News

TC Film Festival Announces Free Discussion Panel Topics, Lineup of Celebrity Guests

Traverse City, MI (July 25, 2008) -- Over 50 filmmakers, actors and industry insiders will appear at next week's Traverse City Film Festival, festival organizers announced today.

Highlights of the 2008 festival include appearances by Madonna, who will be introducing her new documentary "I Am Because We Are" to two sold-out venues, and media personality Phil Donahue, who will be screening his new film, "Body of War," alongside co-director Ellen Spiro. Legendary filmmaker Stanley Donen ("Funny Face," "Singin' in the Rain") will also appear at the festival as part of a special in-person tribute to the director's body of work.

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Michael Moore Announces First Highlights of the Fourth Traverse City Film Festival

Traverse City, MI (July 4, 2008) -- The Traverse City Film Festival plans to top its overwhelmingly successful third festival with another venue, over 90,000 admissions, scores of actors and filmmakers, and more Just Great Movies than ever before.

"The festival has become a beacon of hope for the Grand Traverse region," said festival founder and president, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore. "It's nothing short of thrilling to see the response from tens of thousands of people eager to see a great movie. And this year we have dozens of them."

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Madonna Tickets Go On Sale This Saturday, June 7, 11 a.m.

Traverse City, Mich. (June 4, 2008) -- Michael Moore has just announced that the hottest ticket at this summer's Traverse City Film Festival -- Madonna, in person, presenting her new film "I Am Because We Are" -- will go on sale to the public this Saturday, June 7, at 11 a.m.

The tickets will be available to the general public, ONLY at the historic State Theatre box office in downtown Traverse City. No tickets will be sold online or by phone. Tickets are $25, and all ticket money will go to the Raising Malawi Foundation, a project of Madonna's that helps orphans in one of the world's poorest countries.

A limit of two tickets per person will be allowed.

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Traverse City Film Festival to Hold Third Annual Workshop For Students

Traverse City, Mich. (June 3, 2008) -- The Traverse City Film Festival is gearing up for another summer of entertaining and educating movie lovers, starting with the next generation of filmmakers: high school and college students.

Festival officials announced today that for the third year in a row, students will have an opportunity to gain valuable insight and tips on the filmmaking business from Oscar-winning director and Festival Founder Michael Moore, as well as another yet-to-be-announced guest director. The third annual Student Filmmaking Workshop will be held the morning of Tuesday, July 29 in downtown Traverse City. The workshop is sponsored by the Herrington-Fitch Foundation and is free to students.

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NMC to sponsor free student movies at State Theatre

Traverse City, Mich. (June 2, 2008) -- Northwestern Michigan College in June will begin sponsoring a free movie screening for students one night a month at the State Theatre.

The first free screening will be "Son of Rambow," a British comedy that was an official selection at both the Sundance and Toronto film festivals this year. The story takes place in the 1980s and features a boy raised in an environment that forbids music and television. When the boy sees a bootleg copy of "Rambo: First Blood," he teams up with the school bully to make their own "action epic." It is rated PG-13.

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Madonna's Malawi documentary tugs heartstrings

By Stephanie Bunbury, Cannes

(May 24, 2008) - Every year, the Queen of Pop grows a little more regal. Once famously willing to discuss anything at all with interviewers, Madonna was in a prickly mood in Cannes even after her documentary about poverty in Malawi screened to acclaim and plenty of wet hankies among a generally cynical press. "I'm not sure what you're asking," she said a few times in response to innocuous questions about her career. Nobody snaps quite like Madonna.

I Am Because We Are is very much a personal project. Rather than hire an experienced documentary maker as director, she put her sometime gardener and nanny, Nathan Rissmann, on the job. He went to Malawi nine times, interviewing and filming over two years. Madonna stayed away - the paparazzi following her would have inhibited filming, she says - but she acted as producer and supervised editing on a daily basis.

Read the complete article at The Age (will open in new window)

Madonna to show film at Michael Moore's festival

By John Flesher, Associated Press Writer

Traverse City, Mich. (May 23, 2008) - Madonna's new film on the impoverished nation of Malawi has wowed another maker of documentaries: Michael Moore.

Moore announced Thursday that Madonna, like himself a Michigan native, will appear for a screening of "I Am Because We Are" during the Traverse City Film Festival on Aug. 2.

"She's sort of entered my realm," Moore said. "When I saw it, I thought, 'Wow, it's like she's been making these films for years.'"

Madonna produced and narrated the documentary after traveling to Malawi, where she met the toddler David Banda. She and husband Guy Ritchie are adopting the child.

Read the complete article at USA Today (will open in new window)

Madonna to appear at 2008 Traverse City Film Festival

Traverse City, Mich. (May 22, 2008) - Five hundred and forty lucky film fans will get to see the all-time queen of popular music -- the one and only, Madonna -- live in person when she brings her new documentary, "I Am Because We Are," to the Traverse City Film Festival this summer.

Madonna will travel to Traverse City on Saturday, August 2, for a gala screening of her new film at the town's historic State Theatre. Tickets for the event will go on sale in June.

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TC Film Festival Gears Up For Fourth Year With Internship & Scholarship Programs, Trailers Contest

Traverse City, Mich. (April 18, 2008) - The Traverse City Film Festival is gearing up for another great year - and to kick things off, they're offering the public a number of ways to personally get involved with the festival.

Festival Founder and Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore announced today that the organization would again offer internship opportunities for students during the 2008 festival.

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About the Traverse City Film Festival

The Traverse City Film Festival is a charitable, educational, nonprofit organization committed to showing "Just Great Movies" and helping to save one of America's few indigenous art forms - the cinema. 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, with filmmakers Larry Charles and Terry George rounding out the Board of Directors, 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."

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