Grand Rapids filmmaker Joel Potrykus is on a roll. His project Buzzard premiered at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival, was picked up by Oscilloscope Laboratories and made a hell of a run through the festival circuit, wowing audiences and critics. 

Last year, Buzzard saw a national limited release, garnering even more acclaim. And 2016 is turning out to be a hell of a year for Potrykus as well. 

It’s entirely understandable if one were to feel a sense of unease upon entering the apartment of Nicholas Hartman, film coordinator for the UICA. 

Lit by wax candles and decked-out with animal skulls, crucifixes and occult memorabilia, it resembles the set of a Vincent Price movie that never was — a horror fan’s paradise. 

“It’s my life, I love that stuff,” Hartman said. “When I was younger, every Saturday night my dad would come home with a box of pizza and a shitty horror movie.”

It only seems fitting that Hartman honor his father by shooting some good old fashioned Satanic-cult mayhem in GR for his upcoming short film Blood for Thy Master. 

We've rounded up fashionable people, places and things from around West Michigan, including boutiques, designers, curators and more.

An assortment of cool and creative people, places and things from around West Michigan, including designers, stylists and more.

When it comes to style, you need to be ahead of the curve. You need to know what’s hitting this season and the local boutiques that carry it. We asked stores all over West Michigan what their hottest pieces are and they obliged. We also threw in some style tips so you know how to wear it all, because we’re cool like that.

If you’re finally ready to make fashion less of a hobby and expand that passion for fashion beyond Project Runway marathons, there are a few Michigan colleges specializing in the fashion biz to get you started. 

It’s time to step out of that lavish walk-in closet and actually learn the trendy trade. 

You would think that Michael Griesbach would have been privy to an advance screening of the Netflix series Making a Murderer, the 10-part true crime documentary that is sweeping the nation. 

After all, Griesbach was part of a team of assistant prosecutors in Manitowoc County, Wis., that sprung Steve Avery, the criminal in question at the center of the series, from prison in 2003 after it was discovered the wrong guy was convicted for a 1985 sexual assault.

“They told me I would get an advance copy to watch at home, but it never came and so I watched it, like everyone else, through Netflix,” said Griesbach, 55 years old and the married father of four, in an interview from his home in Manitowoc, Wis.

An unabashed nerd with a love for video games, cartoons and even cosplay, comedian Ron Funches is just a great big kid at heart.

So it’s striking to find out the reason why the LaughFest headliner first got into standup. It wasn’t so he could avoid growing up. It was actually because he had to – and fast – when his son was diagnosed with autism.

“I was just working at dead-end jobs, but once I had my son I was like, ‘I better figure out a career,’” Funches said. “And standup was the only thing that I was willing to start at the bottom at. It was the only thing I felt I could see myself working hard at and doing for the rest of my life. So it was really because of my son being born that helped push me to get this started.”

While comedian Jim Norton continues to tour the country packing large theatres, he hasn’t lost touch with his roots: Small comedy clubs. 

The 47-year-old New York-based comic still hits the smaller rooms on a regular basis in his never-ending journey of honing his craft. “It’s the only way to get new material that feels good,” Norton said. “I go out almost every night.” 

Two-time Emmy and Grammy Award-winning comedian Kathy Griffin is a celebrity chameleon. Some might know the 2016 LaughFest headliner from My Life on the D-List and other TV appearances, but Griffin’s diehard fans appreciate her most for her true calling: Stand-up comedy. Here’s what she had to say to Revue ahead of her March 14 performance at DeVos Hall.