HOW TO GO:
What: Eichelberger Film Dayton Festival
When: Friday, Aug. 22, through Sunday, Aug. 24
Where: Film screenings are held at Neon movie theater, 130 E. Fifth St. Workshops are held at Think TV, 110 S. Jefferson St., Dayton.
Tickets: Prices are $75 for an All-Access pass, $27 for a Flex-Pass for three screenings, and $10 for individual tickets. To order: http://filmdayton.ticketleap.com/festival/ Tickets can be purchased at The Neon before each show.
Here’s the line-up of films and activities.
Friday, Aug. 22
7 p.m. “The Infinite Man”
9 p.m. “Flick My Clip”
Saturday, Aug. 23
12 noon: International Shorts
12:30 p.m. Life to Narrative at ThinkTV
2 p.m. “Give to Live the Movie”
2:30 p.m. Comedy in TV/Film at ThinkTV
4 p.m. Ohio Shorts Block
7 p.m. “Zero Motivation”
9 p.m. “Pitch It! & Party,” venue to be announced
Sunday, Aug. 24
12 noon: ‘The Critics Perspective’ at ThinkTV
12:30 p.m. U.S. Shorts Block
1:45 p.m. ‘Auditioning for Actors’ at ThinkTV
3:15 p.m. “Stomping Ground”
5:30 p.m. “This Time Next Year”
8 p.m.: FilmDayton Awards, The Neon
Search is On for new FilmDayton Director
FilmDayton, the non-profit, volunteer-driven organization that sponsors the annual Eichelberger Film Dayton Festival, is seeking a new director.
The part-time position involves responsibilty for program development, fund-raising, grant writing, communication and administration. The job will also involve the creation and implementation of a Film Commission.
Qualified candidates must have at least two years of non-profit management experience or comparable experience. If you’re interested, send a resume and writing sample to filmdayton.director@gmail.com For more information about FilmDayton visit filmdayton.com
VIDEO: To hear from Festival coordinator Abigail Sorensen, see MyDaytonDailyNew.com
It’s exciting to watch a film festival grow and blossom and that’s what’s happening with the Eichelberger FilmDayton Festival, now in its sixth year.
This year’s event, slated for Aug. 22-24, promises a jam-packed weekend of film screenings and professional workshops, parties and contests.
“Every year the fest gets bigger and better in both films and attendance,” says festival director Dave Temmesfeld, who attributes much of the growth to word-of-mouth from folks who come and enjoy. ” We started out with maybe 800 people coming the first year and last year we had over 1,300 people. We had over 70 films submitted in the short and feature categories from around the country and around the world.”
Festival coordinator Abigail Sorensen says this year’s festival includes award-winning films and a variety of innovative films made by folks in our own region.
“We provide the opportunity for audience members to interact with many of the filmmakers whose works are being shown,” she says, adding that the weekend aims at pleasing both film buffs and casual film-goers.
Winners of the “Sundog Film festival,” for high school students in grades 8-12, will shown before each of the featured films.
Here’s what’s new
In the festival’s early years, films were shown by invitation-only with a focus on locally-connected films and those that were making news at some of the larger national festivals. For the past two years in conjunction with the Jack W. and Sally D. Eichelberger Foundation, the scope has been expanded and the festival now welcomes submissions from any film-maker who’d like to be considered for inclusion.
“Last year we accepted short films and we had so many excellent shorts this year we have increased the number of “Short Blocks” from two to three,” Temmesfeld said. “We’ve included feature-length films this year.”
An example is the Ohio-submitted documentary, "Give to Live the Movie," that explores charitable giving, foreign aid, and human compassion.The film was directed by Justin de Leon who was born and raised in Dayton and will participate in a Q&A after the screening.
Also scheduled is a submitted feature entitled "Stomping Ground," shot in North Carolina by a first-time director.
“It’s a fun film about about searching for Sasquatch,” says Temmesfeld.” We plan on having the director do a Q & A over Skype after his screening.”
Beth DeVilbiss, interim executive director of Film Dayton, says the festival will take on an international flavor this year with two of the Spotlight Films coming from Australia and Israel. This year’s theme is “Craft Matters.”
“This isn’t an amateur festival, ” says Temmesfeld, who says the only place you can watch smaller independent films these days is at film festivals or buried on Netflix. “We are showing independent filmmakers using their craft — with little or no money — to tell great stories without “A” list actors and huge special effects budgets.”
What you’ll see
The Spotlight Films being viewed next weekend have been well-received at larger film festivals across the nation (SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival) but have not been shown locally.
"Our opening night film — "The Infinite Man" — is a time-travel romantic comedy from Australia," says Sorensen, who describes the film as "fantastically funny and entertaining." The film, which will be shown on Friday evening, was directed by Hugh Sullivan.
Also on the Spotlight schedule is "Zero Motivation," a film by Israeli director Talya Lavie that tells the story of young female Israeli soldiers serving in the human resources unit of a remote desert military base. The film, which will be shown on Saturday evening, won the Best Narrative Feature award at Tribeca as well as the Nora Ephron prize for outstanding female directors or writer.
"This Time Next Year," slated for Sunday, tells the story of a community banding together to support each other after the devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to Long Island Beach, New Jersey. Directed by Jeff Reichert and Zarihah Zaman — who screened their documentary "Remote Area Medical" at last year's fest — the film production crew included many WSU grads. It will be followed by a Q&A session with Reichert and Zaman.
Workshops slated
This year’s professional workshops add a variety of interesting discussion to the weekend:
- "The Critics Perspective" will include panelists Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman who will talk about the ways in which critics determine whether or not a film is "good" and how that might differ from the perspective of filmmakers.
- "The Life to Narrative" session will deal with the ways in which filmmakers transfer real-life events into non-documentary narratives. It will also explore the moral and ethical obligations filmmakers may or may not have toward the people involved in the real life events.
Panelists will include film-maker Chinonye Chukwu and Samuel Autman, the subject of one of her recent short films, “A Long Walk.”
- "Comedy in TV/Film" will be hosted by Ryan Singer and "Auditioning for Actors" features Wright State University acting professor Jason Kaufman and FilmDayton vice president Shaunn Baker discussing ways in which actors can audition to make the best impression on casting directors.
The festival will also feature:
- "Flick My Clip," a collection of comedy shorts curated by Ryan Singer, slated for Friday night after the featured film.
- "Short Blocks," a variety of short films in various genres. There's Ohio block, an American block and an international block with pictures from Spain, United Kingdom, Russia, Slovenia, Canada and France.
Film Dayton Awards
A highlight of the weekend is the Sunday night award-ceremony which honors those who have contributed to the film industry in the Dayton area.
This year’s honorees are:
- Jonathan McNeal, manager of The Neon movie theater in downtown Dayton, who is receiving the 2014 Key Award. McNeal is a Wright State University motion picture grad well-known for his documentary film on Dayton's Rubi Girls He is being honored for the help he has given local film-makers and the quality films he consistently brings to The Neon.
- Jim Klein, who retired last year after 29 years as a professor in Wright State's motion pictures department, will receive the 2014 Filmmaker award. He is receiving the honor both for the films he has made and the film-makers he has inspired.
An independent filmmaker since 1970, with Julia Reichert he created “Growing Up Female,” “Union Maids,” an Academy Award nominee; “Methadone: An American Way of Dealing,” and “Seeing Red,” a film about American communists that was nominated for an Academy Award.
Klein is a founder of New Day Films and has also had a distinguished career as a film editor.
Awards will also be presented to the best short films in each of the three “Shorts Blocks.”
Film-makers’ feedback
Jason Tostevin, a film-maker from Columbus, will be returning for the second consecutive year with his short thriller, “I Owe You.” Last year, his film, “Til Death,” won the Audience Favorite award.
“This is a gem of a festival with a great venue, friendly staff, and a lively audience,” says Tostevin, who says there’s no substitute for screening your movie for an audience that doesn’t know you and isn’t predisposed to like it.
“Having an audience is the culmination of everything a filmmaker does,” he says. ” You don’t have a movie until an audience has watched it. It’s their movie: you’re just there for the ride.”
Fests are also essential, Tostevin adds, because they are research, inspiration and networking all rolled into one.
“You meet other filmmakers, learn from their movies and see what’s working and what’s not for the audience.”
Alyssa Roehrenbeck of Portland, Oregon, who had a short film in the festival last year, labeled her weekend in Dayton a “window into a small but vibrant film community.”
“FilmDayton has managed to organize a respectable, welcoming, and learning-based film community,” she said, adding that her own hometown could learn a lot from Dayton. “It was nice to see people working together, talking each other up, not down, and really respecting one another. Why can’t we all build community that is really trying to improve, teach, and aim higher instead of tearing others down?”
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