The East Lansing Film Festival returns

Abstract

Film Festival schedule: Billed as a spy by Chinese officials, he was imprisoned for six years - then returned to filming.

When the East Lansing Film Festival returns, it will seem like a rebirth. The festival has been gone for 18 months. It returns in a different season and in different sites.

Still, the basics remain. "You get to see films you'd never get to see otherwise," said festival founder Susan Woods. "There is a communal feeling ... a bond with the other people."

And there's a huge variety of movies. This year's films are set in Tibet and Milan and the Alps, in Louisiana and (especially) in Michigan. They range from the bone-dry "Happy Poet" to "Spartacus."

Why include a big, old movie in a festival of small, new ones? The crowd sounds, it seems, were recorded at Spartan Stadium. Now "Spartacus" will be in the Hannah Community Center auditorium, which will be busy for eight straight nights.

That's one of many changes. With a trimmed budget (from $120,000 to $100,000), the festival has:

* Moved from spring to autumn. "I finally hit the wall of trying to fight 'March madness,'" said Woods, whose movies kept being overwhelmed by basketball.

* Lost its main site, because of Wells Hall construction.

* Expanded its use of Hannah. That starts the two days of the festival - "I Am Love" (Oscar-Winton Tilda Swinton in Italy) on Oct. 20, "North Face" (a daring climb forced by Nazi Germany) on Oct. 21; it continues nightly, concluding with "Spartacus" on Oct. 27.

* Expanded use of Celebration Cinema. That starts Oct. 23, with matinees of the gorgeous, animated "The Secret of Kells;" it continues through Oct. 28,

* Added a site. The Residential College of Arts & Humanities auditorium will be used Oct. 22-23. "It's beautiful, with comfortable seats," Woods said.

* Moved the Lake Michigan Film Competition to Kedzie Hall and from Sunday to Saturday (Oct. 23).

That could bring more people to an improved line-up. "The feature-film choices have been getting stronger," said Erika Noud, who was a volunteer at the first festival and now runs the LMFC.

For the directors, festivals offer a chance to talk to audiences or simply to observe. "They laughed at the right places, they got quiet at the right places," Amy Weber said, the day after her movie ("Annabelle & Bear") won four awards at a Port Huron festival.

Mike McCallum - a waiter by vocation and filmmaker by passion - knows the feeling. His Lansing-made "Fairview St." has been in 19 film festivals in 12 states; it has won eight awards, ranging from best soundtrack (Beloit, Wis.) to auteur-of-the-year (Muskogee, Okla.).

McCallum hits some festivals, with limits. "There are money constraints, crappy-car constraints."

Occasionally, a Michigan film hits the top of the festival world. Sultan Sharrief was wrapping up a Detroit-to-Mississippi drive, when he got the news: His "Bilal's Stand" had been accepted to Sundance, the nation's top film festival; the producer had e-mailed him the phone number to call.

"I'm running around with my laptop, trying to find wi-fi," Sharrief said. "I'm leaning toward the neighbor's window, trying to get something."

Soon, he was at Sundance, where directors are savored. "You have this badge and you can get into everything; you're going non-stop, from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m." It was a festive view of the movie experience.

Film Festival schedule:

Hannah Community Center

>> Review: "Tibet in Song." Ngawang Choephel returned to his native Tibet, to film traditional music. His footage was gorgeous, but then came a detour: Billed as a spy by Chinese officials, he was imprisoned for six years - then returned to filming. The result splendidly mixes beauty, politics - and some screechy, government-authorized tunes. (7:30 p.m. Oct. 25)

More:

>> "I Am Love." Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton stars in a romance in long-ago Milan. (7:30 p.m., Oct. 20)

>> "North Face." Partly documentary and partly drama, this tells of climbers forced by the 1936 German government to make a dangerous climb. (7:30 p.m. Oct. 21)

>> "Troubled Water." A Norwegian ex-con seeks solace as a church organist. (6:30 p.m., Oct. 22)

>> "Joan Rivers." This documentary follows Rivers, now a working comic at 77. (9:30 p.m. Oct. 22)

>> "A Village Called Versailles" and "God is American." One documentary visits a Vietnamese neighborhood in Louisiana after Katrina; the other goes to a Pacific Island, where people believe God is an American pilot who once landed there and will return. (1 p.m., Oct. 23)

>> Shorts. These can be great fun. (3:30 p.m., Oct. 23)

>> "Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls." Country-music singers are fun, funny and lesbian. It's preceded by Bill Plympton's cartoon delight, "The Cow Who Wanted To Be a Hamburger." (6:30 p.m., Oct. 23)

>> "The Maid." This Oscar-nominee portrays a Chilean maid and her employers. (9:30 p.m., Oct. 23)

>> "Who Does She Think She Is?" This documentary traces five women juggling intense careers and motherhood. (3:30 p.m., Oct. 24)

>> "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage." A documentary views the Canadian rockers. (7:30 p.m., Oct. 24)

>> Also: "North Face" repeats Oct. 26, "Spartacus" is Oct. 27.

Residence College of Arts and Humanities auditorium

Reviews:

>> "The Happy Poet." This may be the driest film in history. Paul Gordon (who also wrote and directed) reflects no emotions as a poet with a vegetarian food stand. Things evolve slowly, but the scene in which he reads a poem is a classic. After moving at a snail's pace, the film suddenly wraps up.

>> "Shorts Program 2." There's a delightful oddness to Bill Plympton cartoons; this package includes his "Horn Dog" and "The Cow That Wanted to Be a Hamburger." Also odd and well-crafted is "Black Ops Arabesque" by Nathaniel Eyde, the former East Lansing quarterback and dancer. (9:30 p.m., Oct. 23)

More:

>> "Being in the World." At a previous ELFF, Tao Raspoli had a fictional film with his wife, actress Olivia Wilde. Now his documentary captures philosophical views, past and present. (6:30 p.m., Oct. 22)

>> Also: On Saturday, "Tibet in Song" at 6:30 p.m., prior to the Hannah screening mentioned above.

Celebration Cinema

>> Review: "The Secret of Kells"; "Sita Sings the Blues." Both of these animated gems are gorgeous visually and clever verbally. "Kells" is a passionate story of a boy working on a magical book, as Viking attackers loom. "Sita" tells a classic folk tale from India, brilliantly entwining old-style songs and modern skepticism. (Oct. 23, "Kells," 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.; Oct. 24, "Kells," 1 p.m., "Sita," 3:30.)

>> Repeats of films: Oct. 25, "Topp Twins," 6:30 p.m.; "Troubled Water," 8:30 p.m. Oct. 26, "Maid," 6:30 p.m.; "Shorts 2," 8:30 p.m. Oct. 27, "Poet," 6:30 p.m.; "Rush," 8:30 p.m. Oct. 28, "Rivers," 6:30 p.m., "Shorts 1," 8:30 p.m.

Kedzie Hall (All are Saturday, in Lake Michigan Film Competition, in three rooms)

Reviews:

>> "Fairview Street." On the plus side, Michael McCallum is a terrific actor and a talented director. With little money, local locations and black-and-white film, he got a rich, film-noir look to this story of an ex-con's troubled return; he also added a superb music track. The down side: One police character is way over the top and the protagonist's actions are often inexplicable. (1 p.m.)

>> "Bilal's Stand." Here's an earnest story, taken from real life, of a black teen's divided loyalties. It's inconsistent, but has strong passions at its core. (3:30 p.m.)

>> "Annabelle & Bear." Perfectly cast, this film instantly draws us into a burly biker and his 2-year-old daughter. Amy Weber directed it skillfully, adding great music. (6:30 p.m.)

>> "Kitchen Conversations." If you are a food fan, you'll love meeting these Kalamazoo professionals - a doctor, a lawyer, a college president, some professors - who savor cooking. If not, you'll find the film'a unadorned approach to be painfully slow. (6:30 p.m.)

>> "The Dream Play." We jump between three phases of a once-suicidal man: Encountering a hitchhiker ... acting in Strindberg's "Dream Play" ... acting with an elderly woman in a play she wrote. Parts are perplexing, parts have a rich resonance, all of it is filmed and acted with uncommon skill. (9:30 p.m.)

Also:

>> Shorts. Packages are at 3:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. (student shorts) and 9:30 p.m. (billed as "Dark Shorts").

>> Documentaries: At 1 p.m. is a package of films on Detroit artist Charles McGee, Chicago crusading priest Michael Pfleger and the 1909 creation of a school for the children of Mississippi sharecroppers. Another 1 p.m. package has a film about Detroit's diverse roots and about its spoken-word artists. "Breaking and Entering" (3:30 p.m.) is about a variety of people trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. In a 9:30 p.m. package, one film views the 1932 Ford Hunger March (through the lone survivor after 78 years), another sees the 1958 sinking of the Carl D. Bradley and its effect on Rogers City. Also included is "Pulitzer Pride," a film about two cancer survivors - a Detroit fireman and a photographer whose picture inspired him.

If you go

>> What: East Lansing Film Festival

>> Box office: In advance, at www.elff.com; at each site, an hour before the first show

>> How much? $8, $6 for students and seniors, 65 and older; Celebration is $8.50, $7.50 for college students with ID, $6.50 for kids (2-12), seniors (60 and older) and matinees.

>> All-festival tickets: $60, $40 for students and seniors; doesn't include Celebration. There are also $160 "Boffo" tickets, as a way of donating to the festival

>> All-day Saturday tickets: $25, $20 for students and seniors

>> Sites: Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road; Celebration Cinema, 200 E. Edgewood Blvd., Lansing; MSU's Snyder-Phillips Hall on Bogue Street, midway between Auditorium Road and Grand River Avenue; MSU's South Kedzie Hall on Farm Lane, at Auditorium Road

>> Parking: For both MSU sites, try the lot across from Auditorium Road; there will be signs

>> A bonus: Many Michigan filmmakers will field questions the screenings; also, a free forum on Midwest filmmaking is noon Oct. 24, on the second floor of the Hannah Community Center. Scheduled to appear are the producer of "The Dream Play" and the directors of "Annabelle & Bear," "Kitchen Conversations," "Breaking and Entering" and many short documentaries.

>> More info: www.elff.com