Lights go up at State Theatre
By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS
Record-Eagle staff writer
TRAVERSE CITY - There was no red carpet and only one limousine arrival, but the excitement on Front Street was palpable as moviegoers arrived at the historic State Theatre for the opening film of the first Traverse City Film Festival.
Under the flashing lights of the newly polished marquee Wednesday evening, festival volunteers hawked popcorn and festival T-shirts, friends and families took snapshots of each other, and camera crews panned the growing line that had snaked nearly to the Cass Street intersection by 7:30 p.m.
Inside, ushers and concessionaires got last-minute instructions, donned vintage jackets and hats, and filled boxes with popcorn as fast as the machine could spill it out.
With two Traverse City policemen on mountain bikes providing security, Marilyn Agrelo, director of the opening film "Mad Hot Ballroom," stepped out into the street to snap a shot of the film title spelled out in large red letters on the marquee.
Meanwhile, Old Town Playhouse actor Thomas Pritchard as "Chief Brodie" entertained those waiting with his megaphone and bright yellow "Amity P.D." jeep festooned with sharks and nets to promote Thursday's showing of "Jaws" at the Open Space Cinema.
"Greatest thing that ever happened to Traverse City," remarked Chris Okoren of Pentwater, as she took her place in line. A part-time resident of Key West, Fla., Okoren compared the festival to ones she has been to there. "This is a gift to Traverse City, and Michael Moore should be patted on his back," she said.
Friends Carol Sullivan of Westland and Ann Ramroth of Livonia had plans to go to Stratford this week but canceled them to come to the film festival instead.
"We just thought it would be fun to be a part of something so exciting," said Sullivan.
Shortly after 8 p.m., when the sold-out audience had taken their seats, festival founder and Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore took the stage unannounced with co-founders Doug Stanton and John Robert Williams.
"Welcome to the State Theatre!" Moore shouted to thunderous applause.
After thanking all those who are helping with the five-day festival, including the Herrington-Fitch Family Foundation, which put up a big chunk of the event's $250,000 budget, the often-controversial Moore made reference to the festival's broad-based community support.
"This is the America of liberty, where we can all have our different beliefs and opinions but where we can all come together for the good of the community," he said.
Organizers planned the festival in just two months. Among its 31 domestic, foreign language, independent and documentary films are seven premieres and four free classics that will be shown nightly at dusk at the waterfront Open Space Cinema.
Only one screening of "Mad Hot Ballroom" was originally scheduled for Wednesday but an extra showing was added after the first sold out last week. The 2005 documentary, introduced Wednesday night by Agrelo, follows a group of fourth- and fifth-graders as they participate in a ballroom dance program at their New York City public schools.
Agrelo told the audience before the show began not to leave before the credits because of a surprise.
As applause reverberated across the theater, a spotlight flashed on the stage and Moore led Elsa Melys Ulelio and Kelvin Munoz from the winning team out on stage. They danced as the audience clapped and cheered.
"This community should be so proud," said Nancy Osborne, a Fort Myers, Fla, resident who is visiting friends in Benzie County. "Do you know what it takes to do this, to bring those two kids here?"
http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/jul/28filmfest.htm
Child stars, director of 'Mad, Hot Ballroom' in TC
All attend film's showing
BY GARRET ELLISON
Record-Eagle staff writer
TRAVERSE CITY - After spending the last couple months touring the country promoting "Mad Hot Ballroom," Elsa Melys Ulelio and Kelvin Mu¤oz are still shaking their heads, wide-eyed.
"I was like, that's me! I don't believe it," Mu¤oz said when he saw himself on the big screen for the first time.
Mu¤oz and Ulelio are two of the children who star in the documentary, which follows a group of New York City children growing up and learning ballroom dancing as an elective at school.
"Mad Hot Ballroom" kicked off the Traverse City Film Festival last night with a sold-out show at 8 p.m. and an extra showing at 10 p.m. The film was released May 13.
Both children were attending the early screening, accompanied on the trip here by Mu¤oz's parents, Cecilio and Ana Taveras. Also on hand was director Marilyn Agrelo. The children were also expected to dance on stage at the State Theatre as part of the event.
Cecilio said he never would have believed it all.
"I see him in the movie and I'm like, 'Wow, that's my son,'" he said.
Mu¤oz and Ulelio attend P.S. 115 in Washington Heights, one of three schools where producers chose to shoot. Ulelio dances the rumba in the film.
"It wasn't tough," she said. "It was like one, two, three steps - it was easy."
Outside the State Theatre, Kathryn Wade of West Bloomfield recognized Mu¤oz from the film.
"I just saw it last week," she said. "I loved it, it was one of the best things I've seen lately - just fantastic."
The movie marks the directorial feature debut of Agrelo, a 15-year veteran of independent films, who also accompanied the kids to the film festival.
"To my surprise they called me from Paramount Classics to tell me Michael Moore wanted my film for this festival," she said. "It's really an honor to be the opening film for the inaugural festival."
Misconceptions were targeted in her film, which she describes as "my little love poem to New York."
"When I set out to make this film, I wanted to show what the neighborhoods of New York are really like," she said. "Not the places commonly associated with New York, like the Empire State Building, but the street vendors and the people."
She said in New York - like in Traverse City - there are old neglected theaters which the people have risen up to preserve.
"I think it's good for people to realize we're all really the same," she said. "That's why it makes me happy to bring this little New York story to Traverse City."
http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/jul/28madhot.htm
Locals to perform prior to Opera House movies
BY LINDSAY VANHULLE
Record-Eagle staff writer
TRAVERSE CITY - Several area teenagers will get a chance to perform for moviegoers prior to films at the City Opera House during this week's Traverse City Film Festival.
The musicians, which include two adults from Interlochen Center for the Arts, will each perform two numbers to help display local talent, said Robert Hughes, City Opera House venue manager.
"The idea originally was to bring in some local talent," Hughes said. "(It's) just to show anybody who's coming in from out of town that we've got some talented kids in this town."
The students will perform as moviegoers come into the theater and find their seats, he said.
Performing prior to all four Opera House shows Thursday are Kelly Sitek and Claire Gibbons on vocals, Jessie Aja on drums, Miles Kaufmann on piano and Jeff Cavistan on bass.
There will be no performances before the 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. shows Friday, but the two evening performances will include four members of the Traverse City Central High School 2004-2005 Choral-Aires - Sitek, Amanda Wyskochil, Gibbons and Kathleen Loup. The band again includes Aja, Kaufmann and Cavistan.
Saturday's shows at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. will feature Jack Fivecoate on harmonica, Reese Gallagher on guitar and John Tornga on bongos. All three will sing. The 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. shows will have Matt Harting on guitar and Wyskochil on vocals.
Harting will have a guitar solo at the 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday shows, and Interlochen instructors Rick and Lynn Church will sing and play piano at the 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. shows Sunday.
http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/jul/28fflocals.htm
A LOT OF THE VENUES ARE SOLD OUT. This is interesting though that most of us didn't pick up the content to the extent Mike did. They sound like great films. I hope they all come out on DVD eventually.
Tickets remain for Moore's top 5 'founder's favorites'
He says they focus on class and economy
FROM STAFF REPORTS
TRAVERSE CITY - Of the 31 movies being showcased during the Traverse City Film Festival, which are Michael Moore's favorites?
The ones that still have the most tickets left.
Of all of the screenings on the five-day schedule, showings for "The Ax," "Land of Plenty," "The Edukators," "My Summer of Love" and "The Talent Given Us" have more tickets than others remaining for sale. Those happen to be the festival founder and Oscar-winning filmmaker's favorites.
"There's a kind of thread that runs through these films," Moore said. "The thread is it's about class and the economy and the changing world that we live in."
"The Ax" is about a man who loses his job and after two years, has yet to find another. He proceeds to systematically eliminate some of the competition. Set in France, it's a dark comedy from director Costa-Gavras, who Moore described as "one of the greatest living directors in the world."
"It's not a violent film, though it sounds that way," Moore said. "It's the thing I like about any great movie - you never know what's going to happen next."
"Land of Plenty" is what Moore described as the rare film that tells a story grounded in post-Sept. 11 culture. It's about a security-obsessed man who drives around on the lookout for terrorists.
"It's one of the films that's in the festival where I had tears in my eyes at the end of it."
The German "The Edukators" was the one Moore said gave his "Fahrenheit 9/11" the most competition for grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival, though Moore's won. Moore didn't get a chance to see it himself until a few months ago.
"The Edukators" is about three 20-something have-nots who break into the homes of the well-to-do and rearrange the furniture, but don't steal anything.
"My Summer of Love" may be the most misunderstood among Moore's favorites, he said. A story about two teenage girls, one from a wealthy family and one working class, it does include the girls exploring a possible romantic relationship. But Moore said focusing on that misses the point.
"Everybody is focusing on the lesbian thing," he said. "Number one, they aren't lesbians, it's not a lesbian love story - they are two young girls who at one point in the film experiment with each other.
"But the film is really about the wealthy girl essentially uses the working class girl as her plaything. It's an allegory for those in power expecting those who are not in power to be at their beck and call."
"The Talent Given Us" was made by Andrew Wagner for $30,000 with a two-man crew. Wagner, who also wrote the script, got his parents and sisters to act in the story of a family traveling from Manhattan to Los Angeles to visit a son/brother.
Moore said the way it plays, it's hard to tell what's real and what's fiction. Besides that, he said, it's "a fun, well-acted wonderful story."
http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/jul/28fftickets.htm
Odds and ends from the Film Festival
FROM STAFF REPORTS
The show must go on, but probably not on the big inflatable screen at the Open Space if there's lightning. That's the word from the Traverse City Film Festival, which will keep a close eye on weather with help from the festival's volunteer weatherman, Greg McMaster.
If any Open Space film must be canceled due to weather conditions, a decision will be made by 7 p.m. Area broadcast media will be notified, signs will be posted at the Open Space and other festival venues, and the information will be listed on the Film Festival Web site, http://www.traversecityfilmfestival.org.
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To get festivalgoers in a shark state of mind for tonight's showing of "Jaws" at the Open Space, local builder Jake Anderson and Ed Mulcahy at Old Town Playhouse have been busy building sharks and shark components. Their handiwork will be featured in a show that will be held about 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. today at the Open Space. It will be repeated tonight starting around 8:30 p.m.
Components include four mechanical sharks and 10 sharks that he said are "basically a fin on a stick," all circling the water with help from 10 divers. They're hoping for a boat with an old sea captain to be on the water during the morning event, when Sheriff Brody might even be on shore with a bullhorn calling warnings.
Plans were still being finalized Wednesday, but look for the action in the harbor at the Open Space and maybe even extending over in front of the volleyball courts.
http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/jul/28ffnoteb.htm
Good movies and politics mix well, Moore says
By JOHN FLESHER
Associated Press Writer
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Bathed in spotlight on a darkened stage, Michael Moore sounded downright conciliatory toward his detractors while welcoming a capacity crowd to a film festival in his adopted hometown.
"This is the America we want to believe in, where we can all have our various beliefs but come together for the greater good of the community," the left-wing documentary filmmaker said to a thunderous ovation.
The Oscar winner, known for humorous but bitingly satirical productions such as "Roger & Me" and "Fahrenheit 9/11," described good movies as a bridge across the political divide for people "tired of the hate, tired of the yelling, tired of ... the screamfests, the talk radio."
But chatting with fans Thursday at the inaugural Traverse City Film Festival, Moore acknowledged putting aside political differences could be tough for him - especially when hearing that more U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq.
"It's very hard to love a Republican at that moment," said Moore, who denounced the war and President Bush when accepting an Academy Award for "Bowling for Columbine" in 2003.
And he served notice that his next documentary, "Sicko," a critique of the nation's health care system, would pull no punches. The idea arose from a segment in one of Moore's former television shows with a mock funeral on the grounds of a health-maintenance organization refusing to pay for a dying man's surgery.
"Freaked-out" HMOs are warning employees what to do if approached by Moore and his camera crew, he said with a chuckle. "At this point we haven't shot anything yet and they're totally discombobulated."
Moore said he had no apology for making politically themed films: "When in this great democracy did 'political' become a dirty word?"
But such films are most effective when their primary goal is artistic excellence, he said, adding that liberals turn people off with too much "finger wagging" and too little humor.
"Comedy was the vehicle of the left a hundred years ago - Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, the Marx brothers," Moore said. When making "Roger & Me," which showed how auto plant closings devastated his native Flint, "I thought by letting people laugh a little bit, they would actually leave the theater more angry about what was going on."
Moore, who now lives near Traverse City, founded the film festival with local movie buffs. It began Wednesday night with two showings of "Mad Hot Ballroom," a lighthearted documentary about a dance competition between elementary school children in New York City.
More than 1,100 people packed a historic downtown theater that had been closed for years until volunteers refurbished it for the festival.
Thirty other films were being shown over the next four days, most of them independently produced documentaries, dramas and comedies. None of Moore's films are on the list.
The event has inspired a rival conservative "freedom film festival" scheduled for this weekend. Among the titles: "Michael Moore Hates America."
But leaders of Moore's festival insist it's not a political platform, but a celebration of high-quality cinema involving hundreds of volunteers and businesses representing a variety of beliefs.
A local radio station that airs right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh promoted the festival. State Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, a Republican elected last fall after Moore campaigned for his opponent, penned a supportive column in the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
"I have to admit I've never seen any of his movies," said volunteer Bonnie Willings, 59. "I'm just grateful he's using his connections to bring all these great movies here."
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On the Net:
Festival Web site: http://www.traversecityfilmfestival.org
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MI_MOORE_FILM_FESTIVAL_MIOL-?SITE=MITRA&SECTION=HOME
