Tagged: film

The show will go on tonight in South Haven.

It looked for a while this morning that the start of the 15th annual Waterfront Film Festival might be delayed. Last night’s wind storm knocked out power to more than 95% of South Haven.

Patrick Revere is with the film festival. He says things looked “dicey” this morning, but they have since made arrangements to have the backup power they need to kick off the festival tonight.

“We’ll be able to do everything that we were planning on doing for our opening night party tonight at South Beach,” says Revere.

Suffering loss and going through grief is a part of the human experience. There's not one of us who will skate through life without having to cope with losing someone close to us.

But sometimes that loss is sudden and horrifying. How can someone possibly climb back out of that pit of grief?

That's the question addressed in a new documentary called "Transforming Loss." In it, we meet six Michigan families who have managed to triumph, transform, and grow, despite indescribable heartbreak. And they have lessons for each of us.

The filmmaker and licensed psychotherapist Judith Burdick joined us in the studio.

Also in the studio was Elizabeth Guz, one of the people who shared her story of loss and transformation, a story that began when her teenage son committed suicide. Today she volunteers for the Heinz Prechter Bipolar Research Project at the University of Michigan Depression Center.

Listen to the full interview above.

When you think of filmmaking, chances are pretty good that you think of a producer, a director and a cast chosen by that director.

But there are a couple of filmmakers in Detroit who are blowing up that traditional model of making films, and in its place have come up with something completely different.

How about 40 directors for one film? And they're spread across 23 countries on five continents?

Marty Shea is one of the Detroit-based filmmakers doing this "collaborative" movie under the name of "CollabFeature."

He joined us today.

Listen to the full interview above.

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

The 2013 Arab Film Festival opens Thursday in Dearborn.

Eight films will be screened at the Arab American National Museum.

It’s possible to leave “BURN” feeling as if you’ve just combated the inferno of multiple house fires.

The documentary- which utilizes actual footage of Detroit firefighters- is strikingly realistic, unlike previous films of its kind.

Firefighter Chris Palm and Sergeant Tony Angelucey shared their accounts of entering burning buildings.

Though an experienced firefighter, Angelucey was pleased with the shift of perspective the film afforded him.

“It was shocking to see what we do. We’re always doing it, so we don’t usually get to sit back and watch it unravel,” he said.

The film, Middle of Nowhere tells the story of a young woman caught between loyalty to her incarcerated husband, and possibilities she finds outside the walls of the prison. Jennifer White interviews actor Omari Hardwick who portrays Derek, the incarcerated husband. Hardwick has also appeared in the films Sparkle and For Colored Girls, to name a few. Ava DuVernay won the Best Director Award for the film at the 2012 Sundance film festival, the first time that award has been won by an African American woman. The film is showing in Southfield.

Ann Arbor will be hosting its first-ever Cinetopia International Film Festival this week.

Russ Collins, executive director of the Michigan Theater, says festival organizers expect about 5,000 attendees this weekend.

Over the four-day festival, 35 mainstream films will be screened primarily in the Michigan and State Theaters.

Collins notes that this festival is different from the longstanding Ann Arbor Film Festival because that event's focus is on experimental films.

"The Cinetopia International Film Festival is a festival that celebrates the feature length, story-based films that you're going to see at festivals like Toronto and Sundance," Collins says.

The festival opens Thursday night with a party and screening of Tod Louiso's "Hello I Must Be Going" and continues with Sundance-acclaimed films like "I Am Not a Hipster."

"It seems like our ambient interest in cinema and the ability of our town to host festivals and special events would make Ann Arbor an exceptionally good place to do a film festival of a large scale," says Collins,

There are high hopes for this pilot event. Festival organizers plan to expand the event into an 11-day festival for Ann Arbor and Detroit.

- Julia Alix Smith-Eppsteiner, Michigan Radio Newsroom