TRAVERSE CITY FILM FEST

The State Theater in Traverse City, featuring one of the great films we saw - Entre Nos (Between us), from a budding new film director, producer, and actress who immigrated from Colombia with her family when she was very young.

This year's Traverse City Film Festival had screenings of 71 features and 50 short films from more than 30 countries and five continents. Over 65 percent of the shows were sell-outs. The six-day festival ran from July 28 through Aug. 2 and included five sessions of a new film school, five daily panel discussions and four parties.

This popular annual event was founded by Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore in 2004. This is its fifth anniversary year, and had record-setting admissions. They also had record turnouts for free nightly films on the waterfront.

We joined as Friends of the Festival and had a week's lead over the general public to buy tickets, but even so the demand among the Friends for some features was such that we just managed to get tickets for three of the four we wanted to see.

We enjoyed the whole experience so much that it will become an annual event for us.

This is a dim light shot inside the State Theater. It is a beautifully renovated old time theater. The renovations were led by Michael Moore and a large group of volunteers.

Michael left New York a number of years ago to return to his native Michigan, and chose to make the Traverse City area his new home. Since then he has done a lot to boost the area's economy.

One of the best parts of participating in the features was the appearance of the producers, actors, and even participants in the films. We were lucky to be in the audience at two of the films where Michael Moore himself spoke to the audience.

In the picture above we have the leading actress (and also the lead producer) in the film Entre Nos at the left, her mother at the center - and the subject of the film, and the Colombian co-producer at the right. The public was able to ask questions of them.

The film was riveting and beautifully acted - a true life story of newly arrived immigrant Colombian family with two young children where the father essentially abandons the mother to fend for herself without her even able to speak English.

We also had a chance to see Roger and Me - the breakthrough documentary by Michael Moore which set him on his way, and a film named for the main protagonist - Rachel, an idealistic young American woman from Seattle who joined an International peace organization that attempts to - offer protection and support with their physical presence to Palestinians in occupied Palestine.