Welp, it's 2014, which means the New Year's resolutions season has officially begun or ending, depending on your dedication. While filling your ever-increasing list of goals with items such as eating more salads and setting up a budget are all fine and dandy, why not add a little spice to the mix? Make this the year you vow to check out more local and independent cinema, because let's be honest, life is way better with some kickass movies.
Short Film Moths Claims its Michigan Roots
Let's face it – no matter how much people complain about some of our blizzard-ridden winters, Michigan is a freakin' fantastic place, and once you've lived in this fine mitten state of ours it never loses its grip on you. Just ask director Andy Fortenbacher. Though he recently made the move to New York to attend Columbia University's graduate school, he finds himself returning to Michigan again and again for his film projects.
"Pretty much the bulk of my personal projects have been shot back there," Fortenbacher said.
This January, Fortenbacher will be returning once again to finish filming his latest project, Moths.
The idea for the project was conceived when Fortenbacher and his colleague Zac Page went to a reading at GVSU in which local writer and professor Chris Haven presented a segment of a short story he had recently written. Paige adapted it into a screenplay, but the script was set aside due to technical challenges, until Fortenbacher returned to it years later while working with his thesis adviser at Columbia University.
"We basically workshopped the script quite a bit, and it's turned into something very different," Fortenbacher said. "There are still elements from the short story that are true, but it's changed quite a bit from that."
Moths is the first time Fortenbacher and Page had adapted a screenplay from source material, and they wanted to be sure the original author approved of the result, so they met up with Professor Haven last summer to go over the script.
"It was an interesting experience to get some of his feedback based on some of his intentions with the characters, and also to give feedback on what we had done to take it in a different direction," Fortenbacher said.
The finished script takes place in a small Midwestern town in 1944 and follows nine-year-old Sam Whitaker as she befriends her classmate Frank, an outcast due to his physical deformities. The film touches on themes of bullying, acceptance, friendship and in an interesting twist, the life cycle of the Cecropia Moth.
Once the script was finished, it was time to prepare for shooting. As with past projects Fortenbacher decided on West Michigan as the perfect place to film, focusing on locations in Nunica, Walker and Coopersville.
Not only did the West Michigan locations fit the rural, historical image Fortenbacher was looking for, they also were in close proximity to a wealth of industry talent.
"The community is generally very supportive of the arts," Fortenbacher said. "In Grand Rapids specifically, it's awesome to see how much that's growing."
Filming wraps up this month, and Fortenbacher plans to have the short film edited and ready to screen at the Columbia University Film Festival in May. He hopes to have a screening Moths in West Michigan sometime in the early summer, and then plans to push the project at film festivals at home and overseas. He admits this last part can be difficult.
"It's like throwing darts and seeing what sticks," Fortenbacher said. "It's crazy because there are so many things that determine what festivals are looking for."
After Moths, Fortenbacher plans on continuing in the film industry and hopes to land gigs directing feature-length films. And if that feature film happens to take in place in Michigan? Well, that's fine with Fortenbacher.
Gasland 2 Brings its Anti-fracking Message to UICA
In a special one-night-only event, UICA will screen Gasland 2, the follow-up film to Joshua Fox's Oscar-nominated Gasland. In the film, Fox explores the industry of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial extraction method to obtain oil and natural gas, and a method that is currently practiced throughout Michigan. While there are plenty of supporters of the practice, Fox says fracking poses a potential threat to local water supplies and can be detrimental to the environment. The film also looks at the oil and gas industries as a whole, and their close relationship with government officials.
Gasland 2 will be screened at the UICA theatre on Jan. 21 at 8p.m. Tickets are $5
