Since 2005, cinema lovers from across the world have traveled to northern Michigan for the Traverse City Film Festival. This year, they will experience a host of projects – both film and gaming – whose main stage is Michigan State University.
The Traverse City Film Festival, or TCFF, takes place July 31 through Aug. 5 and features both old and new film screenings in Traverse City’s historic downtown.
Eleven student film projects from MSU’s Colleges of Arts and Letters and Communication Arts and Sciences will make their public debut at TCFF. These include short films, a TV pilot and the world premiere of one of the only student-made feature films in the nation, Crandie’s.
Crandie’s is part of MSU’s Theater2Film, a collaborative initiative that allows students to take an original student play and adapt it for the screen. Crandie’s will be Theatre2Film’s fourth feature-length production to debut at the TCFF.
MSU’s presence at the TCFF goes beyond the screen.
Communication Arts and Sciences professor and filmmaker Joel Potrykus will lead a session called “10 Mistakes of the Student Film (and Sometimes Mine)” at the TCFF Film School, which hosts two sessions every day of the festival. Films by Potrykus, who also directed the TCFF feature Relaxer, have been screened at the Lincoln Center for the Arts, MoMA, Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles and the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.
And for the fourth year, MSU will bring an interactive gaming gallery called The Woz to TCFF. The Woz will feature 12 MSU student- and faculty-produced virtual reality experiences, which range from entertainment to educational experiences.