Editor

Renowned actor Matthew Modine will receive the MV International Film Festival's first annual "Global Citizen" award.

The award, created by Vineyard sculptor Barney Zeitz, will be presented on Saturday, September 11, 2010. Mr. Modine's new film " The Trial," directed by Gary Wheeler and to be released by 20th Century Fox, will screen at 7:30 at the Capawock Theatre on Vineyard Haven's Main Street. The award presentation and a Q&A with audience members will immediately follow the screening. Mr. Mark Freiburger, one of the film's producers/screenwriters will also be joining us for the screening.
"We're honored that Matthew has accepted our first-ever Global Citizen award," says Richard Paradise, MVIFF founder and director. "He's not only had a distinguished artistic career, but has as much energy and passion into his human rights and environmental activism. He truly is a model Global Citizen."

Mr. Modine film credits include Birdy, Full Metal Jacket, Married to the Mob, and Shortcuts; he's also had a recurring role on Showtime's Weeds. His stage successes include the recently completed Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker with Abigail Breslin. In addition to being nominated for multiple Emmys, Mr. Modine is recipient of a Golden Globe as well as the Venice Film Festival's Volpi Cup and Golden Lion. He also authored the award-winning book Full Metal Jacket Diary.

An environmentalist for over three decades, Matthew is the founder and force behind Bicycle For a Day (BFAD; www.bicycleforaday.org) whose mission is to encourage bicycling as a major mode of transportation in America. BFAD's first event in 2008 attracted 14,000 bicyclists; this year Modine helped win approval for creating a dedicating biking lane along Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. More recently he launched Do-One, which he describes as "the 'Smokey the Bear' campaign for the environmental movement" that will help provide effortless, doable goals to reduce waste and consumption.

A similar passion fuels his work as a founder of CardCarryingLiberal.net, a grassroots group that celebrates liberal ideas and values such as free speech, women's right to vote, trial by jury, child labor laws, and more.
Mr. Modine is the first recipient of the MVIFF "Global Citizen" award, which festival director Richard Paradise plans to make an annual event. The Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival was launched in 2006. During this year's festival, which runs 9-12 September, the "festival district" created in the Vineyard's main port town will feature nightly parties, dinners, music, as well as over 50 films screened in three theatres in downtown.