Just one week after tickets went on sale for this year's
Traverse
City Film Festival, sales were up more than 15 percent over the same time last year, with 25 screenings already sold out.
"It has truly been an amazing week," says organizer, writer, filmmaker, Northwest Michigan resident and international gadfly
Michael
Moore in his bulletin to supporters of the fest, now in its sixth year. Founded by Moore, along with New York Times bestselling author Doug Stanton and Traverse City photographer John Robert Williams, the festival can boast successive record attendance, record volunteers and sellout screenings every year. It's a week of world premieres, foreign films, documentaries, up-close panel discussions, après-screening Q and As, free beachfront movies at dusk, star-spottings all over town and al fresco soirees. Moore and his supporters not only resurrected the historic State Theatre on Traverse City's Front Street, they also galvanized downtown's revival. New eateries and upscale shops have opened as a result.
This year's event, which runs July 27 through Aug. 1, features even more films from around the world and includes a tribute to the Beatles; a salute to Cuban film and filmmakers, who are being flown in to Traverse City; 3D; seven diverse short-film programs, including appearances by filmmakers Jon Alpert and Academy Award nominee Rory Kennedy; and two U.S. foreign-documentary premieres with their directors.
The number of Film School classes have doubled for 2010 and are relocating to Northwestern Michigan College's Scholars Hall. And the popular TCFF Film Forum Series has increased to eight festival screenings. Afterward, discuss what you've just seen in our outdoor Film Lounge in Lay Park on Union Street. There's also an improved ticket system with vouchers.
This year's Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Tom Bernard and Michael Barker, the co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics -- Moore calls them two of the most important leaders of the independent movie industry for the last 30 years. Among their credits are
Waiting for Guffman, The Fog of War and
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and both will be in town to receive the award in person.
Writer: Patty LaNoue Stearns
Source: Michael Moore
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