By TIM MOSIER

tim.mosier@leaderpub.com

 

HARBOR COUNTRY, Mich. — The Fifth Annual Coastline Children’s Film Festival is set to begin this month with the screening of about 75 films over the course of the 10-day festival.

The month of March brings Michiana the first signs of spring. It is that time of year when the snow begins to melt, the frogs start to crawl out from the mud and the birds return from their vacations down south.

Now, thanks to local cinema lovers, southwest Michigan has another reason to get excited for spring.

President of the Coastline Children’s Film Festival Board of Directors and film festival curator, Leslie Sullivan, is excited to have so many talented people come to the area.

“We have great people coming in from Chicago, to discuss how to tell stories that have meaning for kids. That is going to be an absolute gem of a conversation because you don’t really get a chance to hear discussions like that outside of major cities like Chicago,” Sullivan said.

The festival kicks off at 6 p.m. March 13 with a pajama party hosted at the Krasl Art Center. The night will begin with music by the multitalented Morgan Ingle and continues at 7 p.m. with the Kid Flix Mix — a selection of short films from the New York International Children’s Film Festival.

Festivities continue the next day at 2 p.m. with the Young Filmmakers Competition at the New Buffalo Township Public Library.

The competition consists of 16 short films directed by young local artists. There will be another screening at 5:30 p.m. March 20, and leaders will honor the top three films at an award presentation directly after.

One of the main events of the festival takes place on March 15 when the CCFF hosts a discussion around the film “Underwater Dreams — Outside the Frame: Telling Stories That Matter.” Aimed at creative youth and adults alike, this informal dialogue will dig into the process of storyline development in filmmaking. The film will screen at 4 p.m. at the Citadel Oak Room with discussion to directly follow.

Special guests include Doreen Bartoni, former dean of media arts at Columbia College (Chicago; Re Lynn Hansen, associate professor of creative writing at Columbia College and Paul Kim, director of the documentary film program at Andrews University.

For what is being called the grand finale of the festival, Dr. Larry Schanker will be playing improvisational piano to three silent films, including the original Alice in Wonderland (1915). This closing ceremony will take place at the Krasl Art Center on March 22.

“He’s been helping us do that for four years, he does it brilliantly. He was commissioned a few years ago to do a score for the silent peter pan. He really is a genius musician and composer and it is completely improvisational scores to these wonderful films,” Sullivan said.

On top of the screening of features, shorts and documentaries, festival participants have the opportunity to learn about the history of the medium, as well as the craft of filmmaking, through hands-on workshops and filmmaker presentations.  For more information visit CoastlineChildrens FilmFestival.com or contact Leslie Sullivan at (269) 757-1491.