A Festival at its Finest

What does a good film festival actually consist of?

Well, first we can start with what a film festival is…According to Wikipedia, a film festival is an “organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality”. Alright, that seems simple enough, but what makes it one of high-quality?

Is it the location?

Is it the important people who attend? Are there a lot of celebrities?

Is it the films that are shown?

Is it the after-parties?

Is it press attendance?

Is it good advertisement?

Is it the size of the festival?

Is it the history of it?

Is it the amount of years it has gone on?

What exactly is it?

Well, let us ask you a somewhat random question…what do Michael Moore and Michigan have in common? The Traverse City Film Festival (which we can argue is an actually good film festival)

The Traverse City Film Festival seems reminiscent of how Sundance was brought to fruition, for all the right reasons, showing truly independent films, teaching future filmmakers, and giving films that might otherwise not receive large distribution an opportunity to be seen. Traverse City has an estimated population of 142,316 and last year more than 96,000 admissions were tallied for the five-day Traverse City Film Festival in only its fifth year. The Traverse City Film Festival was established by Michael Moore as a charitable, educational, nonprofit organization committed to showing “just great movies”. For those of you who may not be familiar with  Michael Moore, he is known as an American filmmaker, author, and liberal political commentator. He has also directed and produced four of the top nine highest-grossing documentaries of all time.

With 2010 being the 6th annual Traverse City Film Festival, the board hopes to reach out to even more people and maintain its goal in helping to save one of America’s few indigenous art forms–the cinema. As previously mentioned, LCO Client and Academy Award Winning Michael Moore is the creator of the Traverse City Film Festival. Also sitting on the board is Academy Award winning director, Emmy Award and two-time Golden Globe Award winning actress Christine Lahti.

The 2010 festival is will take place July 27-August 1 in Traverse City, Michigan. Tickets are on sale now and the 2010 Festival Guide is also available online at www.traversecityfilmfest.org. And if you can’t make it this year, the 2011 date is already set so you can plan ahead and get there!