The Capital City Film Festival is back for its 16th year in Lansing and kicked off Wednesday night with a screening of the documentary “First Feature" about a former Michigan State University student making his first film.
A highlight of the festival every year is a fancy red carpet event. Organizer Payal Ravani says from 6-10 p.m. Thursday, April 9, attendees at Central United Methodist Church in Lansing will take part in live music and paparazzi-style photo ops.
“We’ll have a lot of filmmakers in from out of town to represent their projects here at our festival, and, you know, a nice way to kick off the festival and get the community together and hopefully, a chance to dress up," she said.
The festival will feature plenty of options for cinephiles, ranging from feature-length documentaries and short films in a variety of genres, as well as filmmaker talkbacks.
One highlight every year is the Fortnight Film Contest, which literally takes place over a fortnight, or two weeks. Entrants must include elements issued right at the start, like specific locations or phrases, that prove they hadn’t jumped the gun. Winners will be honored next Thursday.
Another festival organizer, Pete Johnston, says he’s always impressed by how much filmmakers can get done in such a short amount of time.
“That’s still a very short amount of time to pull off a five to ten minute film,” Johnston explained, “The creativity that folks use and just the talent, the raw talent, the acting talent, the directing and cinematography and sound and, you know, original composition, score, editing, all of that goes into making some really impressive work.”
Locations for festival events are non-traditional venues including Riverwalk Theatre and The Robin Theatre in Lansing.
Ravani is looking forward to a showing of the comedy “Edie Arnold is a Loser” Friday, April 10. It’s about a Catholic schoolgirl who starts a punk rock band.
Ravani described the film as “a great representation of indie filmmaking at its finest"
"You can tell they didn’t have a big budget, but it’s very well done, well-paced, great writing, great acting, and you can tell that this team had so much fun making this film," she said.
For Johnston, the documentary “Wood Street” is a highlight which will be shown at Riverwalk Theatre on Sunday, April 12. It’s about unhoused people in Oakland, California, and it was made by Caron Creighton, who attended Michigan State University.
Johnston knows her from those days.
“She will be here to present the film along with one of the main subjects of the film," he said. "It will be an amazing conversation, and I’m really thrilled that the Lansing audience can see that.”
There are too many events to list them all, but Saturday, April 11 is a big day, with a live music show featuring The Go Rounds at The Avenue in Lansing and a program honoring the late Rob Reiner which will include a screening of “When Harry Met Sally” at the Central United Methodist Church.
The festival will end with Oscar-nominated film from Lebanon “A Sad and Beautiful World” at Riverwalk on Saturday, April 18.
UPCOMING ARTS EVENTS
Jackson College is reviving its community theatre program with a production of the comedy “Noises Off.” Performances are Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 12 at 1 p.m.in the Potter Center.
Lansing Community College presents “1984” Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Dart Auditorium. There will be two more performances next Friday and Saturday.
Next Wednesday, April 15 at midnight is the deadline to enter the East Lansing Arts Commission’s songwriting contest. Entries should depict or be inspired by the city.
