By Scott Pohl, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-963042.mp3
LANSING, MI – A new film festival opens in Lansing tonight [Thursday, 4/14], hoping to fill the springtime void left by the East Lansing Film Festival's move to a fall schedule.
WKAR's Scott Pohl spoke with Jake Pechtel, entertainment coordinator of the Capital City Film Festival, about getting a new movie festival off the ground.
Pechtel says organizers have worked with the people behind the East Lansing Film Festival to avoid the appearance of being in competition with them.
AUDIO:
JAKE PECHTEL: We wanted to position our festival as six months opposite of it, so that we could sort of bridge the time in between the two festivals, and give people from the area an option for a film festival in almost 12 months out of the year. So, well, we all love movies, and we're all really invested in a lot of different projects around the capital city, it'd be a great thing for the city if we were to put on another festival, to join the tons of great festivals that are already out there, but to do something a little bit different. And, of course, that came with a few challenges, pretty much right out of the gate, because unlike a lot of towns, there's no theater in Lansing. So, initially, when we started thinking about this, we were like, well, OK, it's a great idea; where are we going to show movies in Lansing outside of the NCG's and Celebrations.
SCOTT POHL: So, what locations are we talking about?
PECHTEL: Our Thursday night opening show will be at the Dart Auditorium at LCC. That's a film called "Aardvark", which I know a lot of people on the festival staff are really excited about. Friday, we move our films to the Lansing Center. Saturday, we'll be at the Temple Building in Old Town, which is quite a big retrofit project as you know. That building is pretty raw, but we're excited about the space. I think it's going to be really cool when we're done, and it's going to be an interesting place for people to see a film. And Sunday, we're going to wrap up in a couple of places: LCC actually has a 3-D theater in the Gannon Building, so we're not showing a 3-D movie, but it is a really nice theater, and we'll also be showing films at the Washington Street Armory.
POHL: Is there a theme to the festival, anything that unites the movies thematically?
PECHTEL: You never kind of know what you're going to get from my limited experience of one festival, so when we opened up our Without a Box submissions, we obviously had what we wanted, we wanted some documentaries, we wanted some shorts, and some narrative features. And, so, we were a little bit at the mercy of what you get submitted, and luckily, we got some amazing films submitted.
POHL: Are some of the movies made in Michigan?
PECHTEL: Yeah, they are. We'll have a Made in Michigan showcase with a Q and A with directors, and that's on Friday from 5 to 8:30. It was really important for us to keep that element in, but it also wasn't something that we felt crippled us in any way, because there is a lot of great film being made here in Michigan, but we were also selective about that. We had enough film quality from Michigan, or film quantity from Michigan, to be selective about that. It didn't guarantee you because you shot your movie in Lansing, that it was going to be in the film festival. I think as one person on our committee put it, just because you made your film in Cannes doesn't mean it gets into Cannes. So, we took that same approach. We wanted to make sure that everything had a certain quality level, and of course, that our screening committee felt that it was like the right kind of film to show, no matter who made it or where it was made.
POHL: As a first-time festival, what are you thinking you will use as a gauge for success?"
PECHTEL: We'd love to pack it, but you have to set your expectations realistically. There's not any kind of history. We don't have any history of attendance, we don't have people saying, 'Well, I go to that every year.' So, for us, I think success is being able to do another one next year. Success is being able to get some really positive feedback from those who do get to attend the festival this year. We've really adopted more of that festival concept as opposed to just showing films from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
We do have a lot of films; I think we have over 60 films if you count up all the shorts, but we also have a lot of entertainment at night as well, so our concerts and our parties, sort of like day wrap parties, I think are a good way to kind of get a new group of people that maybe wouldn't attend a film festival before, to come out and be part of the festival and maybe become exposed to want to go see one of the films after they attend something that's a little bit more enticing to their day-to-day likes and wants.
The complete schedule for the inaugural festival can be found online at capitalcityfilmfest.com.
One highlight is a retrospective honoring the late filmmaker John Hughes, who was born in Lansing. "Sixteen Candles" and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" will be screened on Saturday.