Blog entries

CIFF Akron Preview Party

Steve — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:58:18 +0100

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 Read More...

Film Fest 2380 + Myra premiere

Steve — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:52:17 +0100

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 thRead More...

The CIFF schedule is here!

Steve — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:22:14 +0100

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

Camille Utterback

Steve — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:21:11 +0100

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 Read More...

Spark Cameraless Filmmaking

Steve — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:26:41 +0100

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.

Reelate celebration + premiere

Steve — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:51:13 +0100

**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 fruitioRead More...

Spark!

Steve — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:16:53 +0100

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 16th. Spark is a co-production of Akron Film and the Akron Art Museum, andRead More...

Still Bill screening

Steve — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:45:24 +0100

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. TiRead More...

NEW History winner

Steve — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:05:38 +0100

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 (WKRead More...

NEW History prompts revealed!

Steve — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:38:57 +0100

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 talkiRead More...

The NEW History of Akron

Administrator — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:40:24 +0100

Listen to how fun this is going to be:

Starting November 22nd, make a pretend documentary about a history of Akron that you invent. Maybe you’ll describe the Great Zeppelin Wars of 1946, or 1879’s case of mistaken identity that led to the invention of the personal computer.

We’ll provide a few things about current Akron life that your story must explain. The films, which must last five minutes or fewer, are due on December 6th. Then, at a free public wrap up event on DecRead More...

Viewer's choice

Steve — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:31:55 +0100

Jonathan Nix's "Hello," the story of a cassette tape player wooing a CD player, won the most audience votes at the Revenge of the Freakishly Short Animation Festival. Thank you to the voters and to everyone who came out!

Regarding the revenge

Steve — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:21:12 +0100

Tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm is the last chance to see the Revenge of the Freakishly Short Animation Festival, a seventy minute collection of cool and/or crazy animated films from around the world that is playing exclusively at the Akron Art Museum. It's free, if you can believe that. Check out this trailer ok?

IRead More...

Turn Blue

Steve — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:24:05 +0100

Dr. Phil Hoffman, University of Akron professor and two time juror for the Akron Film Festival, recently premiered his latest documentary, Turn Blue: The Short Life of Ghoulardi. It details the story of Cleveland TV legend Ernie Anderson and finds no shortage of funny stories to tell about his tenure as late night horror host Ghoulardi.

Open Frame workshops

Steve — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:45:46 +0100

Malone University's Open Frame Film Fest is producing a series of indie filmmaker workshops. I attended the first, on screenwriting, which took place last month and was full of insight. Coming up on Tuesday, October 27th is the second, on pre-production. It's at 7:30 PM at Malone's Silk Auditorium. Check out the Open FRead More...

LightLab

Steve — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:14:26 +0100

Thursday, September 24th sees the first edition of LightLab. It's a free group light discussion/activity taking place at the Akron Art Museum at 7:00 PM. We're going to talk about how to deal with low light situations, looking at them from technical and artistic perspectives. Get more info here, and register by emailing your name and number toRead More...

Collider

Steve — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:14:34 +0100

Coming up soon at UA's Myers School of Art is a series I've been looking forward to called Collider: Interactivity and New Media. According to the press release, it "examines the impact, implications and inspiration of the phenomenon generally categorized under the umbrella term 'New Media' within design practice and the fine arts."

The first lectureRead More...

Blend or Brenda

Steve — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:46:59 +0100

Having hosted two 48 Hour Challenges, the organizers of the Akron Film Festival decided to find out what we've been putting our contestants through. At the beginning of August we made a short for the Cleveland 48 Hour Film project with the help of our friends Mike Wendt, Carolyn Corzine, Keith Aukeman, Jason Moliterno, Gina Snyder,Read More...

Pie Fight Film Festival

Steve — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:11:29 +0100

The first annual Pie Fight Film Festival is less than a month away. From September 18th-20th it will take place in Northfield Center, Ohio. Workshop sign-ups are happening now and the screening schedule will be announced at piefightfilmfest.com when it's available... keep an eye on that site for more details.

On the run from Johnny Law

Steve — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:50:50 +0100

Jared Gonzales and Joey Weaver live in a renovated ballroom in Dover, Ohio, and they're turning it into an art, music, and film venue. Their first event, a month long retrospective of the films of Wes Anderson, kicks off this Friday, July 3rd at 9 PM with a free screening of Bottle Rocket. Here's a bigger versioRead More...