Akron Independent Film Festival

It wasn't long ago that NEO film buffs were taking in the thrills of the Cleveland International Film Festival. But if you missed out, or couldn't get enough, you're really in luck either way. The Akron Independent Film Festival features some of the fantastic films that have graced the CIFF as well as some brand new (and very intriguing) contemporary missives. The AIFF dims the lights for cinema junkies with 5 features (including the bizarro road trip flick Fix, pictured here) and 34 short films. It launches Thursday, April 3 and runs through Sunday, April 6.

AIFF started in 2002 as a University of Akron project according to festival founder Rob Lucas, a local filmmaker who debuted his full-length comedy American Stories there last year. This is the festival's 5th anniversary and first year in its new home at The Bang and the Clatter Theatre (located in the Summit ArtSpace Building).

“I think it’s different in a number of ways from the previous years. This is the first time we’ve expanded outside of the University of Akron. It felt like the right time, even though it was never really a campus function,” Lucas says, adding that once they started advertising the festival 11 months ago, the response was “tremendous.” He and the rest of the organization ended up with a total of 155 submissions from 16 different countries vying for a spot on the weekend roster.

“That’s what the Internet can do for you,” he laughs.

The weekend-long festival opens with Ted Sikora's Hero Tomorrow, a film about a comic-book creator whose superhero fantasies cross over into his troubled life. Other highlights of the festival include the family examination August the First, How Ohio Pulled It Off, the meditation on election fraud which made waves at the CIFF, and On the Downlow, which tackles bisexual desire within the Cle African-American community. Sunday's events include a juried awards ceremony and a screening of the winner of the "48 Hour Video Challenge."

“I hope that people walk way having seen good movies but also having met great people and coming away with a positive view of Akron. I would like people in Akron to have a cool cultural event to go to along with the new art museum, new library, and great restaurants to check out downtown. There’s a lot to do here and I hope that the festival gives people a reason to come down for a day and do Akron.”

Summit ArtSpace is located at 140 E. Market St., Akron. For tickets, a complete schedule of films, directions and details on the video challenge -- where filmmakers were challenged in March to create a film in 2 days' time for screening -- visit http://www.akronfilmfestival.com or call 330-618-4405.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com
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