The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival Tells It Like It Is, Oct. 3-8

The overused label (especially in movie hype) “labor of love” really applies to the The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. The CDFF premiered eight years ago, as organizer Mary Ann Quinn Ponce’s way to honor her son, filmmaker and Chagrin Falls native David Ponce who died at 20 of leukemia in 2006 during post-production of one of his nonfiction films.

Now the CDFF is a widely anticipated event that unreels in the fall

throughout the village of Chagrin Falls when the place is in full autumn foliage. Screening sites - most of which are all within nice walking distances from one another - range from the Chagrin Valley Little Theater to the old Township Hall on Main Street to the United Methodist Church.

How big is the festival? Serious names in the film industry arriving this year include Colin Hanks, actor-filmmaker son of Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival alumnus Tom Hanks. Two features directed by Hanks the younger will screen, both music-oriented. ALL THINGS MUST PASS is an oral history of the roller-coaster rise and fall of Tower Records, a music-vending chain that helped shape the pop scene as we know it. EAGLES OF DEATH METAL (NOS AMIS) profiles the American hardcore-sound band caught in a notorious Islamic terror attack at a French concert in 2015 and their return to France a year later.

True-crime Documentary Double-Feature Really Slays 'Em in Gordon Square, August 13.

Used to be every Friday the 13th, Paramount would have ready another cheapjack Jason Vorhees slasher-horror movie to open. Well, on Sunday the 13th a very different couple of murder stories will appear at the Capitol Theatre in Cleveland's Gordon Square arts district on the west side.

Mark Wade Stone and his Storyworks production company have been making local-interest documentaries for years, some in association with charismatic true-crime author/lecturer James Badal. Both will be in attendance at special 4 p.m. matinee of malice, spotlighting historic Cleveland crime (besides the records of the sports teams) on the big screen.

Macedonia filmmakers seek to fund their project 'The Dollhouse'

[Press release from 'The Dollhouse'.]

Producer Julie D’Aloiso was inspired to start this project when she was introduced to a L.A. Director Russell Emanuel by voice actor Alan K. Courtright. Julie interviewed Russ about his upcoming movie Occupants and began to piece together ideas for a script about a teacher that haunts a local high school. High school students in her after school club expressed interest in this project as well as members of the community since Julie runs the Nordonia Hills.News Site. http://nordoniahills.news/

Director Bio: Russ Emanuel founded Russem Productions in 2002, in order to promote his short films including Her Knight (2003), the award-winning Girl With Gun (2005), and the documentary Restoration of Paradise (2014). Occupants (2015), marks Emanuel's fourth foray into feature filmmaking, having previously directed P.J. (2007), Chasing the Green (2009), and The Legends of Nethiah (2012), all with producer Howard Nash and actor Robert Picardo. His current projects in post-production are The Assassin's Apprentice (2017) and Collar (2017).  He has worked with such name actors as Robert Picardo, John Heard, Vincent Pastore, Ryan Hurst, Jeremy London, William Devane, Theresa Russell, Marina Sirtis, and Sean Kenney.

You can help make their proposed film The Dollhouse  a reality by making a contribution through their indiegogo page. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-dollhouse-feature-film-project-horror#/

Only the truth (so Trump and Hillary need not apply) at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival Oct. 5-9.

The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, now in its seventh year, is a unique competitive film-festival event that has rapidly become a top-ticket for local filmgoers. The only drawback: it’s all true.

Sorry, no superhero adaptations – but there is DRAW HARD, the short portrait of John G, a Cleveland comics creator of graphic material more or less in the Harvey Pekar tradition rather than the Marvel one.

Sorry, no OCEANS 11 sequel/reboot/prequel casino caper, but instead WRESTLING ALLIGATORS, a feature about how Florida’s Seminole Indian tribe, one of the few First Nations peoples not carted off to wasteland reservations by the US government, became a billionaire success story in the gambling-hospitality industry.

Sorry, no lost-in-limbo MRS. DOUBTFIRE II that Hollywood dearly wanted to make before Robin Williams’ suicide, but instead there’s UNCLE GLORIA: ONE HELLUVA RIDE! Which purports to be a actual story of a macho homophobe adopting a transvestite disguise after a bad divorce.

Love Finds You in Valentine (now on video)

 There is lots of excitement right now about the prospect of NE Ohio shooting for the movie version of My Friend Dahmer, the excellent graphic memoir by local cartoonist John `Derf' Backderf about his real-life high-school comradeship in the 1970s with Bath Township resident and future Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Ohio badly needs a new economic base; serial killer nostalgia in movies may as well be it. Or does anyone doubt for a minute we’ll someday get a flick about the early years of “Buffalo Bill” from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (a Columbus resident, as readers of the novel will remember)?

But is there a more genteel alternative? Quietly, without much hype (or mass-murderer trading cards), there’s another wave of film production taking place here, for the TV marketplace. And also adaptations of top-selling books. And no, not Thomas Harris ones.

LOVE FINDS YOU IN VALENTINE is the first one, based on novelist Irene Brand’s hit Love Finds You in Valentine, Nebraska, which became a frontrunner in a whole subgenre of regional romances promoted in association with the religious digest Guideposts. I doubt there are a lot of subscribers to Guideposts who have also read My Friend Dahmer, but trust me, the marketplace out there for faith-based romantic fiction is enormous.

And somehow the Cleveland Film Commission nabbed the Irene Brand property away from shooting in Nebraska (or that old fallback, Canada) to lens in Ohio after all. Maybe they promised the whole Guideposts staff would meet LeBron (or Machine Gun Kelly).

Horror Hotel Weekend shows the Republicans how a REAL convention ought to go, June 9-12

  

Notice how Hillary Clinton keeps having coughing fits when she gives speeches in public. I hate to tell you, but I’ve seen lots of cheap cannibal-zombie movies, and that’s usually how the epidemic starts.

In order to know what to do next, I strongly suggest all of you attend Horror Hotel in Hudson.

Begun in 2012, Horror Hotel Weekend, at the Clarion Inn in Hudson, is an annual event convention spun off from The Indie Gathering, a long-running

series of meetings and conventions by/for do-it-yourself northeast Ohio filmmakers.

The big Indie Gathering festival happens in late summer. But from its submissions, organizers realized backyard filmmakers the world over jammed to horror and science-fiction genre shorts and features. Thus, in 2012, the decision to hold a Horror Hotel Weekend dedicated to the fantastic and the frightening.

So that must have been the zombie apocalypse predicted by the Mayan calendar.

"Goodbye, Ohio" (April 6th at the Cleveland International Film Festival)

[“Goodbye, Ohio” screens Wednesday April 6th at 9:40 pm as part of the Ohio Shorts 2 program at the Cleveland International Film Festival.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

A young woman (Jessy Leigh) is leaving behind her small Ohio town (Chagrin Falls) to chase her dream of being a writer in the big Apple. Before she goes, though, there’s a loose end that needs to be tied up in the form of her ex-boyfriend (Jesse DeFranco). The two meet for lunch at a diner, and it isn’t long before trite small talk gives way to the guy trying to convince his ex-girlfriend not to go.

Co-producer/director Mike Wendt has crafted a solid, professional looking piece. Co-producer/writer/editor/co-star Jessy Leigh gives herself a nice spotlight for her acting talents, and her editing is tight and professional. Her screenplay is a bit too cutesy and on the nose at times, but it also has the ring of authenticity. Co-star Jesse DeFranco acquits himself well, too, although his role doesn’t allow him to stand out quite as much. The end result isn’t exactly what I’d call a “must see”, but it’s a pleasant enough diversion for its fifteen-minute running time that makes a nice little calling card for its participants. 2 ½ out of 4 stars.

Unseen (April 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at the Cleveland International Film Festival)

[UNSEEN screens Saturday April 2nd at 11:15 a.m., Sunday April 3rd at 6:20 pm, and Monday April 4th at 12:10 pm at the Cleveland International Film Festival.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

UNSEEN is not your typical true crime documentary. It doesn’t wallow in the morbid details of the murders committed by Clevelander Anthony Sowell, nor does it waste much time or effort in trying to suss out what might have motivated his acts of violence. Rather, it focuses on the victims, in particular those who survived their encounters with Sowell, and the ways in which an environment rife with drugs and poverty made it easy for police to dismiss both the women who went missing never to be seen alive again, and those who escaped and tried to seek help from the system to no avail. It adds a further dimension of horror to a story that was pretty horrible to begin with.

'Banger', a Skip Thomas Production, premiers May 14 at Solon Digiplex Cinemas

[Press release from Skip Thomas Productions.]

Cleveland based film company Skip Thomas Productions is set to premiere its latest feature film Banger on Sat. May 14, 2016 at Solon Cinemas.

Banger’s story follows two street crews fighting for control of the city’s lucrative methamphetamine trade. When a turf dispute leads to the death of a Haitian immigrant named Ishmel Babet, his mother conjures up a spell to bring him back from the grave to exact revenge on those responsible. The code of the street is simple... stay focused, stay loyal and stay alive.

Cleveland's superhero Apama to get movie adaptation

[Press release from Ted Sikora.]

Local creators of Apama The Undiscovered Animal, a nationally distributed comic book series, announce new feature film in development for Cleveland’s resident superhero at this year’s Wizard World.

Apama is the story of Cleveland-born Hungarian ice cream truck driver Ilyia Zjarsky who discovers an ancient scroll that allows him to gain the powers of the most savage beast man has never known. C-town’s own streets, landmarks and citizens are woven into the fabric of this offbeat series. The story is written and produced by longtime residents Ted Sikora and Milo Miller.

Visit the Nonfiction section, as The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival returns, Oct. 7-11.

Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Now in its sixth year, the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival is northeast Ohio's contribution to a boom in recent film festivals (like the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and Canada's HotDocs) uniquely devoted to nonfiction features and shorts.

The CDFF takes place from Wednesday, Oct. 7, through Sunday, Oct. 11, at venues throughout the famously postcard-pretty village of Chagrin Falls on the eastern side of Cuyahoga County. Screening sites - most of which are all within nice walking distances from one another - range from the big school auditorium on Philomethian Street to the more salon-like environment of the Valley Art Center.

Akron's "living dead" arise October 10th at the Nightlight Cinema

[Press release from the Nightlight Cinema.]

 

From 1985 to 1989, a local director named J.R. Bookwalter made one of the largest scale Zombie movies ever produced: THE DEAD NEXT DOOR. More than 1500 extras roamed these very streets in tattered outfits and Karo syrup-soaked prostheses in search of flesh. Now that Bookwalter has successfully completed his crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, the Akron-native has been able to restore the original Super-8 materials to glorious HD and surround sound.

"From the beginning, this project snowballed into something much bigger than I ever dreamed, thanks to financing from a mysterious executive producer in Detroit, a large cast and crew with no prior film experience, … and like-minded horror fans who discovered the film after seeing a (somewhat premature) four-page spread in FANGORIA magazine," Bookwalter said on his Indiegogo campaign page.

Donald Trump would go over well here too: Cinema Wasteland, October 2, 3 and 4.

[Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.]

The Strongsville-centered Cinema Wasteland grindhouse-movie, sci-fi/exploitation and drive-in culture convention happens twice every year – which means at least as often as the Browns win. So which one should you patronize this weekend?

 

Thought so. In the spirit of such movie-memorabilia and nostalgia expos as the Monster Bash in Pittsburgh and DragonCon in Atlanta, Cinema Wasteland is a fan gathering, film marathon, variety show and memorabilia expo at the Holiday Inn Select of Strongsville, devoted to what founder Ken Kish, of Berea, underscores as the B-movie golden era, roughly from the late 1950s to the late 1980s.

Those, affirms Kish, were the glory years of horror, fantasy, science-fiction, Roger Corman, spaghetti westerns, martial-arts, juvenile delinquency melodramas, nudie-cuties, Filipino actioners, Italian "giallo" thrillers, blaxploitation, rock'n'roll and psychedelia, post-nuke car chases, summer-camp sex and slapstick, underground comix-inspired animation and, well, whatever else artists du cinema could make or release quick, cheap and dirty.

Canopy Collective raises the awning on a local film-night event, August 28

[Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.]

The Canopy Collective is a group of local artists in various disciplines, from photography to poetry to sculpting to embroidery, who maintain a gallery and performance space at 3910 Lorain Avenue. On August 28 the site will host the first-ever Canopy Movie Night, in which a collection of locally wrought shorts, music-videos and clips from features-in-progress will be screened.

Among those taking part are Turnstyle Films, a production company best known for DRAW HARD, a portrait of maverick Cleveland cartoonist and comic-strip supporter John G. Sickening Pictures is Zach Shildwatchter’s outfit specializing in grindhouse-horror style shorts riffing on serial killers and other unspeakable topics. University of Akron graduate (oh, is the University of Akron still in business? We thought it had sold on Craigslist) Mike Wendt, when not working as a location manager on visiting film shoots, has embarked on projects of his own, such as the documentary short feature about Cleveland rock radio THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.

Expect a few local premieres, refreshments, raffle prizes and Q&A sessions. Admission is $5, and the show lasts from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, go online to www.canopy-collective.com.

Ranger (short web series now on youtube)

Review by Bob Ignizio

The web series “Ranger” offers five short vignettes, each concerning American servicemen in the European theater during World War II. Given that the series was shot in Ottowa County, Ohio on a micro budget, one can’t help but be impressed at how well writer/director Justin Buckner manages to sell his period setting. It also helps that the cast is unusually strong for a production of this level. I don’t know if this is the usual micro budget film deal where the cast is all drawn from the filmmaker’s circle of friends, but if it is, Buckner has some talented friends. As a proof of concept or demo reel, “Ranger” is an unqualified success.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work as entertainment.

Each vignette, while taking place in the same milieu, is a standalone piece. The formula is a few minutes of characters talking in by-the-numbers war movie clichés leading up to a dramatic moment that remains unresolved. Cut to end credits. Watching all five installments, short as they are, is an exercise in frustration. As mentioned, it’s impressive what Buckner manages to pull off; I’m just not sure why anyone other than another microbudget filmmaker looking for inspiration would watch it. 2 out of 4 stars.

You can see all five episodes of “Ranger” for free on youtube. Click here to watch.