Michael Moore Announces Highlights of the Second Traverse City Film Festival

Traverse City, MI (May 26, 2005) — After the unexpected and overwhelming success of the first Traverse City Film Festival last year (with 50,000 admissions), the second Traverse City Film Festival will expand to seven days, from Monday, July 31 to Sunday, August 6.

The festival will take place at the same venues: the State Theatre, the City Opera House, the Old Town Playhouse, and the Open Space outdoor cinema. The entire slate of films will be announced on Friday, June 23, with tickets going on sale the following Friday, June 30, at 10 a.m.

"With six full days of movies at four venues, we're looking forward to an even better festival in 2006," said festival founder and president, Academy Award® winning filmmaker Michael Moore. "The number of screenings will increase by over 50 percent this year, with nearly 50 films being shown."

Highlights of the 2006 Traverse City Film Festival:

• Movie stars will make their way to Traverse City this year, including Malcolm McDowell ("A Clockwork Orange") and Matthew Modine ("Full Metal Jacket"), among others.

• Major directors will also attend this year's festival, including Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda") and David O. Russell ("Three Kings"), among others.

• Free movies at the outdoor cinema at the Open Space Park on Grand Traverse Bay will expand to six nights this year. Films tentatively slated for this year include "The Wizard of Oz," "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Dr. Strangelove." The Open Space screen will be twice as big this year.

• Free panels with filmmakers, chaired by festival founder and president Michael Moore, will be held every morning at 10 a.m., Tuesday-Sunday (two more panels than last year). Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

• A children's matinee will be featured on Saturday morning, August 5. This screening will be free for children under 12.

• Midnight movies will be added this year on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, in a section called "Midnight Madness."

• The Traverse City Film Festival will pay a special tribute to the films of Stanley Kubrick on the 50th anniversary of his first feature film. All 11 Kubrick films, including "Dr. Strangelove" and "A Clockwork Orange," plus "Spartacus," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Lolita," "The Shining" and others, will be screened in what is believed to be the country's only complete retrospective of his films this year. Attending the Kubrick tribute will be his producer (and brother-in-law) Jan Harlan, and the stars of his films (Malcolm McDowell and Matthew Modine), among others. In addition to appearing at the screenings, they will participate in a free panel. Harlan will also screen his documentary, "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures."

• The festival will also pay homage to the films of David O. Russell, with showings of "Three Kings" and "Flirting with Disaster," plus his documentary, "Soldiers Pay." Russell will appear at his screenings and will participate in a free panel.

• This year the festival will inaugurate the position of "guest director." Each year the Traverse City Film Festival will invite one award-winning director to Traverse City to help conduct panels and workshops and provide their input with a selection of films. Terry George, director of "Hotel Rwanda" and "Some Mother's Son" (and Academy Award-nominee for writing "In the Name of the Father") will be our festival's first guest director.

• A mid-week party is being planned along with other receptions and social events throughout the festival.

• The annual Founders Party will be held on Sunday, July 16, for donors and sponsors of the festival. A sneak preview of one of the festival films will be shown at the Bay Theater in Suttons Bay with a party following at Ciccone Vineyards.

Ticket prices for the entire festival remain the same as last year: all regular screening seats are $7 (except the Open Space films, which are free). Beginning June 30, tickets can be purchased online, by phone or in person at the festival box office downtown (location to be announced). Opening and closing night festivities remain the same price as well: $25 for the movie, and $25 for the party.

Sponsors for each of the films are currently being sought, along with festival volunteers. Donations are also needed to help fund the 2006 festival, which has a budget of over $400,000.

About The Traverse City Film Festival

The Traverse City Film Festival is a charitable, educational, non-profit organization committed to showing "Just Great Movies" and helping to save one of America's few indigenous art forms -- the cinema. In its second year, the Traverse City Film Festival has already become one of the biggest film festivals in the Midwest. With its 50,000 admissions in summer 2005, the festival adds significantly to the local economy. Founded by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore and co-founders, local photographer John Robert Williams and New York Times best selling author Doug Stanton, the Festival brings films and filmmakers from around the world to northern Michigan, creating a level of excitement one local paper said was "the best thing to happen here since the Ice Age left us Lake Michigan."