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Rogers City Theatre hosts global film festival

News Photo by Julie Riddle Rogers City residents Kay Morrill and Muriel Garms pick up ballots at the Manhattan Film Festival screening in Rogers City Saturday.

ROGERS CITY­– Ten tiny movies, screened on six continents over the course of one week, reminded the residents of one small Northeast Michigan town of their place in one big world over the past weekend.

The Manhattan Short Film Festival, in its 22nd year of celebrating the impact of brevity, annually allows voters across the globe to select their favorite festival movie during a simultaneous, worldwide showing. This weekend, the Rogers City Theater was, for the second time, host to one of the 400 film festival screenings, giving northern Michigan a voice in the global moviemaking world.

The film festival selects 10 films, of 3 to 18 minutes each, from the hundreds submitted from around the world. Films from France, Iran, Canada, Germany, and Finland, as well as The United States and England made the final cut in this year’s festival.

After viewing all 10 in one sitting, audience members weigh in to help select the winner in Best Film and Best Actor categories. Votes from across the globe are sent to a central clearinghouse, which announces the winners chosen by the viewers.

The idea of short films, each carefully crafted to tell a small story with a powerful point, appealed to Anne Belanger, program director of the Presque Isle District Library, which owns the theater. She called this year’s films thought-provoking, humorous, and a little edgy, with topics ranging from adversaries learning togetherness to immigration laws and attitudes that enable human beings to be treated like debris.

At the Friday night showing, 33 people came for the films, a good crowd for a Rogers City weekend night. Moviegoers were engaged by the stories, Belanger said, afterward eagerly talking about the films’ impact and their own emotional reactions to the stories that drew them into a bigger world, beyond the boundaries of small-town up-northness.

Last summer, the library organized a TEDx conference at the theater, joining a worldwide movement of communities in global conversation through short talks given by local voices.

Activities such as the TEDx conference and Manhattan Short Film Festival ” put us on the world map,” Belanger said.

Belanger and the library have striven to bring more than first-run movies into the charming art-deco building, intentionally inviting an eclectic collection of artists, speakers, and groups to the theater’s stage in recent years. Belanger said she is making an effort to bring symphonies to the town, in collaboration with other venues around the state.

Offering a wide variety of not only entertainment but also cultural opportunities, such as a short film festival bearing perspectives from around the world, broadens a communities horizons, and its reach. Belanger reported visitors from other towns across northern Michigan in attendance at theater events, and many new faces mingled with the regulars.

When people ask where Belanger is from, she used to get blank looks when she mentioned Rogers City. Now, she said, people nod with recognition. The town is being discovered, she thinks, at least in part because of events like worldwide film festivals brought into the town, offering exposure to the bigger world.

“Arts and culture transform communities,” Belanger said. “It’s evident everywhere.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

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