Adam Baranello Launches OFF Hampton Film Festival with New Art

Hampton Bays artist and multitalented creative force Adam Baranello is back at Southampton Cultural Center for what has become an annual tradition of him showing his latest paintings, drawings, sculpture, film projects and fashion.

This year’s exhibition, titled This Is My Art and on view through February, adds an installation element and it will launch the very first OFF Hampton Film Festival, which Baranello initially conceived as a laugh with Ben McHugh, a close friend, fellow artist and owner of Hampton Photo Arts in Southampton and Bridgehampton.

Baranello, who says This Is My Art features mostly new works created over the past year, since his A Room Full of Art show at SCC last winter, but it also pulls selections from previous shows or pieces he wasn’t able to display before.

He’s also quite excited and focused on Racecar, his most recent finished film project, and his new vampire movie, Night, which is currently in production. Completed in the fall, Racecar is a feature-length experimental art film about the search for the American Dream and how souls connect to achieve it.

Baranello explains that he cut Racecar into a short that could screen at more film festivals.

“It’s an hour and 20, the full film, but it is actually set up where you could make a short and it’s still the idea of the film, so I did that and it’s gotten into like 20 festivals since then, which is pretty cool. Shorts are easier to get into festivals,” he says, adding, “Once it gets some traction, then more festivals contact you, so that’s been cool.”

And his move paid off. So far, Racecar has won the Gold Achievement award in the Professional category at the International Film Festival of Manhattan, Best Experimental Film at the Elegant International Film Festival, Best Director from the NicoMedia Film Awards, and it was a finalist in five other festivals.

He will be screening the short version of Racecar on Saturday, January 20 at his own OFF Hampton Film Festival (OHFF), which for its inaugural year is just two weekend screenings and filmmaker talks at the Southampton Cultural Center’s theater. Before Racecar screens, the festival will begin this Saturday, January 13 with The Weekend and Lonely Hearts, two shorts by Dennis Cahlo, a multiple award-winning writer/director from upstate NY known for mixing horror and humor, along with some very interesting short-form videos with unique audio tracks on social media.

“Lonely Hearts is in the comedic horror genre, so it’s kind of funny but in the vein of a horror film,” Baranello says, pointing out that he and Cahlo have been friends for years online, but this will be their first time meeting in-person. They immediately hit it off when they began talking on the phone and he invited the filmmaker to the OHFF. “The first film is heavier. It’s based on a true event. A friend of his spent a weekend with him and then overdosed and died. A girl. So it’s kind of about that,” he says, noting that he was a fan of Cahlo before meeting him.

“I just like his work, it’s very different than mine. It’s like Hitchcock, very stylized and very clear. The shots are very planned out and the lighting — just perfect. Very, very different than mine, but very cool to look at,” Baranello adds. “The next two Saturdays we’re going to do screenings — have a reception in the gallery, screen the film and do a talkback.”

Receptions will begin at 5 p.m. in the gallery where guests can admire Baranello’s artwork, followed by the films at 6 p.m. and filmmaker talks/Q&A sessions after that.

Along with all the expressionist art, racks of hand-painted clothing and vintage televisions playing Baranello’s films, visitors of This Is My Art will notice a giant, grayish-tan paper square duct-taped to the floor in the center of the space. “The Floor,” Baranello explains, is an evolving piece that welcomes people to walk on it, and will continue to be patched and taped as it gets worn from accumulated foot traffic. Originally, it covered the entire floor, but had to be reduced for fire safety concerns, though it remains a fresh and tactile addition to the exhibition.

“I liked the idea of the whole floor because it changed the look of the space a lot. This still does, but it was even more drastic, and then when you’re walking on it, all of a sudden you notice what you’re stepping on. I really like that it gave it a more immersive, visceral feel,” the artist says, pointing out that the installation is transformative even though it’s just paper and tape.

It’s quite clear that Baranello, who is unbelievably prolific and infectiously enthusiastic about art — whether it’s making his own or admiring the work of others — would find a way to create with whatever material is at his disposal. If he were stuck in a solitary confinement cell, there’s no doubt he’s end up arranging paint chips, food and spiderwebs into something compelling.

And this is why his annual show at SCC is such a pleasure to behold, especially when Baranello is around to talk about it and share all his latest plans and projects. We could all benefit from a bit of his energy and excitement.

Check out This Is My Art and the OFF Hampton Film Festival at Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane in Southampton. Learn more at scc-arts.org.