2009 Traverse City Film Festival
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Jodee Taylor
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Record-Eagle/Jodee Taylor
No joke! Plans in the works for comedy fest
TRAVERSE CITY -- If you want funny people to come to Traverse City in the middle of winter, invite them in March.
People who live here know it doesn't matter what the calendar says -- there's still just as much snow in the first week of March as there is in the last week of February, comedian Jeff Garlin said. But people from warm, sunny Southern California don't.
Garlin, of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm", and Traverse City Film Festival co-founder Michael Moore told a crowd Saturday at a comedy panel discussion that plans are in the works to hold -- what else? -- a comedy festival in town next spring.
Dates are still unknown, but scheduling the event for March or April would mean "a lot of the sting is gone," Garlin said, a statement that could be as much for visiting comedians as for winter-weary locals.
Saturday's announcement at the City Opera House capped a two-hour discussion about the art of being funny, an art several panelists described as being imperfect and entirely dependent on perspective.
Besides Moore and Garlin, speakers included Robert Byington, whose films "Harmony and Me" and "Registered Sex Offender" are in this year's festival lineup; Ben Steinbauer, whose "Winnebago Man" also is on this year's schedule; Larry Charles, director of "Borat" and "Bruno"; Woodstock icon Wavy Gravy; and filmmaker Paul Mazursky.
"No one knows what's funny," said Charles, who described the process of filming a comedy as akin to working in a lab. "You really are starting from scratch every day."
Even though filmmaking requires a structured process, it still can seem improvisational if directors create "as free an atmosphere as possible," he said, adding that there is no formula to follow.
Filmmakers opened the discussion by talking about their early years in comedy:
-- Mazursky, known for such films as "Enemies, a Love Story" and "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", relied on humor to cope during his parents' arguments. At 4 years old, he said, he performed impressions to divert their attention and "they would stop arguing."
-- Steinbauer described himself as an "accidentally funny" child. On the day his parents brought his baby sister home from the hospital, he tied a blanket around his neck and took a running leap off the top of a shed. "They weren't laughing," he said, "but I got lots of attention."
-- Moore said he and friends once put a test tube filled with clear liquid near a science fair display at his Catholic school and labeled it nitroglycerin. One of the nuns pulled the fire alarm. "We thought it was funny," he said. "If we did that today, No. 1, expelled."
Byington and Garlin exchanged lighthearted banter during the discussion. Garlin spoke often, telling stories and offering input on everything from the new "bromance" genre to the proliferation of curse words in stand-up routines.
"I feel like I should just be sitting behind you guys not talking, like an extra," Byington said of the industry veterans sitting at the other end of the stage. "I feel like we're on a different panel over here."
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Continued ... - Clearing the Record: 07/10/2010
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Film festival awards announced
The full list of awards for the movies in the Traverse City Film Festival, announced late Sunday, includes the Founders Prize for Funniest Fiction Film for "In The Loop" and the Audience Prize for Best Documentary for "Food., Inc."
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2009 film fest is 'pretty popular'
John and Ruth Buta spent their 51st wedding anniversary at the Traverse City Film Festival, where they had to sit separately at a sold-out screening of "Mike's Surprise." But the couple got an anniversary gift before the film started, when Ruth Buta's name was drawn for a private "test screening" of festival founder Michael Moore's new film in the next few weeks.
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Young filmmakers learn the craft
Young filmmakers honed their skills at this year's Traverse City Film Festival. Many said they picked up things they wouldn't be able to learn elsewhere.
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Moore: New movie on truth of bailout
Michael Moore said his new movie will "tell you the truth about the bailout, the crash, the robbery that's taken place." Moore talked about "Capitalism: A Love Story" following a screening of his first movie, "Roger & Me," Saturday night at the Traverse City Film Festival.
Continued ... - Film Festival Outtakes: 08/03/2009
- August 1, 2009
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Michigan runners win Stars of the Mile
It was a Michigan day. Rondell Ruff won the men's Stars of the Mile -- the reincarnation of the Golden Mile -- by over a second to finish off a Wolverine sweep, as fellow former University of Michigan runner Nicole Edwards won the women's race.
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Video: "Mr. JoJangles" in downtown TC
A video clip of "Mr. JoJangles" performing in downtown Traverse City during the film festival.
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Buskers: Will play for ... fun
Buskers are taking to the pavement during the Traverse City Film Festival for an audience of art-lovers.
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Festival energy is 'contagious'
Festival attendees can take home T-shirts and ticket stubs as mementos of the fifth annual Traverse City Film Festival. Or, they can take home original artwork and memories of local music.
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Film Festival outtakes: 08/02/2009
Saturday's numbers make it look like this year's film festival was ... ta-da! ... the best ever. Estimates have admissions at more than 96,000. That doesn't include "Big" at the Open Space. Last year, there were 80,000 admissions. Plus more outtakes from around town.
Continued ... - Film Festival schedule: 08/02/2009
- July 31, 2009
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Short films find home at fest
Ian Hollander's first job, back in middle school, was at the Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay, working concessions, or in the projection room, or whatever was needed. "That's where I got interested in films," Hollander, 23, said. Now he's making them. Hollander's short film, "All of Me," is one of 14 "Shorts by Students" screening at the Traverse City Film Festival Sunday at noon at the Old Town Playhouse.
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