Film Festival showcases foreign, local productions
The College of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts and the Central Michigan University Film Society are set to dazzle movie lovers once again at the annual International Film Festival for two weekends in February.
On Feb. 6-9 and Feb. 13-16, the festival will showcase a total of 16 films, including a mix of foreign, thriller and mainstream shows. Perhaps the most widely known movie being shown will be "The Conjuring," a horror film made last year.
Mark Poindexter, professor and director of the film festival, said organizers try to include at least a few well-known films during the selection process, which is spearheaded by the Film Society, a registered student organization.
“I make the final decision on which films to run,” Poindexter said. “(Students) are my main source of advice. They’re the main source of the entire staff for the festival.”
Erin Woirol, volunteer organizer, said students in the Film Society are given access to certain film distributors, each providing 50-100 movie choices. Students then present their top picks to Poindexter, who makes the final cuts.
The festival, which began in 2003, is aimed at bringing people together to enjoy both local and international films on a widespread scale.
According to Poindexter, the festival was created as a way to put an end to film showings on campus that had few options for promotion and yielded consistently small turnouts.
“It’s got to be more than just showing a film,” Poindexter said. “Eventually, we hit on the idea of having a festival, thinking if we ran a bunch of films in a compressed period of time, we could make more noise about it.”
Poindexter said the somewhat obscure selection of films is to emphasize a product people cannot easily get via Netflix or other online movie resources. This is an attempt to balance out the increasing ease with which people can view films in their own homes.
Woirol, a senior from Muskegon, emphasized the exclusive nature of the festival due to its selection of films from countries such as France, Norway, Mexico and Demark.
“Having an international film festival is not a very common thing for colleges to have,” Woirol said. “I think people should go, especially students, because it’s a really great opportunity.”
In addition to the foreign selections, the festival will showcase work of CMU students by showing the culmination of the 48-hour film competition, as well as three short comedies produced in Michigan.
Films will be shown in both the Celebration! Cinema and the CMU Charles V. Park Library Auditorium.
Tickets are available at Celebration! Cinema in Mount Pleasant and at Java City in Park Library. Ticket prices are $10 for a booklet of 10 tickets or $5 for individual tickets.
One ticket admits one person per screening. The festival is being co-sponsored by the College of Communication and Fine Arts, the CMU Office of Institutional Diversity and CMU Libraries among several others.
