Film at 11

A few weeks ago one of Cleveland’s TV news broadcasts ran an unintentionally funny promo for an upcoming “news” story. It was supposed to be about how Cleveland was becoming a hotbed of Hollywood movie production. The few examples they cited included Spiderman 3, for which a few exterior shots were filmed here, and A Christmas Story, of which quite a bit was filmed here – 24 years ago, in 1983.

The real news – which the TV stations won’t cover, because they don’t see it as news, mainly because they think we’re stupid and shallow – is that there is real movie-making activity in this region. It was a little bit interesting to see the Spiderman crew last year. But it’s interesting to watch any film crew in action. The difference between Spiderman and all the other locally shot movies is that Spiderman took place on Cleveland’s main thoroughfare and closed down that part of the city for a few days. You couldn’t miss noticing that. But the other reason TV news covered it was because the movie stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst – even though those stars were not in town.

Local TV newspeople think that their viewers won’t be interested in a movie, even if it’s a great movie, that’s not a big Hollywood production with big-name stars. And, in a way they’re correct – because that’s what they’re making many people believe by only covering the big Hollywood movies, bad or good, and ignoring the rest. I don’t know – maybe we are stupid and shallow.

Just in case you’re not stupid and shallow, however, the Cleveland International Film Festival, which opens this week, on Thursday, March 15, will feature – among its more than 200 potentially great films – six films made by local filmmakers.

And then there’s the festival’s opening night film, Swedish Auto. It was not filmed here, but its producer, Tyler Davidson is from here. He produced the film in Los Angeles. But then he moved back here, and he plans to continue producing films from here. This might be just my opinion, because I know Davidson, but it seems that the story of Davidson moving his LA production company to Cleveland is better news for the area than someone coming here for a few days and turning their cameras on.

Davidson describes Swedish Auto , which stars Lukas Haas (Witness, The Ryan White Story, The Music Box, Everyone Says I Love You, Mars Attacks, The Breakfast of Champions) and January Jones (We Are Marshall, Three Burials of Meliquiades Estrada, American Wedding, Anger Management, Bandits, Full Frontal), as “the story of a small-town mechanic who voyeuristically observes life from the shadows. When he discovers that a young woman is similarly watching him, he is compelled to confront a world that he has always avoided.”

I haven’t seen Swedish Auto yet, so I can’t comment on it or preview it. But this might help you decide whether or not you want to see it: I’m assuming it must be good if CIFF chose it for its opening-night film. It has already shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival, the Athens (Greece) International Film Festival (where it won the Audience Award), the Woodstock Film Festival (Honorable Mention: Best Feature Film), the Virginia Film Festival (Opening Night selection), the Starz Denver Film Festival, Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg, Cinequest – San Jose Film Festival, and will be shown later this month at the Florida Film Festival.

And all of its reviews have been good. Variety said it’s “Fully loaded, with spot-on performances and remarkable direction, "Swedish Auto" weaves the kind of spell that can only come from a sure-handed storyteller. Swedish Auto marks the debut of a singular talent in Derek Sieg, writer-helmer of this charming, poignant drama about marginalized people. There's a well-calibrated naiveté at the heart of Swedish Auto, which together with Richard Lopez's expert cinematography and Sieg's creative use of a limited budget, make the movie a study in state-of-the-art-indie filmmaking.”

The Hollywood Reporter said, “Writer-director Derek Sieg establishes a strong sense of mood and place in this unromanticized slice of blue-collar Americana. … Characters who live on the lonely outskirts of life are always difficult to treat in movies. But in this film, Sieg handles two such souls with sympathy and insight.”

The Los Angeles Times, which called Swedish Auto “a sweetly forlorn drama,” selected it as one of its “10 Recommended Films” of the Los Angeles Film Festival – the only American narrative film they chose. LA Weekly chose it as one of its recommended “GO” films.

Others publications called it: “a sweet ride,” “sweepingly enthralling,” “unique and honest,” “quiet and moving,” “an assured, well-rounded film,” “an absolutely charming small town character study, this is a true piece of Americana,” “an indie gem with fine acting and an impressive painterly directorial debut” and said “Swedish Auto has a very internal, subtle sense to it, forming primarily from deep and sharply drawn characters,” and “Derek Sieg’s script never reveals its hand too early and keeps you guessing which direction it will take until the final scene.”

But I still think that whether you go see the film or not on opening night of the festival is somewhat less significant that the fact that the company that produced the film has not just set up some cameras in town for a few days, but relocated to this area. There is nothing wrong with anyone coming into town and setting up cameras and shooting scenes or whole movies here. I hope that more and more Hollywood productions do that – it brings money into the local economy and can provide some temporary jobs. But it’s not the whole story.

And even though I’m helping Davidson with some of the PR for opening night, I’m not too concerned with whether or not this article makes you go to see this film on opening night, because I know that it’s just one night in what I think will be a much longer history for Swedish Auto, and in which I probably won’t be involved. My real interest is in watching what Davidson – and other local filmmakers – will do next.

Tickets to the CIFF’s Opening Night Gala on March 15 include the festival’s only showing of Swedish Auto, at 7PM at Tower City Cinemas, followed by a Swedish Auto party at 9PM at MK Ferguson Plaza in Tower City Center, with writer-director Derek Sieg and producer Tyler Davidson. Visit http://www.clevelandfilm.org for more information, or call 866-865-3456.

From Cool Cleveland contributor David Budin popcyclesATsbcglobal.net
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