Community Corner
Echols of 'The West Memphis Three' to Speak at Salem Film Festival
Damien Echols, who will forever be known as a member of 'The West Memphis Three', will speak at this year's Salem Film Festival following a screening of a film detailing the trial that landed him on death row.
The sixth annual Salem Film Fest will feature a live Q&A session with new Salem resident and West Memphis Three member Damien Echols following a screening of West of Memphis - a documentary detailing the high-profile murder trial that landed him on death row for almost two decades.
Echols moved to Salem last year. He was released from prison in 2011 on a plea deal after new evidence indicated that he was not responsible for the murder of three young boys - a crime that he and two other men served 18 years in jail for before being released.
Over the past two years, Echols has been sharing his thoughts on Salem, his new home, via Twitter. You can follow Echols on Twitter here.
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The film festival, which will run from March 7 to March 14, will offer screenings of 32 films from 17 different countries.
It is scheduled to kick off at the Peabody Essex Museum with the world premiere of The Ghost Army, a film about a top-secret WWII unit that used inflatable tanks, sound trucks and other clever tactics to impersonate U.S. Army units and deceive Hitler’s legions.
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Click Here for full details, including information about how to get tickets for the festival and a full schedule of events.
The Salem Film Fest was founded in 2008 by filmmaker Joe Cultrera, local businessman Paul Van Ness of CinemaSalem, the Executive Director of Salem Chamber of Commerce Rinus Oosthoek and others from the community.
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