Stories to Change You
Every Picture Tells a Story at the Cleveland International Film Festival

They say every picture tells a story... and every film does as well. The stories at the Cleveland International Film Festival start tomorrow and continus through March 16. The upgraded and full-color program guide and website (www.clevelandfilm.org) are packed with stories of the films and the people behind them. Stories are what hold us together, whether we’re from Indonesia or Sweden or the United States, so if you like a good story, you’ll find a kaleidoscope of options at one of Cleveland’s most popular and successful annual events.

Until 1991, the Cleveland International Film Festival took place at the Cedar Lee Theater, and it will again this year for the showing of the film, “Priceless.” Now in its 32nd year, the Festival takes advantage of its venue at the multi-screened Tower City Cinemas and has grown from selling 14,000 tickets to the 53,000 tickets sold last year. Today’s high-profile event highlights over 130 films and 160 shorts from countries as close to Canada and as far away as Palestine, 59 countries in all.

If you’re a Film Festival devotee, you know that the Cleveland International Film Festival awakens the innate artist within in all of us. Many of the independent filmmakers whose works are gathered into the realms of this event are unknown anywhere but their own country. The films are often made on low budgets and without support other than a close-knit group of writers, directors, actors, and cinematographers with a vision. Against odds, independent filmmakers make films because they have something to say. The artistic soul within us is impressed by the effort made; it may decide to dance in the kitchen while cooking a Sicilian feast. Transformation is inevitable at the Film Festival.

The Film Fest’s trailer asks “How will it change you?” It doesn’t ask “Will it change you?” because it will change you, without a doubt. I still vividly recall the story about indigenous people being displaced by hydroelectric plants in the virgin forests of Brazil (a theme repeated in this year’s film “Bing Ai”) and another I saw about the effects of global growth on the farmers in Chile. One of my favorite authors talked about what inspires her life and her writing in a film devoted to her, and to see who she is, how she speaks and moves and relates, changes how I think about her when I read her words. The movies portray the people and culture of other lands, people who make a difference in the lives of others, and relay a message to the world. The major themes of the Festival are announced in the sidebars of the program: It’s Easy Being Green, Medical Mart, and Women of the World. Listening and watching and responding to the messages in independent films make a lasting impact. It’s all about the continuing story of humankind, and how we’re different but the same whether we live in Afghanistan or Peru or in Northeast Ohio.

If you have no real agenda in going to the film festival, go to experience something you’ve never experienced before. Throngs of independent film enthusiasts wait in line along the Tower City corridor for admittance. When asked what she would tell people about the Festival, Executive Director Marcie Goodman said, “Buy tickets early before the films go on stand-by.” Most of the attendees are from the immediate eighteen-county radius, making the Festival regional, but the creative people behind the outside-the-mainstream, groundbreaking films selected by the discerning Bill Guentzler also come into town for the various awards.

The exuberance of the filmmakers spills over to into the City of Cleveland. Downtown hotel-festival packages are selling briskly and restaurants will be busier than usual. Many of these movie-goers are attending private receptions and director talks, award banquets and behind-the-scenes presentations in honor of films that aren’t backed by big corporate money generate a lot of creative energy. The Festival is honoring director John Sayles and has selected writer Michael Cunningham for the From the Page to Projector award co-sponsored by the Cuyahoga County Library. The opening night gala tomorrow night will bring people together in a way that lights up the importance of the Cleveland International Film Festival.

During the Festival’s run CSU is hosting Reel Changes, a Series of Interactive Discussions of the Evolving Art, Craft and Business of Film Making. The fact that CSU’s School of Communications thought the series would attract an audience speaks to the sophistication and love of film displayed by Clevelanders. FilmForums, which take place immediately after the conclusion of selected film screenings, uses film as a catalyst for discussion of issues that face the world today, from AIDS to race and religion to oppression vs. freedom, to assisted suicide. Yes, as I said earlier, the stories told in these films will change you.

I have always been impressed to hear the comparisons of the films, the background information shared about the directors and producers, and the descriptions of scenes and cinematography being told around me while sitting in a theater before or after a film. The audience knows what works and what doesn’t, good art from bad, and has done its homework. When I mentioned this to Executive Director Marcie Goodman, she responded by saying “The audience in Cleveland is one of the most sophisticated audiences in the world” and the directors who come to Cleveland for the Film Festival feel “embraced, respected, and engaged” by the audience.

Local Cleveland talent is highlighted by the Local Heroes’ film series. Our local movies include “Chasin Gus’ Ghost” by Todd Kwait, “Devil’s Oven” by Valda Lewis, “One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story” by Thomas G. Miller, “Return of the Cuyahoga” by Lawrence Hott, “Stilletto” by Nick Vallelonga, and “Unspeakable” by Marquette Williams. The film “Swing State,” the 90-minute film depicting “personal and public frenzy” of Lee Fisher’s campaign with Strickland, is directed by Jason Fisher, son of Lee Fisher, with John Intrater and H. Spencer Young; a behind-the-scenes look of campaigning should be interesting during this presidential-election year when Cleveland is again a swing state.

The Festival is full of stories, but the people behind the films are stories in themselves. John Sayles, this year’s Director’s Spotlight Honoree, with his long career in independent films, has a life of stories to tell. Sayles started making films in the late 1970s with “Return of the Secaucus Seven,” which will be shown at the Festival, as will “The Secret of Roan Inish” (1994), “Lianna” (1983), and “The Brother from Another Planet” (1984). While many independent film directors go on to work in Hollywood or drop out of the ranks, Sayles has maintained his independent spirit, and his life journey would certainly be a story.

Some of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham’s story of seeing a novel become a film will be told during an award reception at the English Oak Room on March 11. All the other people involved in each and every film, from producer to actor, have stories to tell.

The people behind the Festival in Cleveland make a good story. Clevelander Marcie Goodman, the Executive Director of the Film Festival, has been with the organization since 1987, so her story is one of dedication to the event. Marcie particularly likes the question, “How will it change you?” and she says she wants to know how the films change the audience. I asked her how the Festival chooses its films and she told me there are two ways in which films end up at the Festival: Bill Guentzler travels around the world and invites films to be in the festival, and there’s a Worldwide Call for Entries. This year there were 1100 submissions that were viewed by a selection committee.

The Festival employs five full-time people all year, including Artistic Director, Bill Guentzler, who travels around the world during the time between festivals, searching for films he thinks are important or enticing enough to show at the Festival—I can only imagine what it’s like to be in Cannes when they roll out the red carpet or in Park City for the Sundance Festival or scouring the cinemas of Delhi. He must have enough stories (and I was guessing at some of the places he may have been—with 59 countries represented, he was probably in more interesting places than Cannes) to write a long memoir.

The Cleveland Film Society, which stages the Film Festival, states its mission as promoting “artistically and culturally significant film arts through education and exhibition to enrich the life of the community.” The Film Festival would like to continue fulfilling that mission for another 32 years with its $32,000 Challenge Match. To participate in this year’s local film event of the year, call 1-866-865-3456, go to www.clevelandfilm.org, or walk over to the Film Festival Store at Tower City Cinemas. Whatever you do, order your tickets early and join the challenge to keep the Cleveland International Film Festival in Cleveland.

Every film tells a story. Telling stories through film unites us. It’s a good thing.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com
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