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FAHRENHEIT 9/11
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore ("Roger & Me," "Bowling for Columbine") crafted this incendiary piece of skillful agitprop, an exploration of the tragic chain of events before and after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center of September 11, 2001. Pointing his finger at a global conspiracy of war, greed, and media manipulation, Moore leaves no political figure unscathed in his most passionate, outraged condemnation of a president and policies he considers illegitimate and incompetent.
Traverse City Film Festival
Jul 28 - Jul 31, 2005
The Traverse City Film Festival will be an annual event in Northern Michigan. Indie flicks, foreign films and seldom-seen documentaries will deliver a whopping dose of movie magic to the Midwest when the first annual Film Festival debuts in July. The inaugural festival will feature 30 screenings at four venues throughout downtown Traverse City, such as the historic movie palace, the State Theatre, City Opera House, and Old Town Playhouse with a charge at these venues of $7 (excluding opening and closing night events). The Open Space Park is the 4th venue, where nightly admission-free classics will be projected onto an inflatable 40-foot screen along West Grand Traverse Bay as a gift to the community. Tickets will be available in July through the Interlochen Center for the Arts box office at (231) 276-7800 or (800) 681-5920, or in person at Bravo!, at 237 E. Front Street, Traverse City (next to the State Theatre). For more information call (231) 392-1134.
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Thursday, July 28, 2005
Film festival brings Hollywood to Traverse City
Even though he didn't pick the movies, debut celebration has Flint's Michael Moore written all over it.
By Veronica Hutchinson / Special to The Detroit News
For information
What: Traverse City Film Festival.
When: Today- Sun.
Where: Traverse City.
Information: Visit www.traverse cityfilmfestival.org.
It wouldn't take a genius to guess who is the Hollywood muscle behind this weekend's Traverse City Film Festival. A perusal of the festival's four dozen-plus flicks should make guessing easy: "Enron," a documentary about corporate greed; Wim Wenders' "Land of Plenty," a take on post- September 11 America; and a beachside screening of "Jaws." This debut festival's got Michael Moore written all over it.
It would be easy to peg this festival, which runs through Sunday at three venues in Traverse City, to the curatorial vision of Moore. So many of the flicks seem to further conversations sparked by "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Bowling for Columbine."
But festival co-founder and best-selling author Doug Stanton says his audacious collaborator didn't set the festival's artistic agenda. "It's not Mike; it's the themes that are out there in the culture right now," says Stanton, a Traverse City native and author of the novel "In Harm's Way" (Henry Holt & Co., $25). "There was not a master plan because there was no time to put that together. These are just the hot releases right now, the movies that played well at Telluride and Sundance (film festivals)."
No one will deny Moore's Hollywood pull helped bring this festival together in very short order. According to Stanton, in mid-May the festival founders said, "Wouldn't it be neat to show a dozen films at a nearby theater?" Three weeks later, they'd lined up 31 films, 52 screenings, three venues and an impressive schedule of panels featuring directors and other industry folks.
Traverse City has responded with equal passion. More than 100 sponsors ponied up the funds, and many screenings are nearly sold out. Stanton says the festival sold 1,000 tickets on Tuesday alone.
He isn't surprised in the least. "People want to watch films that are meaningful, that are about being human. This festival is about the idea that stories can bring people back together."
Veronica Hutchinson is a Metro Detroit freelance writer.
