2016 Traverse City Film Festival

July 15, 2016

UNDER-THE-RADAR GEMS & CAN'T-MISS EXPERIENCES

With over 200 films screening at this year’s Traverse City Film Festival, there’s something for every type of moviegoer attending the event. Whether you enjoy provocative documentaries, beloved classic films, global cinema, feel-good true stories or a huge belly laugh, we share our under-the-radar picks and the can’t-miss events of this year’s festival.

HOT-BUTTON DOCS

Looking for films that will challenge your views on controversial topics or leave you debating with friends over drinks long into the night? Check out Trapped, Dawn Porter’s look at efforts in several states to restrict women’s access to legal abortions, or Censored Voices, which publicly airs for the first time recorded confessions from Israeli solders about killing Palestinians during the Six-Day War. The C Word will upend everything you think you know about cancer, while Unlocking the Cage might leave even the most hardened skeptic convinced that animals should have the same legal rights as humans.

The topics of police brutality and black political resistance — both at the center of national debate right now — are thoughtfully explored in The Black Panthers: Vanguard of The Revolution, a fresh and timely look at the radical political group, and Do Not Resist, a searing examination of the militarization of our country’s police force.

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

If you’re a lover of classic cinema, this year’s festival — taking place during the 100-year anniversary of the city’s State Theatre — offers a wealth of tantalizing options. Orson Welles’ daughter, Beatrice Welles, will make a live appearance at a must-see theatrical screening of Citizen Kane, while Sherlock Holmes fans won’t want to miss the incredibly rare screening of the first 1916 film about the sleuth — the sole print of which was lost for over 100 years. The fest will also screen beloved classics including Blow Up, Chimes At Midnight, Adam’s Rib, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Whatever you do, don’t miss the Alloy Orchestra playing a live accompaniment to 1929’s iconic Man with a Movie Camera. The renowned orchestra will follow scoring instructions left behind by director Dziga Vertov himself, bringing to life the film TCFF Founder Michael Moore calls “one of the greatest documentaries of all time.”

LAUGHTER’S THE BEST MEDICINE

Why so serious? If you’re looking to kick back and enjoy a few laughs, start by picking up tickets to comedian Doug Benson’s famed Movie Interruption events. With Moore and other special guests of Benson’s plopped in the front row with microphones — Mystery Science Theater 3000-style — attendees are treated to live, this-only-happens-once running commentary to ridiculous films. The films targeted for mockery this year: the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Bloodsport and sexist screwball comedy Kisses for My President, which dares to envision a world in which a woman could become U.S. president. Benson and other festival comedy guests will also appear on stage together for an interactive comedy panel July 30.

If you enjoy irreverent satire — and don’t mind poking fun of religion — the clever The Brand New Testament imagines God as an overbearing crank in a bathrobe whose bratty 10-year-old daughter plunges Earth into chaos. TV sitcom fans should definitely not miss Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, a documentary on the legendary creator of hit shows like All in the Family, Good Times, and The Jeffersons. Lear himself will Skype into the screening. If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s a topic too serious to crack jokes about — the Holocaust, AIDS, 9/11 — the slew of comedians intelligently exploring that question in The Last Laugh will give you plenty to think about. Finally, Parks and Recreation fans should catch stars Aubrey Plaza and Adam Scott in (respectively) a hilarious documentary about a real-life L.A. women’s basketball team and the crowd-pleasing My Blind Brother, also starring comedy phenoms Nick Kroll and Jenny Slate.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD

Ready to travel around the globe — without ever packing your bags? Several of this year’s TCFF films will transport you to exotic locales, sun-soaked beaches and little-explored nooks of mysterious foreign cities. The stunning documentary Elephant’s Dream captures both the beauty and the trauma of the recovering war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, while Oscar-winning director Luc Jacquet (March of the Penguins) returns once again to Antarctica, this time to capture the continent’s dramatic transformation under climate change in Ice and the Sky.

Acclaimed documentarian Mark Cousins (The Story Of Film) walked every street — literally — in his native Belfast to bring the great European city to vivid life, a part-travelogue concept also lushly explored by Alexandra Cuesta in her native Ecuador in Territorio. In the playful dramedy El Clasico, two brothers — both little people — set out on a heartwarming road trip on motorbikes from Iraq to Spain. For a frothy summer romp set on the shimmering beaches of the Corsican coast, be sure to check out the sexy One Wild Moment. Kid audience members also can earn stamps on their imaginary passports at the festival, thanks to two family friendly films that will transport audiences Down Under:

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a hilarious “odd couple” adventure between a 13-year-old orphan and a prickly mountain man (played by Sam Neill) stuck in the New Zealand wilderness, and Oddball follows a mischievous Australian sheepdog who becomes his town’s unlikely hero when he protects an endangered group of penguins.

FEEL GOOD INC.

Many of us go to the movies to feel inspired — and several films at this year’s TCFF fully deliver on that front. Life, Animated is an uplifting documentary about an autistic boy whom doctors feared would never speak again — until his love of Disney movies magically unlocked the key to communicating with his family. Spartans fans will cheer for Men of Sparta, the riveting true story of Michigan State University’s determination to integrate its football team in the 1960s, an effort that led to back-to-back national championships. Brimming with romance, humor and some really great songs, Sing Street captures the energy and excitement of being young and in love and dreaming of success in a rock ’n’ roll band.

You’ll want to bring tissues to Presenting Princess Shaw, the powerful true story of a 39-year-old retirement home worker and aspiring chanteuse who found a global audience when a producer halfway across the world turned her songs into viral YouTube hits. And even cynics might find themselves moved by the sheer motivational force of Tony Robbins:

I Am Not Your Guru, an unprecedented inside look at the self-help guru’s life and the millions of followers who say he’s changed their lives. Robbins himself will appear in person at two of the TCFF screenings July 29.