Refocus Film Festival celebrating page to screen in Iowa City venues

At first glance, pairing a film festival with a book festival might seem like a stretch.

Not so, FilmScene’s co-founder Andrew Sherburne told The Gazette, noting that FilmScene’s Refocus Film Festival, running from Oct. 17 to 20, is a natural fit alongside the Iowa City Book Festival, which opened Oct. 14 and continues through Oct. 20, produced by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature.

Both are using various downtown Iowa City venues, while a large chunk of Refocus will happen in the nonprofit cinema’s two sites — the original two screens on the Ped Mall, and the more recent three screens in the Chauncey building a short walk away.

It’s the third edition of the Refocus festival, “celebrating the art of adaptation, which is a fitting collaboration for this City of Literature,” Sherburne said, “loosely framed around the relationship from page to screen, but really thinking about adaptation in all its forms.

“We’ve got films this year adapted from concept albums and mythology and comic books and so that is our thinking about how we’re connecting with the film industry at large. That’s one way that we are trying to have a national presence and improve Iowa’s national involvement with the cinema world.”

The film festival kicks off at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Englert Theatre with the film adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s acclaimed 2021 debut novel, “Nightbitch.” Yoder is an assistant professor of screenwriting and cinema arts at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, so local ties don’t come much stronger than that. She will attend the screening for a conversation with screenwriter Emily Yoshida.

The film, starring Hollywood heavy-hitter Amy Adams, will be repeated at 7 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Chauncey’s Theater 1.

According to the official “Nightbitch” film logline, Adams, a six-time Academy Award nominee, portrays a woman “thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, who slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a canine.”

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Sherburne can’t wait to see it on the big screen.

“One of this festival’s guiding principles is celebrating Iowa’s incredible contributions to the world of storytelling,” Sherburne said in announcing the event. “There’s no better way to honor Iowa City’s artistic talent than by showcasing the cinematic adaptation of Rachel’s electric novel.”

Two other festival films have Iowa connections, Sherburne noted. “Winner” is adapted from a piece by University of Iowa graduate Kerry Howley, and “An Evening Song (for Three Voices)” is directed by Fairfield resident Graham Swon.

And two films are making their U.S. premieres in Iowa City: “Ubu” and “Savanna and the Mountain,” which had its world premiere at Cannes.

Organized by Iowa City’s nonprofit cinema, the festival will include more than 25 films and events with conversations, multidisciplinary performances, and art inspired by adaptation and transforming one art form into another.

Lee Running, whose art inspired Rachel Yoder, has created has created a sculpture which will be installed in FilmScene’s Chauncey atrium. And Iowa City artist Ian Bennett is installing a 30-minute infinite loop video using archival footage of the downtown Iowa City Ped Mall.

Guitar virtuoso Marc Ribot will appear at a live score event for “Aelita: Queen of Mars,” which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Springing from the source material, “Aelita,” by Aleksey Tolstoy, the film revolves around “an engineer who travels to Mars. There, he leads a popular uprising against the ruling group of Elders with the support of Queen Aelita, who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope.”

“We have live music before most of our shows,” Sherburne told The Gazette. “There’s another 35 or 40 artists from the local community involved in the film festival every year.”

Overall, FilmScene serves 80,000 people per year, with not only indie film screenings, but series for families and children; late night genre films; a pride series; and a community collaboration series that “works with local nonprofits to generate conversations around using film as a launching pad,” Sherburne added.

“So lots of different ways that we interface with the local community. (We’re) really trying to center ourselves as a community space first, that just happens to work in film.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com