We’ve been talking about doing a film festival for the last three years, only to let other projects and day-to-day business push it off yet again.
So this year we decided….let’s just do it. Let’s pick a date, get a venue and just jump off this cliff and the free fall will force us to get organized and make it happen. If we don’t jump, it will never happen. So, we’re falling…and it’s happening. We’re excited about the venture and the growing enthusiasm and vision for the first annual Grand Rapids Film Festival. We’ve got great sponsors and underwriters, and our goal is to have great films (action, adventure, comedy, drama, romance, whatever…) that aren’t the typical Hollywood-type gish filled with gratuitous sex or extreme profanity and violence. We want movies, documentaries, short films, animation projects, that inspire and challenge. Independent films that are message driven.
This first year we’re collaborating with Celebration Cinemas because they’re a great organization and have a great venue. Being a large theater makes it expedient as well. Our vision, however, is to have the venue downtown next year at different locations. The downtown experience will contribute to the atmosphere and continued momentum of a great film festival. So come out. Be part of the 1st Annual Grand Rapids Film Festival. What a great way to wrap up your summer!
Let the filming begin!
Just took a peek at this with some professional interest…..I’m passing all the sites & info on to my daughter & son-in-law. They both graduated from Columbia Film School in Chicago and are now both working in the production area at McDonald’s Corporate Offices in Chicago……doing lots of side jobs involving film, etc.
Both sides of their families live in Grand Rapids, Mi.
We haven’t had an official announcement of the festival yet (June 1), but have already received a dozen or so submittals from different filmmakers across the country. If your daughter is involved in the creative at McDonalds and is filming on the side, encourage her to check us out.
Thank you for bringing a family film festival to the area. As an enthusiastic audience member of film festivals and a volunteer at the East Lansing FF and Traverse City FF, I would like to use my experience to be the first to volunteer for the Grand Rapids FF. Please contact me!
Post Festival–Loved it! Watched films I never would have. Paid money to see a documentary…loved it. (American Sailors.) With a few bugs to work out (gnashed teeth over missing “The Reckoning” at a last-minute switcharoo of time slots, but ended up loving “Saving Face”) for future festivals, I think you guys did a dynamite job. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, and I attended the panel, “In the Movies: A panel of experience filmmakers share their uccesses and challenges”…for heaven’s sake, PLEASE repeat this marvelous panel for next year! One young filmmaker asked the veterans a question about distrubtion, with an added comment: “Everyone knows film festivals are rigged, so I didn’t enter my film.” Not sure if she got the towering irony of asking advice of guys who had their films in a festival. Not sure if she got it that the average Joe Film Lover like myself is exposed to stuff they’ve never heard of, and watch movies and films and documentaries they never would have but for festivals like this. Asking about ways to get your film noticed from guys who are hitting the sidewalks, paying the price, doing due diligence…in the very film festival she’s attending…Well, anyway…Great job, GRFF people, keep it up, loved the venue, thanks for free falling.