A New Home
We've moved. And we have to say, we couldn't be in better company. Our new office is located inside of Earth House Collective, an Indianapolis community hub that collaborates with local organizations and artists to support the arts, encourage healthy living and promote sustainable community. We're sharing the office space with the very forward thinking Big Car, who we've partnered with on The Big Picture Show in the past.
The Earth House building is an inspiring place to be - gorgeous stained glass and woodwork, ever-changing art exhibits and a great cup of fair-trade, organic coffee is always on hand. Did I mention there's a foosball table in the area where our screening committee is meeting to view films? Oh yes.
When they call it a "hub" they aren't kidding. In one visit you might find a belly dancer departing after teaching a class while a crowd gathers for an all ages rock show. In December we held our first event there, screening Being Elmo to a very enthusiastic crowd. Look for more to come from us there. We're only just beginning to visualize what all will be possible within that space.
In the mean time, take note of our new address:
237 N. East Street
Indianapolis 46204
We are not opposed to love letters and sweet everythings from you!
And the GRAND total is…
In December, we embarked on a mini-fundraiser for a Grand Holiday. The goal was simple - raise $1,000 before ringing in the New Year. Can we just say, you guys rock! We made it with time to spare, with a final total of $1,099.
Where do these donations go? Each gift supports our programming efforts, covering anything from film screening fees to filmmaker travel. Additional support covers less sexy things like postage, which never the less make what we do possible.
We stretch every dollar as far as we can by powering the festival with an army of volunteers, keeping our operating expenses low and through some very generous in-kind gifts and pro bono work from partners like Lodge, who donates loads of creative time and expertise and SmallBox, who covers our email marketing expenses.
We're getting super-excited for what's in store for this Fest in 2012, but for now, we're still celebrating your generosity. Thank you, thank you, thank you! A Grand Holiday, indeed.
p.s. If you didn't get a chance to give and wish to do so, we'll gladly accept your gift in 2012, just go here. All donations are fully tax-deductible and come with sweet, sweet Karma magic.
2012 Film Submissions are NOW OPEN
It's hard to believe, but here we are again - we're officially accepting submissions for the 2012 Indy Film Fest.
The festival (July 19 - 29) will be our 9th annual event, and we can't wait to make a big splash. Does that include your film? You'll never know if you don't send it our way!
To get started, just follow the directions below. Simply click to submit.
We're looking for every kind of film out there - short, feature-length, animated, live action, drama, comedy - you name it, we want to see it. We screen films in three categories - American Spectrum, World Cinema and Matter of Fact (documentaries). And new this year, we've expanded our Hoosier Lens recognition to be an entire category of its own.
Hoosier Lens films are those productions with Indiana ties - you or your cast/crew are from Indiana, went to school here or a significant portion of the film was shot in the Hoosier state. We're stoked to recognize these home-grown productions in front of hometown audiences next summer!
Not a filmmaker, but interested in helping out the festival? If you're local to Indy, you may be right for our screening committee. Fill out the application and we'll be in touch - you might just be a part of deciding which films our audiences see next summer.
2012, here we come!
Fall Movie Bonanza – November
We're right in the thick of things, movie fans. Fall movie season is in full swing, and we've seen some great titles release to date. But November brings another round of great titles opening and it's time to take stock.
Featured in November are releases that define what awards season is all about - big names, lush productions and dramatic storylines. From a silent film quieting even the most skeptical critics to a leading man in his second release of the season, the temperatures are cooling down just as the box office is heating up, particularly with a promising Thanksgiving weekend slate on the books.
Check out previous Fall Movie posts (here's September, and here's October) to see what else I've been seeing these last few weeks, and then click over to continue reading what I'm looking forward to in November.
Advanced Screening – get tickets here!
We're excited to have a limited number of tickets an upcoming advanced screening to Sundance Film Festival smash hit MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE here in Indianapolis.
The screening is Thursday, November 3 and since we have so few tickets, we're going to make it interesting. The film is getting a lot of buzz because it stars the younger sister of two well known actresses, twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. But that seemed like too easy a trivia question for you, so how about this one:
The film also stars an actor who broke out in another Sundance hit from last year, Winter's Bone. Name that actor in a comment below, and you'll be in to win tickets!
Getting Crafty
Everyone recognizes the Oscar statue. Awards and film just go hand in hand. Indy Film Fest gives out awards too - but this year we learned the marble trophies we'd been using for years were no longer available. With the old style being discontinued, we decided to mix things up. The idea was to create hand-crafted awards to reflect the personal style of our featured films. Here's the result:
The award art work was silk-screened onto actual birch paper, which absorbed the ink in unexpectedly cool ways. Each award turned out a little different from the next — a one-of-a-kind memento from the 2011 Festival. After adding a simple frame to commemorate the recognition, these festival trophies are ready to hang with their new filmmaker friends.
Huge thanks to our creative partner, Lodge Design for dreaming these up and making it happen!
Festival Films – see ‘em again!
There's maybe no worse feeling during a festival than realizing you missed your last chance to see that doc you'd been eying, or the great indie you'd been hearing so much about.
Fear not, movie fans! Several 2011 Indy Film Fest selections are making their way to other nearby festivals where you can see them again!
47th Chicago International Film Festival
This stalwart of the midwest film festival scene is featuring a couple great festival selections, both features and shorts. Catch racy short film Ex-Sex on Friday, 10/14 - how exactly do you break up with someone you're still sleeping with? For film lovers looking to get the scoop on international film industries, Cinema Komunisto is a great peak into the Yugoslavian film industry of the last century. And definitely worth driving up I-65 for if you missed it in Indy is Natural Selection - snagging both Best American Spectrum Feature Film and the 2011 Grand Jury Award, this one's still wowing audiences. It screens 10/15 and 10/16 - weekend trip to the Windy City, anyone?
See the entire @ChiFilmFest line-up here; the whole thing is housed at the AMC River East in the heart of downtown and runs through October 20.
Heartland Film Festival
Though it's the city's better-known festival, we're excited to say that we brought a couple of their selections to Indianapolis earlier this summer. Really, it works out great for you - maybe you were on summer vacation or otherwise enjoying the warm weather back in July. Grab your sweater this month and catch both Boys of Bonneville, about the land-speed record-setting feats of some very daring men, and our Closing Night selection These Amazing Shadows, which chronicles the creation and significance of the National Film Registry, at Indy's fall film festival. You can see the whole schedule here; Heartland runs October 13 - 22 at the AMC Castleton 14.
One of the greatest things - no, THE greatest thing about film festivals is experiencing those films you wouldn't otherwise have a chance to check out - they might not make it to the multiplex or won't land in your Netflix queue. It's always exciting to see some great titles within reach again, so make some time this month to see these Indy Film Fest selections again while you can!
Fall Movie Bonanza – October
As you may recall, I'm posting each month those Fall movie releases I'm most looking forward to (and some I'm ignoring all together!). It's an exciting time of year for movie-lovers, so I thought it'd be fun to start a conversation around the best, most anticipated films hitting the big screen each month as the year wraps up.
You can check in on all of my September picks here. As for October, the releases kick into full gear this month, so there are a lot of titles to cover. This month includes one of September's stars popping up again, the debut of a younger sister with a familiar last name (and it's not Fanning), as well as two action-flick players (who co-starred in 2009's Star Trek) appearing in very different roles than their sci-fi counterparts.
Continue reading to get up to speed on all I'm anticipating (and one I'm very much avoiding) in October.
Movies over lunch? Yes, please!
The last month or so post-festival has been one big brainstorming session for us - we've been mulling over all kinds of awesome events and opportunities to bring to Indy all in the name of film.
One we're excited to kick off is the first of hopefully many in a series - a brown bag lunch shorts screening series. (We might need to think of a better name for it - like I said, it's new!)
Every year, we program dozens of amazing short films - quick cinematic experiences that are funny, dramatic, captivating and entertaining. At the festival, you can see these in programs where half a dozen are presented in succession, like going to a full length movie but actually seeing so many more.
Once the festival wraps, though, it's hard to find the best way to get these great gems out to our audiences. So the idea was hatched to try something new - something informal, casual and completely approachable.
It's simple, really. You bring a lunch, we bring the films.
Our first foray into this new series is a partnership with Ivy Tech's Center for Community and Culture Studies. On Friday, October 7, we'll feature the best of our recent animated short films - including 2011 Best American Spectrum Short film Something Left, Something Taken. All the details are here. It's free, come as you are and totally worth your time.
So mark your calendar to sneak away from the office or class, stop at your favorite shop for a sandwich, and join us to see these great shorts among your fellow festival fans. It'll be the best lunch meeting on your calendar.
Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then
Fall may be fast-approaching, but there's still one more chance for an outdoor film at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. (NOTE: Film has since been moved inside to The Toby to keep you warm!) You'll be in good company too - the IMA is being joined by the IMA Contemporary Art Society, iMOCA and us over at Indy Film Fest to present "Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then" (2010, 75 min., dir. Brent Green, USA) on Saturday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Filmmaker Brent Green & His Touring House
Based on a true story, the film follows Leonard, a church-music playing hardware clerk from Louisville. Upon his wife's diagnosis of cancer, Leonard begins building his house into what he hopes will be a "healing machine" to rid his wife of her disease. The unexpected windows and doorways might call to mind Alice in Wonderland meets Picasso, but it's like nothing you've ever seen. A total dream land.
Filmmaker and narrator Brent Green visited the real-life home of Leonard before it was demolished and recreated it in his own back yard for the film. When asked how long it took to re-build the house and the rest of the set, he says, "A while. A great long while." I'm guessing that means waaaaay longer than you and I can even imagine.
Brent and his crew have packed up the house, all the handmade furniture and toured with the film to museums and places all over the world. You might think carrying around another man's story with all that baggage would begin to feel burdensome, but not so for Green. When I asked, he answered, "It's great. I wanted to celebrate Leonard Wood's story. It seems like, as a society, we ignore the folks that make our culture one worth living in. Leonard was certainly one of those people, and it's thrilling to me people are letting me drag this story, with or without the house attached, all over the globe. Thrilling."
A Live Score?!
The folk-punk score will be performed live along with the film by Brendan Canty (Fugazi), Drew Henkels (Drew and the Medicinal Pen), John Swartz (Guy Maddin’s orchestra), and Donna K (who plays Mary in "Gravity..."). The movie was always meant to be shown with the live soundtrack, so they don't screen it often without it. IMA's outdoor amphitheater, with the trees towering around, is a dreamy place to see live music and how often do you get to hear the live score with a movie?
Add in a cash bar, a few blankets (it's BYO-blanket or lawn chair) and we're set for a one-of-a-kind film experience. Tickets are $10-15, and are available on IMA's site. 
According to Rachel Saltz in The New York Times, the film “radiates an oddball homemade charm.” Oddball homemade charm. Sounds magical, indeed.
View the trailer:
Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then from Brent Green on Vimeo.