Wed 3/29-Sun 4/9
Lights, camera, O-H-I-O!
That’s the idea behind the Cleveland International Film Festival’s sixth annual Local Heroes competition, which features ten films about Ohio, in Ohio or by Ohioans competing for a $7,500 cash prize.
Mind you, the two handfuls of movies are just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the 41st annual Film Festival and its 202 feature films and 216 short films from 71 countries. The movies will be screened at the Tower City Cinemas, as well as select neighborhood theaters and other locations. Still, for those with Buckeye pride, Local Heroes is something special.
CoolCleveland talked to Cleveland International Film Festival associate director Patrick Shepherd about this year’s competition.
Tell us about the Local Heroes competition.
It’s important to highlight the great talent of local filmmakers here in Ohio. We love doing it every year. The competition has a $7,500 cash prize that we announce on closing night. The winner is determined by our audience because they’re voting in all of these screenings.
What was the impetus behind creating the contest six year ago?
We really admire and respect of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission that’s trying to build an industry for Cleveland and filmmaking. And anything that we can do to support and highlight films that have local connections, we place as a priority. And of course, raising money to produce a film is not easy at all, so a cash prize can help pay down any debt or help fund a new project. That’s very important.
It’s great how less than a year after Cleveland hosted the Republican National Convention, two of the Local Heroes films detail the experience.
A More Civil War in particular is focused around the week of the RNC. Dispatches from Cleveland does connect to the RNC, but it also covers issues related to the Tamir Rice and Michael Brelo cases. It’s very focused on what’s going on in Cleveland for the last year and a half.
How would you compare the films?
I think it’s just more about the time frame that each film covers. In a way, they’re episodic in that they have different kind of stories they’re covering throughout both of the films. It’s just the narrative of Dispatches From Cleveland is dictated some of the protests, whereas A More Civil War is people from all over the country descend upon Cleveland for four days and you see some of the various events like a Trump rally at Settlers Landing. You see a good deal of Public Square and the activity going on there. You see some of the area right outside of the big security zone at 4th and Prospect. It really does cover it. If you weren’t down there to experience it, this really does give you a really good taste of what downtown looked like.
Tell us about other Local Heroes films.
In the Radiant City is directed by a Medina native [Rachel Lambert]. Local filmmaker Charles Moore has been involved in films for two festivals in a row. He directed Madtown last year and co-produced Beautiful Garden this year. Most are documentaries, such as Burn the Ships. I love that film about the Akron Racers, the women’s professional fast-pitch softball team that plays in Firestone Park in Akron. The owner is so passionate about the team and so supportive of the women on the team. I think that will be a very special event when we do the world premiere March 31 at the Akron-Summit County Library.
After watching Who is Arthur Chu?, will we all have the secret on how to win on Jeopardy!?
You know, Jeopardy! is definitely a factor in that film, but it’s more about Arthur and his life after he became well known on Jeopardy! There’s a brief interview with Alex Trebek, but it’s really about Arthur’s life afterwards.
When it comes to submissions for the entire Cleveland International Film Festival, what’s the criteria?
We program the festival two ways. One way is that [artistic director] Bill [Guentzler] and [director of programming & projection] Mallory [Martin] do travel the world to different festivals. Together they see more than 1,100 films in any given year. The other way we program is through our call for entries process we launch each June. That’s actually where most, if not all, of these films come from. It’s a very competitive process, especially for feature films. We had over 3,000 submissions overall and on average less than 10 percent of the submissions get into the festival. But we do ensure that the film is screened at least three times by a volunteer selection committee. They are representatives of our audience. They’re not film critics or film experts. They’re just people that attend and love the festival. They help us drill down to figure out which are the best films. And then those features rated the highest are bumped to Bill and Mallory. Then they review the films and make the ultimate decision.
Finally, how will the public be judging the Local Heroes films?
There’s a ballot where you literally tear a corner. We actually have expensive spreadsheets that tabulate all of the votes. For the audience, it’s art. Somebody’s favorite film is somebody else’s least favorite film. Or maybe they’re just lukewarm compared to the person who sat next to them who loved it. It’s art. That’s how it is.