Edward Stencel is a 23-year veteran of the film industry with a background that ranges from film production to festival programming. He helped launch the Kansas City Film Festival, been involved with fests around the country and currently serves as a documentary film programmer for the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah for the last five years. The Royal Oak Film Society is his latest project, in partnership with Royal Oak-based entertainment attorney Steven Enright. The goal of the film society is to create the kind of collaborative culture that Stencel has seen in cities all around America – and he has spent significant time in enough of them to know what a local film culture looks like.
A Michigan native and currently living within spitting distance of the Main Art movie theater in Royal Oak, Stencel earned a degree in economics from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, but says he was always a big "film buff" so he decided to attend film school and earn his Master's. Off he went to the University of Bristol in Britain, a school known for its radio, film and television program. Other University of Bristol film alumni include the acclaimed director of 24-Hour Party People and A Mighty Heart.
At film school, Stencel studied cinematography. Once he graduated he immediately moved to Los Angeles and went to work in the film industry. For 15 years he immersed himself in all aspects of the film industry before deciding to move back home to Michigan.
"A few years ago, Detroit was ground zero for filmmaking," Stencel says. "Everyone was talking about it [in L.A.]." His wife had a job opportunity to move back home and with all of the buzz about Detroit as the new Hollywood he figured, "I'm from there; let's move back." This, of course, was when the Michigan film incentives were still new and substantial; when those changed, "It changed everything."
Throughout his career, Stencel has worked as a grip, production assistant, assistant director, cinematographer, director, and producer. He has worked on shorts, music videos, local and national commercials, television, documentaries, and major feature films. He has also been very involved with film festivals as an adviser and programming director. While he's currently involved with several different film festivals around the country, of particular note is his affiliation with Slamdance, held annually in Utah since 1995.
The Royal Oak Film Society's most recent screening, last night in fact, was one of the films that Stencel just happened to catch at this year's Slamdance. A full-length feature film, The Dirties is a fictional account of two high school friends and aspiring filmmakers who are often the victims of bullying. The friends idly talk about making a documentary film showing them exacting revenge on their tormentors, but it soon becomes clear that one of them is more serious about it than the other. (You can read Metromode editor Jeff Meyers' review here.)
"I saw this and was blown away," Stencel says. "I think it's one of the best independent films I've seen in a long time." The film won "Best Narrative Feature" at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival.
Stencel used his connection to Slamdance to screen the film here. The director, lead actor and producer of The Dirties, Matthew Johnson, attended the screening for a Q&A session afterwards.
The Dirties is just the latest of the Royal Oak Film Society's film screenings, events held every other month at the Main Art Theatre, where Stencel and Enright bring in the directors of the films they choose to screen for informative talks and industry mingling.
"Over the years being involved in the film industry, one of the most important things that helped me grow as a filmmaker and grow my career was to be around industry people," he says. "The best way to do that is through film festivals and film events. That's the whole world I come from – industry people meeting each other, making connections and networking."
For he and Enright, whom he met shortly after moving back when both were on the panel for an Elmore Leonard festival and found they had a shared desire to strengthen and promote the local film community, that is the purpose of the Royal Oak Film Society – to create a stronger community. They want to do this, not only among the metro Detroit filmmakers but also with those outside of Michigan who work in the industry. The hope is that their efforts will bring more visibility to and strengthen Detroit's film scene overall.
"The whole point of the Royal Oak Film Society is to bring people to the Detroit area to show their films so people here can see what other people are doing," Stencel explains. It is also an opportunity to expose outsiders to the film scene in the city. "We want it to be about the metro Detroit community."
Stencel has been very successful over the years, connecting people and getting people to film festivals in different communities they might not normally go to. "Our goal is not just to do a screening every other month and bring a filmmaker to do a Q&A, but also to develop a destination film festival."
While there are already several film festivals that are held annually around metro Detroit, Stencel feels that there's always room for another and wants the Film Society's festival to be the kind of major event that creates a draw not just for locals but for people from all over the country, exposing them to the Detroit film community. He hopes to launch their festival in 2014.
Nicole Rupersburg is a freelance writer, regular contributor to Metromode and popular Metro Detroit food blogger. Read her blog at Eat It Detroit.
All Photos by David Lewinski Photography
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