TRAVERSE CITY FILM FESTIVAL : 2 - 0 FOR CULTURE

We could use a few good news, couldn’t we ?

Well… This time this is it ! It's happened ! The “second coming” of Mike’s TCFF has enjoyed everything it was deserving, aiming at and hoping for : a nice coverage, a good attendance, a friendly atmosphere, one or two controversies (the “Jesus Camp” one in particular), a few more Republican redemptions (Mike boasted “a lot of Republican hugs” ;)), a few less Republican copycats (no counter-festival from the local wingnuts this year) AND - from scratch - a strong and positive message.


MIKE’S NEW MESSAGE : SAVE THE CULTURE

It is very moving and heartwarming to see Mike take on the fight for culture now that a whole country has just finished to lose it : Italy, our main and ever so talented rival in movies, is now mourning the death of Cinecitta, killed by local fascist Berlusconi after half a century of artistic "cold war" with a then brilliant Hollywood.

Now we're on our way to lose everything we've ever had as well, drowning in seas of insipid superheroes for cowards unable to raise a finger against the unbearable and devastated by tsunamis of asinine blockbusters turning our souls into ruins.

The Traverse City Film Festival is Mike's personal initiative to save American culture from Hollywood. He has made it clear when launching the 2nd event of the name. What a great, exhilarating kind of crusade !...

Moore also regards the festival as part of a mission to combat what he considers Hollywood's slide into mediocrity.

"Hollywood has become an assembly line, not unlike GM, where it churns out the same old, same old year after year," Moore told The Associated Press. "Trying to play it safe, not taking any risks, and giving the people what they think the people need as opposed to listening to them and asking them what they would like."



Obviously, it will take more than one festival in a small Midwestern town to stem the tide. But, hey, Moore says, Michigan has been a trendsetter before -- think automobiles.

"I guess in our own small way, we'd like this festival to be the birthplace of this particular movement to reclaim the cinema as one of our few indigenous art forms."

According to Mike, people of all political stripes hunger for quality films :

"We all walk into the theater hoping to see something that ... will take us back to that sense we had when we first started seeing movies, that sense of awe and wonder," he said. "It's rare to have that feeling today.

"For me, a great movie is a movie that takes me someplace I've never been before, that leaves me with a feeling of exhilaration, that sends me out of the theater perhaps more enlightened. And the best ones of all give me a good, hearty laugh."


POPULAR CULTURE vs UNPOPULAR PRICKS : 2 - 0

This year's festival lineup, while revolving around a salute to Stanley Kubrick, Mike’s favorite filmmaker, was an eclectic mix -- timeless classics such as "The Wizard of Oz" and little-known indies; comedy and drama; humor and tragedy.

Two scheduled showings of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" quickly sold out, so a third was added. Also requiring additional screenings were Jeff Garlin's romantic comedy "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With;" "The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio," starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson; and "La Moustache," a French tale of a man who shaves off his mustache and goes into a psychological tailspin when no one notices. The closing night feature was Woody Allen's "Scoop."

As of August 2, festival organizers were predicting 75,000 tickets would be sold to the paid screenings at three venues, and at a panel discussion at the City Opera House titled "What's Up Hollywood?" Moore said the festival box office had taken in $250,000 already, and "70 to 75" of the 88 ticketed screenings were sold out.

"I can say with some certainty we will be back next year," Moore said.





First inning : MIKE vs WINGNUTS : 1 - 0

As I said earlier, the local wingnuts’ “Freedom FilmFest”, did not return to Traverse City this year. According to their co-founder (who BTW is called Hubbard, one of those coincidences that are too good to be true) , it is in part because “the event became focused on politics and the 2004 election "and that's not what our organization is about", and in part because “it was so contentious last year and a number of our people received threats to their lives.”

But according to Traverse City Film Festival co-founder and author Doug Stanton, it was rather because the "anti-Traverse City Film Festival" was a "non-issue" last year and that its absence this year has no impact on the existing festival.” LOL. I do believe Freedom Fries FilmFest's president when he promises a come back, though. If his ilk was able to learn anything, anyhow, we'd know by now.





Second inning : MIKE vs COLLABORATORS : 1 - 0

Take Eamonnn Bowles of Magnolia Pictures, who construes the noble American spirit of pragmatism in accordance with the size of his own morals and also the typical American ethics of our times....

Mr. Bowles, feeling like a man with some power, asked Mike to remove Jesus Camp, a documentary about summer camps for children who are born-again Christians, from his Traverse City Film Festival, on this irrefutable ground that Mike’s stench would harm his precious product. You just gotta love the head of movie studios - even small ones. The confidence. The ego. The arrogance.

We and the filmmakers are concerned that showing the film at a festival so closely aligned with Michael Moore will create the misimpression that the film is left-leaning and critical of its subject matter, when, in fact, the Film is a balanced and objective work. That is so in part because of the overwhelming public perception of Mr. Moore's affinity to liberal causes and anti-conservative agendas. We feel it is very important that, for this film to reach its widest possible audience, the neutrality and objectivity displayed in the film be reflected in the outreach to the public, something Mr. Moore's association does not engender.

As an observer put it in his blog, it's dubious at best to brand the guy with the equivalent of a scarlet letter simply based on his political beliefs. Well, Mike’s response was up to the challenge :

…crickets…. crickets…

Hey Eamonn… Pragmatism is a philosophy based on the idea that what is good is what is successful – not on turning heroes into pariahs, asshole. And in the noble American spirit of pragmatism, the beliefs rule the action. Not the opposite.




TCFF LIFTS OFF….

Notwithstanding these few losers, fact is that the TCFF went worldwide as press converged. Thanks to dozens of visiting journalists and news agencies, stories about the festival have been broadcast or printed all over the world.

"It's kind of funny because last year I was pitching a straight story about the film festival all over the place and I couldn't get any takers," said local free-lance writer Jane Boursaw, who writes a syndicated movie review column specializing in films suitable for families and children. "It's picking up steam, I guess." There's even a possibility that National Geographic could collaborate on future festivals.



All’s well that ends well… And should this chronicle make you feel like finding out more about what looks like the beginning of a beautiful adventure (the TCFF is already the next best thing to Sundance in the indie world), go and check the site :

http://www.traversecityfilmfestival.org