This Thursday at 5:30 we'll be at the Akron Civic Theatre for the free preview party for the Cleveland International Film Festival. Come say hi and find out what CIFF has in store for March 18-28.

You'll probably want to be buying CIFF tickets now if you're a member with them, or on March 5th if you're not. And since you're reading this on akronfilm.com, here's a secret: use the code AIFF to get $2 off tickets online, by phone, or at the festival store at Tower City Cinemas.

This weekend is FilmFest 2380, the festival organized by the University of Akron student filmmaking group the 2380 Project. Their goal is to make a feature every year. This year's project, Myra, directed by Mike Campanizzi, opens the fest on Friday night. It's a hot ticket, so alternately consider the encore Sunday at 7:15pm. It's all happening at the UA Student Union. Here's the Facebook event page, and here's the Myra website.

No time to chat -- the schedule is online here.

The Myers School of Art's Collider 2 is here, and this time it's an exhibit of the work of interactive video artist Camille Utterback, who just received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (the "genius grant"). She's giving a free public lecture THIS evening, Tuesday, 1/26, at 6:30pm at UA's Folk Hall. I literally cleared my schedule to go to this.

On January 3rd, over sixty kids and parents drew and painted on strips of blank 16mm film as part of Kendra's cameraless filmmaking activitiy at the Akron Art Museum. She edited them all together, Joseph Minadeo provided sound and music, and we showed the results at Spark: Family Film Fest on January 16th. Now you can see them right here:

Spark Cameraless Filmmaking from Akron Film on Vimeo.

**Update: This event is now Friday, February 5th from 6-9 at the Cormony Development Space in Canton. The short films will be repeating throughout the evening. You'll probably want to check out these directions.**

Kim Ann Pfau made a short documentary about Cleveland Cinematheque director John Ewing as part of the previously written about Reelate program. It premieres soon! I'll let her give the details:

I can not believe my film has come to fruition! My short documentary, JOHN EWING: THE EARLY YEARS premieres [February 5th]. The exhibit is open to all.

My film is part of the REELATE Program (Andrew Rudd has made a micro-documentary about my short film program for this program ~ under "Sandy Valley Independent Short Film Night Hosted by Kim Ann".)

REELATE will be exhibiting the stories made by local filmmakers this year. This is a great time to meet some of these new filmmakers, some of the film subjects and other folks who are interested in community, storytelling and the revitalization of Stark County.

I look forward to sharing my film JOHN EWING: THE EARLY YEARS with you!

Kim Ann

If you drop into Kendra's free cameraless filmmaking activity between 12 and 3 today (Sunday, January 3rd) at the Akron Art Museum, the film you draw on will be included in a collaborative piece to be screened as part of the upcoming Spark: Family Film Fest on Saturday, January 16^th. Spark is a co-production of Akron Film and the Akron Art Museum, and here's the schedule:

12:15: The Secret of Kells (an Ohio premiere, three months before its US release)
2:00: Shorts (including your cameraless films)
3:15: Girls Rock!

These films are for everyone for a change, so bring your kids if you’ve got ‘em, but don’t feel left out if you don’t. They are not required for admission. Thanks to Cory Sheldon for the poster!

This Thursday, December 17th, at the Akron Main Library, check out the documentary Still Bill, "about the life and music of soul legend Bill Withers. writer of such songs as 'Lean On Me,' 'Just The Two Of Us,' 'Use Me,' and 'Ain't No Sunshine.'"  It's being put on by Sixty Seconds of Heaven; go to the site for a trailer and ticket info. Tickets are $2.50, and seating is limited. Akron Film members get in free.

It starts at 7:30, and the Akron Art Museum's Holiday mART starts at 5:00, so, whoa, I think I just planned your whole evening.

Congratulations to Todd V, Blue Green, Chris Miller, and the others who worked on Blimp: Our Blemished Past for winning both the audience choice and jury prizes tonight. The jurors were David Giffels (author of the book "All the Way Home"), Josh Gippin (director of the documentary "God as We Understand Him"), Vivian Goodman (WKSU Reporter/Producer), and Mike Wendt (director of the documentary "The End of the World as We Knew It"). We thank them for their time and effort!

And congratulations to all seven filmmaking teams for coming up with some hilarious reinterpretations of our city. We'll have to do this again sometime. Photo by Shannon M. Miller.

Here are the rules (pdf) provided to the teams today. If you still want to sign up, email your name, number, and your approximate number of team members to info@akronfilm.com. The $15 registration fee may be paid via PayPal or check. The prompts (the two things that must be explained fictionally by your film) are:

1. Why is there a blimp perpetually overhead?

and

2. Why would one find marbles embedded in the ground in Akron? (If you don't know what we're talking about, refer to this site.)

Both questions must be addressed in your film. Questions? info@akronfilm.com!