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Cedar Rapids film festival brings Iowa’s independent spirit to big screens

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Scott Chrisman/Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival Chairman

CEDAR RAPIDS — A pizza guy gets caught in the middle of a casino heist on the Fourth of July in “The Wedge.”

Fireworks explode over Fairfax in “Fire in the Sky.”

George Washington the Pirate and his lifelong best friend set off to start a rock band in “Arggh! A Pirate Story.”

(To directly to the Cedar Rapids Film Festival event page)

A French missionary in the 1800s carves out the foundations of the Catholic Church in the Upper Mississippi Valley in “Man of Deeds.”

Award-winning words turn Iowa City into a literary mecca in “City of Literature.”

Zombies roam the world — or at least the streets of West Branch — in “Collapse.”

The field of cinema dreams runs the gamut from music videos to full-length documentaries and features in the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival.

The event, now in its 12th year, will bring the work of current or former Iowans, films about Iowa or shot in Iowa to three screens this weekend at the Collins Road Theatre. Fifty films were submitted and 30 were accepted for the event, which offers juried and audience awards and is run by volunteers, in-kind donations and ticket sales.

“The festival experience gives you a chance to see ideas on the screen that you wouldn’t get from mainstream Hollywood,” says festival director and co-founder Scott Chrisman, 32, of Alburnett. “And there are plenty of ideas that you couldn’t get financed for a massive thing, but are much more personal or … put a different spin on things.

“I think they capture the Heartland a lot better than your fabricated version would,” he says.

“You get to see Iowa on the screen, whether it be in the script, in the topic or the actors themselves. Even if it’s a director who’s been gone for a while, that heart is still there. You’re still seeing the Iowa spirit on screen.”

He says many of the indie filmmakers who have left the state to pursue their craft in California or elsewhere treat the Cedar Rapids festival as a homecoming.

“You can show (your work) to your family and friends and your hometown folks who are happy to see you,” says Chrisman, who works in film as a creative services producer and editor at KCRG-TV9.

What Cheer native Jason Bolinger, 37, now of Fairfield, can’t wait for his zombies to walk across the Collins Road screens in “Collapse.” It’s a high point for Bolinger and Mike Saunders, who were hired to direct the Iowa Film Production Services/StoryBench film.

Jason Bolinger, director

Bolinger and Saunders also have their own production company, Prescribed Films, which they founded in Ottumwa in 2000. They cater to comedy and horror, often combining the two, and they have three short films showing in the festival.

But Bolinger is especially thrilled that “Collapse” — his “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to shoot a $1.7 million, big-budget film — is finally making its debut at 11:02 a.m. and 6:10 p.m. Saturday in Theatre 3 in the Collins Road multiplex.

“To do something that big was great,” he says.

He and his crew shot their 93-minute feature in October 2009, during the halcyon days of the Iowa film tax incentive boom. He says such undertakings are harder now, following the demise of the state program, but he and his partners are determined to keep making movies in Iowa, even if they can’t economically make it their full-time job.

(The Cedar Rapids film festival takes places Friday and Saturday.)

“We’ve been making movies for 12 years and we’ll keep making movies. That’s what we love to do,” he says. “By no means can you call it a hobby. It’s much more than that. We sell DVD copies of our movies and T-shirts. There’s just not much of an outlet for independents in Iowa, and that’s OK. Whatever we make, we roll back into the next movie.”

Their other three festival entries are shorts, running from 3 to 8 minutes, shot in 2011 and 2012 in Ottumwa. Bolinger likes the quick turnaround of that format.

“For us, to make a feature film takes a whole lot more commitment time-wise,” he says. “By doing shorts, we’re able to do it in a weekend. It’s a chance for us to keep working, keep making movies. That’s getting harder and harder to do with families and jobs. Plus, we can do more than two (in a year).

“We have ideas all the time,” he says. “It’s an easier way to get those ideas out, get the creative juices flowing and actually do something with it. Features just take so much time.”

"Collapse” will be shown at 11:02 a.m. and 6:10 p.m. Saturday in Theatre 3 in the Collins Road multiplex.

Creative juices weren’t the only thing flowing when cameras were rolling on “Collapse.” So was the expertly crafted blood and gore for his “anti-zombie” flick, in which a farmer desperately tries to keep his family alive, taking brutal steps as he seeks supplies among a world crawling with the undead.

Zombie movies have had a resurgence in recent years, but this is the first one for Bolinger and company, among the 30 films they’ve shot in the past 12 years.

“They’re just cool,” he says of zombies. He had a small army of them invade West Branch.

“If you count all the extras, we had about 200 to 250” involved in the production. “A small army versus our no-budget stuff where we have a crew of five to 10. It was quite a shock and a wonderful experience.

“We took over the town for a month,” he says, calling the West Branch folks “amazing and so accommodating.”

“They let us shut down Main Street for a few days and let us use their fire station for breakfast and lunch. Everyone was super helpful there.”

After all the postproduction work, “Collapse” is ready for its close-up.

“This is its first film festival, first public screening, first time anybody can come see it,” Bolinger says. “We have foreign distribution — it’s already been released in Germany, on Blu-ray and DVD. The last I heard, a domestic offer is on the table.”

That’s the best a filmmaker can hope for — along with emotional outbursts in all the right places.

“It’s always great to get to show your movie,” Bolinger says. “We make it for ourselves, for sure. Making movies is the creative outlet we love. I’ll never forget the first time we saw our first scary movie in a theater. People screamed and jumped when they were supposed to. It was just awesome.”

Other area film festivals

LUNAFEST: Iowa City

7 p.m. April 21, 2012, Bijou Theater, Iowa Memorial Union; $7 plus suggested donation of $5 to $15; silent auction, 6:45 p.m.; traveling film festival/fundraiser; features short films by, about and for women; proceeds to Breast Cancer Fund and local causes; See more on this event here.

Iowa City Documentary Film Festival

The Iowa City Documentary Film Festival, an international festival run and organized by University of Iowa students, will take place Thursday through Saturday at the Bijou Cinema located in the Iowa Memorial Union, 125 N. Madison St.

Hardacre Film Festival

Aug. 3 and 4, 2012, Hardacre Theatre, 112 E. Fifth St., Tipton; features independent films from shorts to feature length and documentaries; $8 per session, $20 all-festival pass; hardacrefilmfestival.com

Landlocked Film Festival

Oct. 25 to 28, 2012, Englert Theatre and other downtown Iowa City sites; features independent movies from around the world; llff.org

Keeping it reel at the Landlocked Film Festival

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University of Iowa graduates Devon Terrill and Kara Kurcz can’t wait to bring their debut documentaries from Los Angeles back to Iowa City for the Landlocked Film Festival later this month.

Both have made films from the heart.

Terrill, 37, who grew up in Marshalltown, has captured her family’s journey through autism in “Gork!” Chicago native Kurcz, 34, based “Big Time” on her own joys and frustrations of nurturing a small business.

“It’s been my dream since I was a little girl to make a film. I just didn’t know it was going to be about me,” Kurcz says with a laugh during a recent phone interview from her home in Los Angeles. “When you finish something so important, you want to share it. It’s important for me to share it in Iowa City and Chicago.”

“The Big Time” hits the Englert Theatre screen at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 27. “Gork!” follows at 7 p.m. that day at the Bijou Theater in the Iowa Memorial Union.

“Our Iowa City connection is pretty serious,” Terrill says. “I went to school there, my dad went to med school there, my brothers went there. I’m hoping we can reach out to everybody we have there and blow out this screening and literally have people standing outside the door.”

Both filmmakers have what Landlocked is looking for.

“We like high-quality films where somebody has a story to tell, whether documentary or narrative,” says festival president Mary Blackwood, 54, of Iowa City. “Somebody who can make a film from the heart that’s a real story, a real feeling, a real person or a real topic that’s going to grip the audience.”

The festival runs from Aug. 25 to 28 in downtown Iowa City, with most feature film screenings at The Englert and The Bijou. Other films, workshops and panel discussions will be held at the Sheraton Hotel, Hotel Vetro and the Iowa City Public Library.

Run entirely by volunteers, Landlocked is just in its fifth year and already is attracting 200 entries, which boggles Blackwood’s mind.

“A lot of films have come from around the country, especially from Los Angeles,” she says. “A lot of them have come to our festival and are passing the word around among their filmmaker friends.”

Seventy-two films were chosen for Landlocked, including narrative features and documentary features in the 90-minute range; narrative and documentary shorts from 6- to 65 minutes; animation, some for adults, others for all ages; music videos; and student films.

“We like to encourage young filmmakers who are going to be making the big-time film in the future,” Blackwood says.

International entries, all with English subtitles, come from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Syria, Uganda and the Ukraine.

Diversity is what it’s all about, Blackwood says.

“We like to have a diversity of topics,” Blackwood says. “We like to have some (films) from different corners of the world and some from Iowa. Every one is an independent film — one is that not produced by the Hollywood moviemaking system.”

Terrill and Kurcz have made documentaries designed to entertain, as well as educate.

“Gork!” focuses on Terrill’s adopted brother Adam, who was born to a 14-year-old incest victim, left on a doorstep, then brought to the emergency room where Terrill’s father worked. Adam came to their home as a foster child when he was just four days old, and as he grew, his physical and mental differences emerged. He’s had many diagnoses, from mental retardation and autism to severe ADHD.

Now 30, he has a job and lives in a group home in Charles City. Terrill says Adam’s story is told in a frank, realistic way, infused with the humor — some of it politically incorrect — that helped his family deal with his challenges.

The film took about 10 years and $50,000 to make, with lots of “freebies” and favors from friends in the industry. It also includes footage from the one-woman show about Adam’s life, starring sister Autumn, who was especially close to him growing up.

Kurcz also hopes “Big Time” will be inspirational, as it shows not only the struggles of starting a small business, but of seeing it through a recession.

She took a leap of faith seven years ago and jumped from TV production to fashion design. She had an instant hit with her line of handbags that would light up inside, making it easier to find keys and other items. But the recession hit and nearly ended it all. She managed to weather the storm and has even expanded her Solas line.

Other successful business owners join Kurcz in offering advice to budding entrepreneurs through the documentary. And like Terrill, Kurcz used donated time and equipment to shave film production costs from about $100,000 to $30,000.

“We’ve gotten away from the idea that as individuals we have the power to make things happen for us,” Kurcz says. “America is a great place of opportunity, but it’s up to us to take ahold of that opportunity and turn it into something.”

— Diana Nollen

Check out this video from PATV:

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Get Out: Landlocked Film Festival

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The tension mounts for Darby (Mandy Musgrave, left) and birthday girl Kate (Hallee Hirsh), who’s mortified to be sweet 16 and never been kissed. The film, “16 to Life,” will have its Iowa premiere during the Landlocked Film Festival in Iowa City, then will move to Elkader for Sept. 3 showings at 4 p.m. in the Elkader Cinema and 7:30 p.m. in the Elkader Opera House.

The tension mounts for Darby (Mandy Musgrave, left) and birthday girl Kate (Hallee Hirsh), who’s mortified to be sweet 16 and never been kissed. The film, “16 to Life,” will have its Iowa premiere during the Landlocked Film Festival in Iowa City, then will move to Elkader for Sept. 3 showings at 4 p.m. in the Elkader Cinema and 7:30 p.m. in the Elkader Opera House.

The Landlocked Film Festival offers many pieces in many places, but the centerpiece of the four-day event is the Iowa premiere of “16 to Life” at the Englert Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Known as “Duck Farm No. 13” to the folks around McGregor, where most of the footage was shot in October 2007, it’s flying under a new name and generating industry buzz, winning awards at Method Fest in California last spring.

But during the final phases of the nearly $1 million film, teenagers invited to test screenings just didn’t like the “Duck Farm” name, says director Becky Smith, 53, an Okoboji native now living and working in Los Angeles.

“It wasn’t hip to them,” she says. “They thought it was about farm life. As much as the adults liked the title, we needed to change it to make it accessible to teenagers, because a large part of the film is about teenagers.”

It’s a coming-of-age romantic comedy starring Hallee Hirsh, now 21. She’s been acting all her life, instantly recognizable as Tom Hanks’ much-younger aunt in “You’ve Got Mail” and Rachel Greene on “ER.”

She says this role eclipses all the others on her lengthy resume. “It’s my absolute, most favorite thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “I can’t tell you how much I love the role, how much I love the script and how much I loved the actual event of shooting it.”

She took her character’s focus on China and its Cultural Revolution to heart. She traveled to China with Smith to present the film to university students in Beijing in May, and is now studying cultural anthropology at UCLA, including an intensive Chinese language immersion.

“This movie sparked that completely,” Hirsh says.

Both Smith and Hirsh are looking forward to the Iowa festival, seeing people with whom they worked, seeing audience reaction to the film and seeing the landscape again.

“My mother’s very favorite spot is McGregor,” Smith says. “With the rolling hills and big cliffs by the river, it’s really a stunning-looking place where Grant Wood painted. The people locally were as nice as you could possibly imagine.”

The festival, which runs Aug. 27 to 30 in several downtown Iowa City sites, also features topical workshops, panel discussions and screenings for more than 80 films, ranging in length from two minutes to two hours.

— DIANA NOLLEN, THE GAZETTE

Landlocked Film Festival

When: Program start times: 7 to 10:15 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27; 1:15 to 10:30 p.m. Aug. 28; 11:45 a.m. to 10:10 p.m. Aug. 29; and noon to 7 p.m. Aug. 30
Where: Downtown Iowa City sites, including the Englert Theatre, Iowa City Public Library, Sheraton Iowa City and hotelVetro
Features: Film screenings, workshops, panel discussions
Admission: Free, except for $5 admission for Friday and Saturday evening films at the Englert, payable at the door
Information: www.landlockedfilmfestival.org
Iowa premiere: “16 to Life,” shot in Iowa in 2007, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29, Englert; “green” carpet welcome festivities at 7 p.m.; for a sneak peek, go to www.hooplanow.com
Details: www.16tolifethemovie.org

Premiere set for film shot in Iowa

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16-to-lifeThe indie film “16 to Life” is having a red-carpet homecoming.

Shot in 2007 in McGregor, Marquette and Stone City under the working title “Duck Farm No. 13,” it will have its Iowa premiere during the Landlocked Film Festival in Iowa City. The red carpet will be rolled out at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St., and the film will be screened at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $5, available only in the Englert lobby the evening of Aug. 28 and all day Aug. 29. Tickets are not being sold through the Englert Box Office, says Mary Blackwood of Iowa City, the film festival’s creative director.

“We’re trying to keep things as cheap as possible for people so they can come,” Blackwood says. With the red carpet and festive atmosphere, she says the state premiere “should be great fun.”

Star Hallee Hirsh and director Becky Smith, an Okoboji native, will attend, Blackwood says. She’s been told star Jaime Gomez also will be there and star Theresa Russell will attend if her work schedule allows. And Blackwood’s hoping a lot of the Iowa cast and crew members will come, as well.

The romantic comedy stars Hirsh (Rachel Greene on “ER”) as Kate, a rural American teen who is obsessed with books on eclectic subjects, currently the Cultural Revolution in China. She is turning 16 and has never been kissed. Her angst about her inexperience will drive a comic quest for love and understanding on her birthday. And she will learn what a 16-year old American girl has in common with a 16-year-old Chinese girl half a world, and a cultural revolution away.

The film’s Web site, www.16tolifethemovie.org, also lists two Sept. 3 showings in Elkader.