Two Villages

The festival opens Essex's late-fall calendar, and the events that follow move through the town's other two villages.

• Wednesday, Nov. 11, from 5 p.m., Essex Village. Essex Village merchants take part in Girls' Night Out. Check-ins for discount stickers are at The Wine Bar at The Griswold Inn and Privé-Swiss Wellness MedSpa.
• Nov. 19 through Dec. 20, Ivoryton. The Ivoryton Playhouse Holiday Jamboree runs with evening and matinee shows. Tickets are $60 for adults, $55 for seniors and $25 for students, plus fees.
• Saturday, Dec. 5, 5:30 to 8 p.m., Ivoryton. At Ivoryton Illuminations, Santa arrives at the Playhouse at 6 p.m. and lights go up across the village.

The Essex Board of Trade is also running a $10 community raffle with prizes from local businesses through November. In Ivoryton, the Playhouse reports that construction has begun on the Sally and George Mayer Rehearsal Studio. It hopes the first show of the 2027 season will be the first production to rehearse there.

Before any of that, the Essex FilmFest opens on Friday, Nov. 6, with a 5:30 p.m. reception at Essex Library and What Happened Was… at 8 p.m. at 67 Main Street.

If the festival has you curious about Centerbrook, or about Ivoryton and Essex Village after it, Tammy Tinnerello brings that same local knowledge to every conversation. Work With Tammy.