Capital City Film Fest is back - at the former Sears building in Frandor

Mike Hughes
·4 min read

Correction: Nancy DeJoy is the head of the international art show Creativity in the Time of Covid-19. Her first name was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.

What does it take to put on two large events – a film festival and an international art show – in one place?

For starters, you need a big building. In this case, it’s the former Sears in Frandor.

“That building is huge,” said Emma Selby, director of the film fest, which starts Wednesday (April 5).

“It’s incredible,” said Nancy DeJoy, head of the art show that opens Thursday. “It’s a bit intimidating.”

“Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out” is playing at the Capital City Film Fest
“Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out” is playing at the Capital City Film Fest

And it will be busy, with:

  • The Capital City Film Festival, with 136 films. Many are shorts, but there are 20 full-length films, from the opener (“Hundreds of Beavers,” described by program director Jason Gabriel as “wacky, wonderful”) to the closer – “Hayseed,” filmed in Eaton Rapids, with Hollywood and New York stars.

  • Creativity in the Time of Covid-19. It features 87 artists from, DeJoy says, all seven continents.

Some of that creativity burst from pain, DeJoy said. “It was a response to isolation. Art is a way of responding to loss.”

But some also springs from a basic fact: People had extra time to be creative.

That’s how “Hayseed” got started. Travis Burgess had been working for an indie-movie company by day and writing scripts in his spare time, faring well in several contests. “Then Covid was happening and I needed something” to focus on, he said.

He created a neatly layered mystery, set in a place a lot like his home town of Eaton Rapids. Then he found that casting is sometimes easier during a pandemic.

Kyle Jurassic, for instance, had been busy in musicals – the “Rock of Ages” national tour and regional shows playing Elvis Presley, Andrew Jackson, Buddy Holly (three times) and more; when theater productions shut down, he was available to play a cop.

Similar stories may have helped other productions. “We have so much more animation this time,” Gabriel said. Indie filmmakers could tackle time-consuming projects.

“Hundreds of Beavers” opens the Capital City Film Festival on April 5.
“Hundreds of Beavers” opens the Capital City Film Festival on April 5.

The pandemic had a strong impact on the CCFF.

“2020 was going to be our big, 10th-anniversary event,” Gabriel said. Then everything was canceled. There were some small “drive-in” events, before the CCFF finally returned last year. Now it’s back, with changes that make it:

  • Bigger, with massive space. Films will be in the warehouse portion of Sears (using a dual-screen approach to avoid problems with pillars), which has room for a bar and concessions. They’ll also be at 2500 S. Washington Ave. (the former Michigan National Guard building) and The Fledge, with a loop of family shorts at Impression 5. The art show will be in the main portion of Sears, plus Impression 5, the Lansing Art Gallery, the REACH art center and the Refugee Development Center.

  • Smaller in one way: For the first time, there won’t be a separate set of concerts.

Those concerts were part of a youthful, blue-collar feel, with movies and rock shows. Selby, the CCFF director, said that’s what first drew her. “I went to the concerts; I wasn’t super-aware of the films.”

That was when she was at Holt High School, Lansing Community College and Michigan State University. Gradually, she discovered the film-fest crowd. “I wanted to be friends with people who are passionate about art.”

That’s also one of the appeals of an art show, DeJoy said. “I love the way it brings people together.”

And it’s why the film fest survived the COVID shutdown. “There was a lot of pressure to go virtual,” Gabriel said, but the CCFF resisted. “The audience makes a difference.”

Sitting together at the fest, people can catch:

  • The sheer silliness of the “Hundreds of Beavers” opener. “It’s a really zany, fun movie that keeps inventing itself continuously,” Gabriel said. He also points to a teen film (April 7) that shows its whimsical side with its title: “Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out.”

  • Strong emotions. Gabriel and Selby point to “Soft” (April 15), with three LGBT kids in their early teens, immersing themselves in Toronto’s night life and scrambling to find a missing person.

  • A mystery, encased in small-town charm. That’s “Hayseed,” giving CCFF a big finish. “No one in Eaton Rapids, as far as I’m aware, has seen it,” Burgess said. “We’re going to have a good crowd.”

  • Shorts. William Corbett, the festival programmer, has assembled specific packages, ranging from “comedy oddities” to “weird thrillers” and “reality benders.” There are packages for documentaries, animations, music or poetry, global films and more.

  • Or a documentary. Gabriel is big on “Join or Die” (April 8), based on “Bowling Alone,” a book by Harvard professor Robert Putnam. He found that people have longer and happier lives if they become part of groups – whether it’s a bowling league, a club, a church or a charity.

Or maybe they could go to a film festival or an art show … or both, in one massive building.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Capital City Film Fest is back - at the former Sears building in Frandor