Ready for their close-ups: Cedar Rapids film festival shines spotlight on Iowa

By Diana Nollen

Civil War love letters, ghostly ballplayers, a hitmom, the floods of 2008 and paintball splatters will be hitting the big screens during the 10th annual Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival.

The event will bring 39 films with Iowa ties to the Collins Road Theatres, 1462 Twixt Town Rd., Marion, from 6:30 to 11 p.m. April 9, 2010, and 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. April 10, 2010. The films have cast or crew members from Iowa, stories about Iowa or were filmed in Iowa.

“We have lots of different topics and lots of different lengths,” says festival director and co-founder Scott Chrisman, 30, of Alburnett. “We have a pretty good split between documentaries and narratives. If you want to see a fictional story, it's there. If you want to see real life, you can see that, too.”

Some are short, including a two-minute music video, several run around 30 minutes, and a dozen are feature-length films running about 90 minutes.

“I always love a good short,” says Chrisman, an aspiring filmmaker who works as an editor and producer in the KCRG-TV9 studios department in Cedar Rapids. “In 15 minutes you can tell a great story.”

Advancing technology has ushered in the biggest changes Chrisman has seen during the festival's first decade.

“We've definitely ridden the digital wave here,” he says. “It became so much more inexpensive to make a movie. For under $10,000 you can make a really nice movie. Everything's gotten progressively better.”

Iowa's film community has grown, as well.

“When we first started, there were people in little pockets of the state,” he says. “Now it's more cohesive or they're in a bigger hub and willing to make the trek (to festivals). A couple of the larger ones have become established, so it's easier for people to get noticed and be on a bigger stage.”

Having Bruce Taylor open his Collins Road Theatres to the Cedar Rapids festival since 2004 has “really been an incredible boon to us,” Chrisman says. “It's one thing to have it in an auditorium, but to actually have it in a real theater offers a level of credibility you don't always have. Plus, you get to have some great popcorn.”

Getting noticed is what it's all about for indie filmmakers like Joe Scherrman, 56, of rural Dyersville. His 54-minute documentary, “Ghost Player: Relive the Magic,” will be shown at 8:05 p.m. April 9 and 1:40 p.m. April 10. It chronicles 18 years with the local Ghost Players team that suited up and walked out of the cornfield after “Field of Dreams” turned a fictional Iowa ball field into a travel destination. They staged games there and on diamonds around the world.

Scherrman's film has been aired on Iowa and Wisconsin public television and is starting to score honors on the film festival circuit. With that kind of publicity, he's fielding e-mails from film distributors in Britain, Australia, Beverly Hills and Santa Fe.

That's great news for Scherrman, who expects his film expenses to top $1 million when everything's tallied.

He's knee-deep in completing paperwork for the Iowa Film Tax Credit. Even though the program was suspended last September when allegations of mismanagement arose, Scherrman had already secured a contract to apply for the tax incentives upon completion of his film.

“I'm crossing all my t's and dotting all my i's and double-checking all my addition,” he says. “Applying for film tax credit is basically like an audit.”

While the controversial program has drawn a lot of fire, he sees a silver lining in the scrutiny.

“The whole thing is good for the industry, finding out early there are loopholes and misconceptions,” he says. “It's great we found out these things early. Hopefully they'll find a way to reinstate it. It's amazing what the film industry does for a community.”

   Among the goods and services he bought locally are office supplies, legal advice, accountants, production companions in Dubuque and Cedar Rapids, musicians, crews, writers, motels and gas.

“If they can find a way to make it work, keep it clean and make it make sense, I'm strongly behind it,” he says.

FAST TAKE

What: 2010 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival

When: 6:30 to 11 p.m. April 9; sessions 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., 1:30 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 9:30 p.m. April 10; Eddy Awards Ceremony, 9:30 to 10:30 p.m. April 10

Where: Collins Road Theatres, 1462 Twixt Town Rd., Marion

Advance tickets: Before April 8: $8 each session or all-event pass, $25; at the theater box office or (319) 377-4555

Admission at the door: $10 each session or $35 an all-event pass; awards ceremony free with any other festival ticket purchase

Information: www.crifm.org, e-mail http://scott@crifm.org or call (319) 431-1320

Schedule: www.crifm.org/ticketinfo2010.html

FEATURED FILMS

Festival selections represent a wide variety of features, shorts, documentaries, music videos, and experimental films at student, pro-am and professional levels.

Of the 62 films submitted for consideration, the following 39 were chosen. They will compete for Gold and Silver Eddy Awards and the Audience Choice and Iowa Connection Eddys, which will be presented at Saturday night's ceremony.

EASTERN IOWA

“A Year in the Life,” Atom Burke, Solon; “Estival,” Matei Dima, Cedar Rapids; “Focus,” Beau Batterson, Waterloo; “Ghost Player: Relive the Magic,” Joe Scherrman, Dyersville; “Hitmom,” Joe Clark, Iowa City; “Iowa State Fair Rap,” Eva Andersen, Center Point; “Kelsey,” Christopher Peck, Marion; “Pigface,” John Nordoft, Marion; “Prairie,” Kevin Railsback, Fairfax; “Resilience: The Rise of Humanity,” Jeffrey Zahrt, Cedar Rapids; “Silent Kingdom” by Kevin Railsback, Fairfax; “Sol,” James Hoff, Cedar Falls; “Splatter: Love, Honor, Paintball,” Lonnie Schuyler, Burlington; “The Drunken Fan Boy,” Neil Allen, Iowa City; “The Folly of Man,” John Nordoft, Marion; “The Next Act,” Rob Merritt, Cedar Rapids; “The Waking World,” Jonathan Spaulding, Cedar Rapids; “24.7,” Kirk Monson, Urbana; “What Else Would I Do?” Owen Wade, Iowa City

OTHER IOWA SELECTIONS

“Countervail,” Aaron Riggs, Oskaloosa; “Historic Measures,” Aaron Riggs, Oskaloosa; “I'm Impressed,” Lucas Batty, Des Moines; “Legend Has It,” Mike Saunders, Ottumwa; “Nothing,” Carsha Meyer, Spencer; “Shoot!” Lucas Baty, Des Moines; “Stewart Little 3000,” Mike Saunders, Ottumwa; “The Guy Chronicles,” Aaron Riggs, Oskaloosa

OUT-OF-STATE MOVIES

“A Young Heart,” Brooke Lemke, Minneapolis; “Coasting,” Steve Coulter, Los Angeles; “Diary of a Superhero,” Andrew Kline, Austin, Texas; “Driver's Ed Mutiny,” Brad Hansen, Schaumberg, Ill.; “Hidden Hearts,” Caitey Birmingham, Sherman Oaks, Calif.; “In the Silence,” Adam Orton, Chicago; “Love and Valor: The Intimate Civil War Letters,” Charles Larimer, Chicago; “Paper Mache,” Elliot Diviney, Plymouth, Minn.; “Something Blue,” Sean Gannon, Los Angeles; “The Nine-Thirty,” Scott Thompson, Mondovi, Wis.; “The Sneakers,” David Wells, South Boston, Mass.; “Why Am I in a Box?” Brooke Lemke, Minneapolis