Soo Mich. Film Festival touts 78 offerings for its ninth year

Get on your movie mojo - the ninth annual Soo Film Festival runs Wednesday-Sunday, Sept. 14-18, at the Bayliss Library and Soo Theatre in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan.

“It’s our biggest festival yet,” said Jason Markstrom, festival president. “We have 78 films, ranging from four-minute music videos and animation shorts up to five full-length features. The festival’s goal is to feature filmmaking and filmmakers from the Great Lakes, primarily the US and Canada. Most of this year’s entries fill that bill.”

Can even the most hardened movie buff see all 78 films?

“Theoretically, yes,” said Markstrom. “We have blocks comprised of categories of short films as well as single blocks for each full-length feature. And none of them overlap, so, yes, you could binge for almost 30 hours. Depending on your taste, passes for each (approximately) two-hour block can be purchased for $7 a piece. Day passes for $20 are also available, with $50 buying you access for the entire festival - $80 for a couple.”

The nice thing is that the first two days of the Soo Festival are free and hosted in the community room of Bayless Library.

Wednesday is foreign film night, with 11 short features from Spain, Iran, England, Germany, France, and Ireland screened altogether for just more than two hours beginning at 6:30 p.m.

“Word is getting out about the festival,” Markstrom said. “We couldn’t say no to some gems that showed up from overseas as entries.”

Free screenings continue at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Bayliss when the festival goes full-Michigan with five documentary shorts. The evening is anchored by a 40-minute film of cyclists who document their journey around the circumference of the Upper Peninsula. Another 35-minute film explores a filmmaker’s grandfather who was an undertaker in 1920s Detroit.

The festival shifts into high gear on Friday when it moves to the Soo Theatre on Ashmun St. It’s also when admission gets charged by the block, day, or for total access through Sunday night.

Friday opens at 3 p.m. with nine interpretive fiction short films that run between six and 18 minutes, shot on a Great Lakes location or produced by regional filmmakers. Three of the shorts are by Sault, Ontario, filmmakers.

Two full-length features head into the evening at 6 and 8:30. America, You Kill Me is a documentary that tracks the legacy of Michigan activist Jeffrey Montgomery and his work throughout the 1980s and 90s for LGBTQ+ rights in Michigan and the Midwest. Following that is Hideout, a crime drama produced and shot in Taiwan. Admission to each is $7.

“The Taiwanese movie is kind of a quirky film that I think could be a sleeper,” said Markstrom. “It has many of the cultural quirks that have lately made Asian films like Korea’s Parasite quite popular in America.”

The next two days, Saturday and Sunday, fill mornings with short films followed by full-length features in the afternoon and evening.

Saturday opens 10:30 a.m. with a 90-minute block of 13 eclectic student-produced film shorts, including four music videos. The afternoon kicks off at 1 p.m. with still more short fiction and music videos that are made strictly in Michigan. The block includes a 37-minute murder mystery set on a train ferrying vets home after World War Two.

Saturday’s full-length feature at 4 p.m. is a documentary, Imagining the Indian, that examines an ongoing movement hoping to end the use of sports mascots that stereotype Native Americans.

Two comedies that involve food round out Saturday, beginning at 7:30 p.m. with the 14-minute Friday Night Fish and the 95-minute The Dinner Parting.

“Dinner Parting is a great comedy about a dinner party where nothing goes right, with a twist,” Markstrom said. “It was filmed in New York with Los Angeles actors by a Michigan filmmaker.”

Sunday, the festival’s final day, begins at 11 a.m. with an offering of 16 animated shorts. A 104-minute afternoon block called “Sunday Screams” offers up eight horror-genre shorts. The festival ends Sunday with two full-length features, Driftless at 4:30 p.m. and Iron Lady 7 p.m.

Driftless is a drama revolving around national park rangers on a busy weekend that coincides with a government shutdown.  It shows how rangers, short- and at times single-handedly, keep visitors from one another’s throats while working unpaid during the shutdown. The movie was shot in western Michigan by director Harper Philbin, who teaches filmmaking at Grand Valley State University.

Philbin will answer audience questions after the screening.

Iron Lady is a documentary shot entirely in Marquette and Iron River. It’s about Jazmine Fairies, a 32-year-old woman with Downs who writes, produces, and directs short plays for six summers that grow to involve her family and community. Festival organizers are hoping to bring Fairies in for a Q&A after the film.

“Filmmakers will get audience awards throughout the festival,” said Markstrom. “People will get ballots to fill out after films. We will tabulate the feedback and award laurels. It’s entirely a viewer-driven experience.”

Markstrom sees many facets coming into and out of the festival.

“Filmmakers tell stories, and this is an opportunity for them to hear what audiences have to say,” he said. “They also get to talk shop with one another about the craft. Then there are the movie nerds who take in as many Festivals as they can and never get enough.”

Point your browser to soofilmfestival.org for a full schedule and description of every film. Ticket packages can be explored and purchased online or at the Soo Theatre during festival hours.

“Come discover films and the film festival lifestyle,” advised Markstrom.