“Films were born in the age of Einstein, where the only constant was the speed of light.”

I picked this sound bite up at the first film school session of the Traverse City Film Festival. Jim Burnstein, head of the screenwriting program at the University of Michigan, gave an interesting lecture about the mechanics and style of screenwriting. He gave interactive examples and kept the crowd laughing and interested as he imparted knowledge upon a room almost as diverse as Serenity Tea Room in downtown Traverse City.

Sitting in front of me were an army of light blue-shirted teenagers from Interlochen taking in their first film festival experience with the class and a movie later in the week. Despite the mixture of young and old everyone seemed to be mingling here and there, feeding off each others’ excitement for the next four hours they’d enjoy with Burnstein. It was a refreshing experience just watching people of all ages filing in.

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. I highly recommend going, it’s a great thing they have down there, and if for nothing else, CenterPointe is a wonderfully modern building placed right on the water. They’ve also generously provided the suite free of charge for the film school.

I love how everything surrounding the film festival seems to be one act of goodwill after another. It really makes for a great atmosphere. That, and I appreciate the more mature audience, especially in the weeks after Cherry Festival.

The film festival is clearly looking to do it right. They handed out notebooks, pens (donated by a local art shop and Northwestern Michigan College) and surveys for people to complete. The event manager communicated the festival’s strong desire to cultivate the film school sessions and really develop that aspect of this year’s festivities.  It’s this attitude that is making the film festival so successful, and I’ve noticed it every moment so far.

I’d also like to remark on how wonderful the film festival staff has been. Especially the volunteers in the red shirts. They’ve done a marvelous job and always seem happy and eager to help. I don’t know what festival organizers are feeding them, but whatever it is, I want in.

Good job TCFF. I feel a part of it already, and it’s only the second day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 6:45 am and is filed under Film Festival Dailies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.