12th Annual East Lansing Film Festival

ELFF Trailer Contest Winners Announced!

This article was posted on Sun, Mar 15 2009

To get more local & national filmmakers involved in the 12th annual East Lansing Film Festival, we held a contest for trailers to be shown before each film screening. We looked for 20-second trailers on any of the following subjects. Submitters were welcome to create as many trailers as they wanted and were free to cover any and all of the subjects:

-Don’t forget to turn in your audience award ballots at the end of the film
-Remember to turn off your cell phone
-Please respect your fellow audience members and refrain from talking during the film
-Please keep your feet off of the seat in front of you

In no particular order:

“Ballots 1,” “Ballots 2,” “Cell Phones 1,” “Cell Phones 2,” “Feet Seat 1,” “No Talking 2” and “Full Line of Messages” - Mike Nelson, Lansing, MI

“Turn in Your Ballots” and “Feet Off Seats” - David and Beverly A. Lang, Perry, MI

“Old Time Silent Movie - Please Turn Phones Off Trailer” - Erin Cook, East Lansing, MI

“Phone Zombies” - Taylor Colony, Okemos, MI

“Kit’s Common Courtesy” - Kit Breedlove, East Lansing, MI

Congratulations to our winners!

Exhibition Schedule

Phone Zombies, Feet Off Seats, No Talking 2 and Turn in Your Ballots will screen before every film shown in Theater A of Wells Hall.
Cell Phones 2, Feet Off Seats, No Talking 2 and Ballots 2 will screen before every film shown in Theater B of Wells Hall.
Old Time Silent Movie - Please Turn Phones Off Trailer, Feet Seat 1, No Talking 2 and Turn in Your Ballots will screen before every film shown in Theater C of Wells Hall.
Cell Phones 1, Feet Seat 1, No Talking 2 and Ballots 1 will screen before every film shown in Theater D of Wells Hall.

Kit’s Common Courtesy will screen before every film shown at Celebration Cinema.

Full Line of Messages will screen before the closing night film at Anthony Hall..

The 12th Annual ELFF is here!

This article was posted on Mon, Mar 09 2009

Ticket/Box Office Information

The 12th annual East Lansing Film Festival Offers its Own Stimulus Package!

This article was posted on Thu, Mar 05 2009

The East Lansing Film Festival (ELFF), the largest film festival in Michigan, has created its own stimulus package of great independent films - films that stimulate the mind, comedies that incite laughter, documentaries that satisfy your curiosity and short films that do it all. This year’s ELFF takes place March 19 - 26 in East Lansing, on the Michigan State University (MSU) campus and in Lansing. The 2009 selection of over 90 films covers a broad range of subjects and genres including two Academy Award nominees, foreign films, local films and more. Over 75 directors will be on hand to discuss their films with the audience. Because we are facing difficult times, ELFF offers more comedies than usual to brighten these dark days.

The film festival kicks off Thursday, March 19 at 7:30pm at Wells Hall on the MSU campus with the Academy Award nominee, Happy-Go-Lucky. Mike Leigh’s comedy tells the story of Poppy, a cheery, colorful North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around. Actress Sally Hawkins won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy for her portrayal of Poppy. Tickets are $8 and $6 for students and seniors 60 and over.

On the weekend, from Friday, March 20 through Sunday, March 22, ELFF will present films at Wells Hall on the MSU campus and at the Celebration Cinema in South Lansing. On Friday evening, the film extravaganza begins at 7pm at Wells Hall where 4 films will be shown at 7:00pm and 4 more films at 9:30pm. The never-before-seen films include the Oscar nominated documentary, Trouble the Water, the Short Films Program that shows 8 highly entertaining short films from around the world, and the uplifting Pray the Devil Back to Hell about a group of Liberian women who toppled the repressive Taylor regime. ELFF is also excited to screen Chris Smith’s the first feature, The Pool, filmed in India. Director Smith is an accomplished documentary filmmaker who grew up in Okemos.

On Saturday, March 21, the film festival will run concurrently at Wells Hall and at Celebration Cinema. A Fair Trade Bazaar will be held outside the movie theaters at Wells for people to enjoy artwork, jewelry and other items from fair trade countries.

Wells Hall Saturday highlights are the following:

1pm - the popular “Roundtable Discussion,” a panel of the visiting directors giving insight into what it takes to make a film. Moderated by MSU Film Studies professor, Kark Schoonover. Free.

Since the East Lansing Children’s Film Festival is on hiatus this year, ELFF is presenting two PG rated children’s films - A Plumm Summer, when the most popular frog on TV goes missing, two brothers go on the adventure of a lifetime to find him. Narrated by Jeff Daniels. The Michigan premiere of Heidi 4 Paws: A Furry Tale a retelling of the classic children’s story about an orphan who goes to live with her grumpy grandfather except that the roles are filled with real dogs voiced by talented actors.

4:00pm - Fresh, a fantastic documentary about midwestern farmers and businessmen are forging healthier, sustainable alternatives in the growing of food. Director Ana Joanes will moderate a panel of local growers and environmentalists after the film.

6:30pm - My Winnipeg, the highly lauded film from Canadian director, Guy Maddin; Love Comes Lately, a comedy starring Rhea Perlman about an 80-year-old who still loves the ladies; The Pope’s Toilet, A comedy from Uruguay and the ever-popular Short Film Program.

9:00pm - Edge of Heaven, the critics’ favorite about relationships, differences and more; Loggerheads, three sensitive stories that overlap about the love of family and friends starring Bonnie Hunt. Director Tim Kirkman is attending; House of Numbers, an in-depth look at the scientific and medical discrepancies in defining HIV.

At Celebration Cinema on Saturday, March 21:

1:00pm - The Michigan premiere of Heidi 4 Paws: A Furry Tale a retelling of the classic children’s story about an orphan who goes to live with her grumpy grandfather except that the roles are filled with real dogs voiced by talented actors.

4:00pm - A Plumm Summer - a repeat screening of the children’s movie.

At Celebration Cinema on Sunday, March 22:

1:00pm - a repeat screening of Heidi 4 Paws: A Furry Tale.

3:00pm - a repeat screening of Fresh about alternative sustainable farming with Director Joanes moderating a panel discussion.

At Wells Hall on Sunday, March 22:

12:00pm - 6:30pm - The very popular and unique Lake Michigan Film Competition (LMFC), formerly known as the Michigan’s Own Film Competition, is held. LMFC screens and awards films made by filmmakers from the states that border Lake Michigan: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Over 35 films representing all four states will be shown.

6:40pm - the Lake Michigan Film Competition Awards Ceremony will be held at Wells Hall. Cash awards will be given to the best three films in the Feature, Documentary, Short and Student categories and “The Most Promising Student Filmmaker Award” made possible by Message Makers. The 9 winners of last year’s 48/5 Film Contest will be shown at the end of the ceremony. Free and open to the public.

To give our audience a chance to see almost every film shown in the festival, ELFF has partnered with Celebration Cinema to show repeat programming from Saturday, March 21 to Thursday, March 26 at the Lansing multiplex, 200 E. Edgewood, Lansing, Michigan. The films being repeated are Fresh, My Winnipeg, The Pope’s Toilet, Loggerheads, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Love Comes Lately, The Pool, Trouble the Water, Edge of Heaven.

ELFF is very excited to present in partnership with WKAR the Midwest premiere of Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in Red Shoes, an intimate look at the beloved humorist, radio personality, author Garrison Keillor. Director Peter Rosen will be on hand to discuss the film.The special screening will take place at 7:30pm on Wednesday, March 25 at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road, East Lansing. Tickets are $8 and $6 for students and seniors 60+.

All films are $7/ general and $5/studentand seniors (60+) except for the Opening Night Film, Happy-Go-Lucky, and the Garrison Keillor documentary whose tickets are $8/ general and $6/students. And seniors (60+).

Tickets (except for the films at Celebration Cinema) are available online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com beginning on March 1.

On Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14, advance tickets will be sold from 6pm - 8pm at Video to Go, 300 N. Clippert Street, Frandor Shopping Center, Lansing.

Films at Celebration Cinema in Lansing, you can buy them online beginning March 1 at http://www.celebrationcinema.com Tickets are $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for students, $6.50 for children (12 and under) and for seniors 55 and over. Matinees are $6.50.

Passes that give you preferred entry to the film festival events are also available in advance, online and at Video to Go. The different Pass categories and prices are: BOFFO - $150 (Entry to ALL film festival events) Gold Pass $50 (entry to all films at Wells); Silver Pass for Student and seniors $32 (all films at Wells); an All-Day Saturday Pass $20 and $12; Sunday Pass $15 and $10.

For the complete schedule and up to date information, please visit the East Lansing Film Festival website, http://www.elff.com or call the festival office at 517-336-5802.

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