Film Festival announces music-themed lineup

2010 Traverse City Film Festival

Film Festival Official Guide

2010 Traverse City Film Festival official guide

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HELLO GUV'NOR

Michael Moore was elected to the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week.

The board is responsible for overseeing the Oscars. Moore won a best documentary Oscar for his 2002 movie, "Bowling for Columbine."

He was soundly booed.

It wasn't because of the movie, which explored America's relationship with guns. It was about his acceptance speech, during which he called out then-President George W. Bush for lying about the reasons behind the war in Iraq.

Moore said he'll bring something different to a board that includes actors, producers, directors, technicians, writers and more.

"Now that I'm a theater owner, I intend to be an advocate to enhance the art form," said Moore, president of the nonprofit State Theatre in downtown Traverse City.

— By Jodee Taylor

Related Photos

In this publicity image released by Focus Features, Annette Bening, left, and Julianne Moore are shown in a scene from "The Kids are All Right." The Associated Press/Suzanne Tenner
Michael Moore

July 9, 2010

BY JODEE TAYLOR jtaylor@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Fri Jul 09, 2010, 08:27 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — The quality of American independent cinema is crashing.

So says Michael Moore, founder of the Traverse City Film Festival. He said he had to screen more than 500 movies for this year's festival, scheduled for July 27-Aug. 1, and still had trouble finding enough that met his criteria of "Just Great Movies."

"I won't lower the bar just to fill venues," he said.

There was talk of adding a sixth venue to the festival this year — the auditorium at Traverse City Central High School — but there weren't enough "great movies" to justify that, he said.

Thus, he said, this year's schedule, inserted in today's Record-Eagle, has twice as many foreign films as American films.

Those include Cuban movies and the filmmakers who made them, Moore said in an interview from his New York City apartment this week.

"We're going to airlift these Cuban filmmakers from Havana to Traverse City," he said, laughing, though he acknowledged lingering problems getting the Cubans into the U.S.

"So I have to go through a little trouble in the name of art? That's a small price to pay," he said. "I don't like any society that prohibits its citizens from exploring another country's art."

He said this year's festival — the sixth — also will celebrate music, including the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' breakup. "A Hard Day's Night" will be shown, "Help" will play at the Open Space and a new drama about John Lennon's teenage years, "Nowhere Boy," will screen.

Other music-themed movies include "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage," about the Canadian rockers, "The Concert," a French film about classical musicians, and "The Lost Command," which will be accompanied by a live orchestra.

The free Open Space movies, beside "Help," are "Twister," "Finding Nemo," "Raising Arizona," "Mary Poppins" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

There will be two 3-D movies, "Cane Toads" and "U2 3D" shown at Lars Hockstad Auditorium, that won't cost any extra.

"That's a crime," Moore said. "They're just using (the surcharge) to rip people off."

Moore said the film festival's "educational mission" will expand this year. There will be two $5 classes every day with visiting filmmakers and faculty from the University of Michigan, a new festival partner. U-M faculty members also will serve as moderators, panelists and jurors.

The opening night movie, with three screenings, is "The Kids are All Right," starring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as a couple with two children conceived by artificial insemination who track down the sperm donor (Mark Ruffalo). The closing night movie will be "Eat Pray Love," based on the best-selling book of the same name and starring Julia Roberts.

Today's schedule release marks the beginning of the annual ticket purchase frenzy. Friends of the Traverse City Film Festival get first dibs, beginning Sunday at noon for box office and phone sales and 7 p.m. for online sales. The film festival has a new ticketing system this year; the aim is to avoid or reduce snags of yore.

Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning at noon July 17 for walkup orders and 7 p.m. for online and phone orders.

The box office is on the first floor of Radio Centre on East Front Street near Park.

Tickets are $9.50, except special events including the opening and closing night films.

This year's lineup has 78 feature films and 37 shorts films, said Deb Lake, festival executive director.

On the web: www.traversecityfilmfestival.org.