Capital City Film Festival turns 15 — and turns Lansing into something else

The Capital City Film Festival brings art to Lansing in a way that draws out the best of what’s already here, turning familiar spaces we pass by daily into stages for artists and filmmakers.

“If we can use spaces people already know, it makes it easier to get them to come hang out with us,” festival event director Emma Selby said.

Since the city doesn’t have an independent movie theater, CCFF teams up with the Lansing Public Media Center to transform local spaces into high-quality screening rooms.

“Sometimes it feels even higher quality than going to a movie theater,” Selby said, “which is incredible considering the transformation happens over just a couple of weeks.”

With those transformations, the festival also aims to reshape how people see the city.

“We really pride ourselves on being able to ‘CCFFify’ our venues and make them feel like the fun bus,” Selby said.

CCFF wants attendees to see Lansing differently because that’s when the fun starts.

Courtesy photos A new addition to the CCFF, the Distant Planet Project, brings a weekend of Afrofuturist film and speculative fiction to the Robin Theatre in REO Town. Twin brothers and OG Afrofuturists Jim (left) and Tim Fielder will be the featured artists.

“We want you to be a little bit uncomfortable,” film program director Will Corbett said. “That way, there’s something to talk about. There’s something to learn about.

“When you rely on the internet and algorithms, you’re going to be very, very comfortable — it’s not going to expand your brain,” he continued. “You’re breaking out of that by joining us.”

That idea carries into how the festival curates its lineup.

“We want to attract filmmakers who can connect with our local scene and feel like this was something that took them by surprise,” Corbett said.

Running today (April 2) through April 12, the 15th annual festival will feature more than 140 films, five concerts and a smattering of poetry at five venues across the city. The full schedule and more info are available at ccff.co.

This year’s programming includes tributes to the late filmmaker David Lynch and actor Gene Hackman.

“At CCFF, we’re huge fans of David Lynch,” Corbett said. “There aren’t many days we don’t talk about ‘Twin Peaks,’ ‘Mulholland Drive’ or ‘Eraserhead’ — or the stuff he did outside of film, like music, carpentry, his YouTube and internet projects. I don’t want to give away any spoilers. There’s going to be stuff from all sorts of his works in our memorial.”

That mix of the familiar and the unexpected runs through the whole festival, welcoming people to experience the unexpected for themselves. It’s what makes a partnership like the ReelAbilities shorts block, co-curated with the ReelAbilities Film Festival, feel right at home, with films by and about disabled people from around the world.

“They came to us, and we said, ‘Heck yeah,’” Corbett said. “I’m super excited about doing things that feel truly inclusive. It’s obvious that we want stories about everyone, but it goes hand in hand with making sure that inclusion is felt on the ground.”

A new addition this year, the Distant Planet Project, brings a weekend of Afrofuturist film and speculative fiction to the Robin Theatre in REO Town.

“People want to understand, they want to experience what we mean when we say ‘Afrofuturism,’” Distant Planet Project co-founder Samuela Mouzaoir said. “One of the best ways to understand that — because Afrofuturism is an artistic, cultural and intellectual movement — is through film and music.”

The inaugural featured artists are twin brothers and OG Afrofuturists Tim and Jim Fielder, who will team up to host screenings of Jim’s films “Black Metropolis,” a documentary about his brother’s career as a comic artist and graphic novelist, and “Phlo,” a coming-of-age horror film, as well as a storyboarding workshop and discussions of their work.

Co-founder Audrey Matusz described the Distant Planet Project as “a curated micro-film festival inside CCFF” designed to feel more like a gathering than a lineup.

“What Distant Planet is providing is more of a salon- or parlor-style space — a place to ask, ‘What does this mean for Lansing?’” Matusz said. Other Distant Planet events include community discussions and a writing workshop in partnership with the MSU Museum.

Robin Theatre co-owner Dylan Rogers said the Distant Planet Project highlights what’s already here.

“Distant Planet empowers the super cool, interesting people already in Lansing doing their thing to do that for an audience, with a little guidance and support,” he said.

For those who prefer a challenge, the Fortnight Film Contest asks filmmakers to create a short in just two weeks using a set of required elements. This year’s were a wristwatch, an eraser and an extreme wide shot.

Lansing resident Michael McCallum joined in again, appearing in two very different shorts. One was shot entirely on Super 8 film and edited in camera — no second chances.

“You have one take to nail it,” McCallum said. “There’s no messing around.”

The other had him dragging a body through Fenner Nature Center.

“That’s something you don’t get to do every day,” he said, laughing.

For McCallum, the best part of the contest is always the camaraderie.

“You look around that room at the screening, and everybody went through a similar experience,” he said. “The stress, the highs and lows — it’s cool to see what people come up with.”

CCFF is also finding new ways to highlight Lansing’s thriving poetry scene. Poet-in-residence Nancy DeJoy invited a group of local poets to watch films ahead of the festival and write in response. Right after those films are screened, the poets will read what they wrote. DeJoy will also leave pencils and paper in the lobby so anyone in the audience can join in.

“It’s a way to generate real-time dialogue,” she said. “To connect. And people do connect.”

Filmetry flips that idea, turning poems into short films.

“A poem is kind of like a mini script,” Filmetry co-founder Peter Johnston said. “It’s a nice jumping-off point. And just like poetry, the films don’t have to be strictly narrative. They can be experimental, they can play with imagery in poetic ways.

“This year’s theme is ekphrastic poems — poems that describe a work of art,” he added. “So, the poems describe visual artworks, and the films are adapting those poems. It adds another layer of interpretation. It’s like multi-generational, cross-pollinated art.”

Repurposing familiar Lansing spaces as venues adds another layer to the festival — the potential for lingering memories. Selby recalled a past festival at the old Sears building in Frandor: “People were saying things like, ‘Oh, I used to get my glasses over there,’ or, ‘I wonder if I can find the room where I did my driver’s ed.’ It was so fun to see how many people had these vivid, specific memories of that space and then were getting to experience it again in such a different way.”

This year, similar transformations will happen at Stage One at Sycamore Creek Eastwood, Impression 5 Science Center’s expansion building, the Robin Theatre, the Avenue Cafe and Central United Methodist Church, where a pop-up goth bar will appear for one night only.

“It’s kind of silly in the best way,” Selby said. “We get to find ways to do things with our friends, and who doesn’t want to do that? For those 11 days, we get to celebrate art, celebrate our community, be with all our friends and just have a great time.”