TCFF Dailies for Wednesday from the Traverse City Film Festival

Here’s the first of the TCFF Dailies we’re producing for the Film Festival. See it out bigger on YouTube.

Michigan movie trivia featuring Anatomy of a Murder

Over on Absolute Michigan, we have a great list of Michigan movie trivia. It includes the trailer to Anatomy of a Murder.

Best. Trailer. Ever.

On Location at the 2010 Traverse City Film Festival

All next week Absolute Michigan will be on location at the Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. The festival takes place Tuesday, July 27 through Sunday, August 1. Check their site for tickets and also the times of free panels and free movies on the BIG screen at the Open Space

We’re a sponsor of the festival so we may have a little biased, but we have to say that this is one of the coolest weeks we get a chance to be a part of. In 2010, we’re going to be working with a great group of folks including the University of Michigan Film School to produce daily online video – stay tuned!

Here’s a great video produced by Scott Allman that will help get you in the mood.

Photo: Traverse City Film Festival by Ken Scott

Traverse City Comedy Arts Festival: Day One

The festival started with a bang with the Opening Party at the City Opera House. It was well attended (with tasty food) and from there, folks rolled into shows from Mike Toomey (above) Whitney Cummings, Jeff Garlin and others. Get all the details from Beth Milligan on the Official Comedy Fest blog.

Here’s a few photos from yesterday in the Traverse City Comedy Festival slideshow on Flickr.

…and a TV News report on the Traverse City Comedy Arts Festival:

Snapshots of the Grand Rapids ArtPrize

Here’s a video produced by Absolute Michigan featuring audio from Brad Aspey of Interlochen Public Radio along with photographs from the Absolute Michigan pool and the Creative Commons. The music is Octopussy by Juanitos. There’s so much more to see – definitely go to Grand Rapids if at all possible and learn all about ArtPrize Grand Rapids.

photos M. Burrows StacyN – MichiganMoments yodraws powerbooktrance KenyonJM sethrt pentax hammer (gary syrba) pairadocs Rudy Malmquist RichardD72 ramjetgr docksidepress Heightened Senses [Dennis] lilmisshothead pablohart wsilver JohnE777 rkramer62 SashaW numstead stevendepolo dedav

artists Kurt Perschke Eric Daigh Rob Bliss

Official Video: Rob Bliss 2009 ArtPrize Paper Airplane Event

Fantastic video by Creo Productions! Thanks docksidepress for the pointer!

On Location: Sleeping Bear Dunegrass & Blues Festival

In addition to being the week of the TC Film Festival in northern Michigan, this weekend also features the long-running Sleeping Bear Dunegrass & Blues Festival.

While we can’t be there, our good friends at the Glen Arbor Sun are. In addition to this video from the Ragbirds they have a nice interview with Josh Davis of Steppin In It.

Day 2: Traverse City Film Festival

Yesterday’s panel was 40 Years of Documentary Filmmaking and featured engaging discussion with some of the leading lights in documentary production. Up North Media captured the whole thing and we’ll feature it when it’s done!

The Traverse City Record-Eagle’s 2009 Traverse City Film Festival coverage includes an article about TCFF’s new film school that opened yesterday with the head of the screenwriting program at the University of Michigan, Jim Burnstein, discussing the mechanics and style of screenwriting.

New to the festival this year, the film school explores filmmaking on a variety of subjects each day. The rest of the week’s lineup starting today, Thursday, goes: Documentary 101, Women in Film, Making Shorts, and ending on Sunday with Very American Comedy. All the sessions are held at the CenterPointe Office Suites located on M-22 towards Suttons Bay from 1 to 4 p.m. each day.

If you have the opportunity, tickets are sold at the door and are only $3.

Check the release on the TCFF Film School for details.

Today’s session features Waterlife director Kevin McMahon. McMahon’s film Waterlife played yesterday and was flat out amazing. Blending rich cinematography and CGI with a compelling story told by people around lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, Erie and Ontario, Waterlife is a must-watch for anyone who loves these lakes. They have two more screenings available. You can visit ourwaterlife.org to learn much more, read an interview with Kevin in the official TCFF Blog and watch the trailer below.

The festival also provides after-hour jam sessions for those of us not yet ready to turn in after a full day of movies. Tonight’s jam session, 9:30 p.m. – 2 a.m., takes place at the Loading Dock located at 205 Lake Street (off of Cass Street and across from the Firefly Cafe), and will feature performances by Luke Winslow King and Egon. In honor of tonight’s free film “Hair”. at the Open Space Outdoor Cinema (featuring a performance by Rootstand singer-songwriter Luke Winslow King) we give you a rare “double YouTube” and take you back to the 1970s and the Hair song…

The festival would also like to ask YOU to share your experience of the Traverse City Film Festival and help them tell the story!

Troubled Water by Erik Poppe – Opening Night Film

by Cherie Spaulding

On the stage of the Traverse City Opera House Tuesday, director Erik Poppe discussed his film Troubled Water which screened at the 5th Annual Traverse City Film Festival opening night. After the film debuted, Poppe took the stage for a question and answer session. Attendees, relaxed in their air-conditioned seats, longing to understand the inspiration and nuances of the Norwegian director’s potent, courageous film.

Audience members were quickly reminded that art imitates life. Recalling the death of his younger cousin, the director explored the idea of what life after a prison sentence might be like for a young man involved in crime that ended fatally with the loss of a young boy. Poppe was interested in what may have happened to the young man, after prison, and wondered how he would have reconstructed or reintegrated himself into society. He also examined the experience of the mother, plagued by guilt, and the victim’s family, whose loss pervaded their thoughts and challenged their ability to survive years later.

As melancholy as it sounds, the movie was powerful and the message was as far from hopeless as the Norway is from Traverse. Anyone disinclined to forgive, may not enjoy the concept, but those who believe in the human potential for goodness and the redemptive power of forgiveness will come to recognize this film as a gift of hope–not just for an individual soul, but for the human collective entirely. Steeped in the traditional Christian culture of Northern Europe, while simultaneously honoring the freedom to explore subjects of depth, the film should resonate with both liberal and conservative audience members.

Screening the film in Traverse City seemed an effective place as any to drop your atomic bomb of hope. Sitting next to the director’s wife, I listened as local movie goers greeted and thanked her for the film’s contribution and her families presence at the festival. At one point she leaned over and said to me, Norway is not like this at all. People are not so friendly, and she held her prayer-prone hands to the sides of her eyes as blinders, illustrating a feeling of being closed off from others. I have never been to Norway, but I had to agree about the friendliness of my fellow Michiganders. Fans were inviting she and her husband for dinner, which may or may not have included a pie. And knowing Midwestern hospitality, I knew they were completely serious.

Choosing Troubled Water as the opening film was bold and intelligent. I felt that Michael Moore was saying, this ain’t no joke, guys. This thing called life, it is supposed to be good. There is potential in every moment, sometimes you just have to wade through the tough stuff, forgive yourself, and get busy living, ya know. I think the film selection also reflected Moore’s trust in the sophistication of his audience. Troubled Water ain’t for sissies. If you have ever a child escape your sight or lost someone close to you in a tragic way, or otherwise, this film will evoke emotion. And while most of us have never been paroled from a murder sentence, almost all of us have withheld forgiveness from another, or ourselves, or missed the chance to say goodbye to someone we loved.

Photo credit: The great son of Grünerløkka (Erik Poppe) by annestinej

Rothbury Wrap: Video, Photos & Features from the 2009 Rothbury Music Festival

We’ll probably be going through footage and film from Rothbury 2009 for weeks to come, and we’ll be updating this post through the year to make sure we have everything you need to know about Rothbury 2009. Have something to add? Post a comment!

mLive reports that according to Lt. David Roesler of the Michigan State Police, Rothbury had an estimated paid attendance of just under 34,000 (closer to 36,000 when volunteers, staff and comps were added). You can get more numbers and some great links from Wikipedia’s Rothbury Festival entry.

One of the most interesting things for me about the Festival was meeting people from right here in Michigan who I hadn’t been aware of. Michigan songwriter Ralston Bowles (who was voted on to the island by fans through Facebook & emails) was one of those and his performance right before Willie Nelson was just one of the ways that Michigan shone at Rothbury.

Another group of Michigan folks who I was happy to meet were the folks from WYCE and the Community Media Center of Grand Rapids. They produced some great interviews including one with Grace Potter (of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals) one of Spin magazine’s 11 must hear bands at Rothbury that kicks off with a great acoustic solo. Some of their other interviews include Muskegon’s own Four Finger Five (one of my favorites), the MacPodz, Brett Dennen, Guster and Ani DiFranco.

Our Absolute Michigan team included a pair of alumni of the Leelanau School in Glen Arbor: Richard Taber and Ryan Thompson. Richard got some stunning photos and I hear that Ryan hangs with Twitter’s David Lee Rothbury. Together they collaborated on some great videos including a report from the biodiesel think tank and interviews with mycologist Paul Stamets, Erin Zindle from The Ragbirds (who appreciated Rothbury’s attention to “green details”) and the slideshow below of photos from the Rothbury Think Tanks and other scenes from the festival…

Those Think Tanks were one of the things that sets Rothbury apart from other festivals. Another thing was the dedication to Michigan musicians. When I spoke with Rothbury producer Jeremy Stein (along with reps from the Detroit News & mLive) he said that Rothbury felt it was critical to keep Michigan artists in the spotlight. He also talked about their commitment to integrating with the local economy to maximize the multi-million dollar impact of a festival that employs over 3500 people.

We camped with the folks from Porterhouse Productions who have a few reports on their blog. Portherhouse founder Sam Porter and I talked with musician Brett Dennen who had some interesting thoughts about how to carry the festival experience further – look for more about that in the months to come.

Anne Savage of Revolutionary Views put together some tasty panoramas from Rothbury (complete with ambient sound) and also has a cool slideshow from Rothbury 2009.

Oh yeah. I had media access and remembered to pull out my camera every so often. Some of my favorites are in my Rothbury 2009 set (slideshow).

You can see a whole lot more photos from Rothbury (and share your own) in the Rothbury 2009 pool on Flickr.

Of course, there was music at Rothbury. Some highlights include live audio recordings from Rothbury at archive.org including:  Railroad Earth, Yonder Mountain String Band, Guster, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Steppin In It, the Ragbirds and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (no Dead show, but I’m sure that will be coming).

YouTube is of course not to be denied. A few favorites are Bob Dylan,  Les Claypool, Railroad Earth, The Black Crowes, STS9’s Michael Jackson tribute, John Butler Trio doing Zebra, Flogging Molly, Umphrey’s McGee with a Pink Floyd cover, Broken Social Scene, The Quannum All Stars, Girl Talk (check out the crowd surfing), Damian Marley, Government Mule w/ guest Grace Potter, (and the light show to match), String Cheese Incident, Toots and the Maytalls and the Dead (also see the fireworks & US Blues – the sound is pretty rough but the video is amazing!)

And as always, add your links, photos & video for Rothbury in the comments!

Photo Credits

• Rothbury – Out of This World by tinmantaber
• WYCE interviews Brett Dennen at Rothbury by Andy McFarlane
• Ribbon Dancer by tinmantaber
• Rothbury Festival 2009 by acsavage
• The Hills Are Alive … with fajitas! by Andy McFarlane
• Nas II by Andy McFarlane