What to know about the Lake Michigan Film Festival, which starts March 9

Stephanie Angel, Lansing State Journal
·4 min read
1

Local film fans will soon have a festival surplus. The same day, Thursday (March 9), is the start of:

  • The Lake Michigan Film Festival. It opens with what festival founder Susan Woods calls “one of the most entertaining films you’ll see” - the true story of a DeWitt guy who became a big-time Pez smuggler. It follows with three days that are strong on shorts and documentaries – from Rosa Parks to the Detroit bankruptcy to an Iron River woman’s fictional marriage to Matthew McConaughey.

  • The Fortnight Film Contest, which gives people two weeks to make a short film. That leads into the Capital City Film Festival, April 5-15; information is at www.capitalcityfilmfest.com.

The two events used to be farther apart, but then the Lake Michigan one grew.

At first, it was merely a one-day appendage to the East Lansing Film Festival (which is now in November). Then it moved to January/February spots, where it was twice greeted by ice storms.

That led to this year’s March date. Once confined to campus rooms in Wells Hall, the festival now has its opening night at Studio C in Okemos, then moves to Celebration Cinema in Lansing.

That loses some of the intimacy of the old days, said LMFF director Erika Noud, but it brings other advantages. “We’re able to screen them with really good projectors. (And) sometimes people will come for other movies and wonder what this is all about.”

“The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks” is showing at the Lake Michigan Film Festival
“The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks” is showing at the Lake Michigan Film Festival

They’ll see films with a local touch. The festival is confined to films by or about people from the four states that touch Lake Michigan. At the Traverse City Film Festival, Woods spotted:

  • “The Pez Bandit,” in which a DeWitt man (Steve Glew) described his adventures in the 1990s, flying to Europe to smuggle Pez dispensers not sold in the U.S.

  • “The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks,” which includes Parks’ busy years in Detroit, long after her pivotal role in the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. “You get to know so much more about her,” Woods said. “She was an amazing woman.”

That will open the Lansing portion of the festival, at 6:30 p.m. Friday; more documentaries set in Michigan will follow.

  • “House of David” (4 p.m. Saturday) views the elaborate religious community – including an amusement park and touring baseball team – that prospered in Benton Harbor a century ago.

  • “Gradually, Then Suddenly” (6:30 p.m. Saturday) probes the Detroit bankruptcy.

"Iron Family" is showing at the Lake Michigan Film Festival.
"Iron Family" is showing at the Lake Michigan Film Festival.

Two others view life in northern Michigan.

  • “Musher” (9 p.m. Friday) looks at dog-sled racing, focusing on three women and an 11-year-old girl.

  • “Iron Family” (5:30 p.m. Sunday) introduces perhaps the most likable real-life person in any film: Jazmine Faries, who has Down syndrome, obsesses on Barbie dolls and soap operas. Each year, friends and family combine to stage a new play she writes, describing her alternate life in Hollywood, married to McConaughey.

In between are shorts, plus a feature film (“Viral,” 9 p.m. Saturday) that should have been a short.

Noud points to “Sinners and Saint,” a deeply moving (and skillfully acted and filmed) 23-minute story from Detroit, and to others. “There are a lot of student films and the work is phenomenal.”

Mya Fulmer, from the Motion Picture Institute in Troy, crafted “Miss Hunt,” which is wordlessly compelling. “It’s a dark story, only three minutes long and ends suddenly,” Noud said.

Andre Guima, from Ball State, made “Two Soles,” a clever and quirky six-minute animation that features a pair of worn sneakers, some fancier footwear and a solemn loafer without a mate.

And the surprise is Taylor University, a small (2,000-student) school in small-town Indiana. (Fun fact: Indiana has a Butler University and a Taylor University, but no universities for butlers or tailors.)

“Dream Soda” is the tale (acted with subtle perfection) of a teen guy, drifting into daydreams as he meets a girl; “Paper Chasers” is a bizarre adventure, retrieving a paper before a professor reads it. There are also Taylor documentaries (2 p.m. Sunday) about comedian Tim Hawkins and about Chris Baker, who removes or transforms tattoos on former gang members and sex-traffic victims.

Now these films and others – including “Photalgia,” a beautifully filmed (if cryptic) six minutes from local filmmaker Michael McCallum – will be in the same theaters that show superhero epics.

If you go

Here is the schedule for the Lake Michigan Film Festival:

Thursday (March 9) at Studio C; $11, $9 for seniors, $6 for students:

  • “The Pez Outlaw,” 6:30 p.m.

Friday through Sunday, Celebration Cinema; $8, $6 for students and matinees

  • Friday: “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” 6:30 p.m.; “Musher,” 9 p.m.

  • Saturday: “Short Films Program B,” 2 p.m., including “Miss Hunt,” “Photalgia,” “Saints and Sinners,” “Paper Chasers,” one more; “House of David: Life Everlasting,” 4 p.m.; “Gradually Then Suddenly: The Bankruptcy of Detroit,” 6:30; “Viral,” 9.

  • Sunday: Short documentaries, 2 p.m.; “Short Films Program B,” 4 p.m., including “Two Soles,” “Dream Soda,” three more; “Iron Family,” 5:30.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: What to know about the Lake Michigan Film Festival