Often there is no place for independent and foreign film fans to see their favorite type of picture on the big screen. But thanks to the work of the East Lansing Film Society, which is entering its fifth year of operation, filmgoers can get a chance to see work that will probably never make it to the local cinema.
“I decided this would be a great place to do a festival,” said Susan W. Woods, director of the festival. Woods had five years of experience organizing film festivals around San Francisco and northern California before she moved to the area. In the first year of operation, the festival brought in more than 7,000 people, and has stayed at that level since.
“It was overwhelming,” Woods said.
The festival is set to premiere four new films over the course of the next three months, including “StartUp.com,” “Amores Perros,” which won multiple Mexican film awards, and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” winner of multiple Sundance Film Festival awards.
It all kicks off with award winner “Me You Them” this weekend.
“I learned about the festival in one of my classes,” said advertising masters student Enrique Avila, who is working as an intern at the society’s offices.
“I’ve always been interested in film,” Avila said. “I’m very excited about it.”
“Me You Them” will be shown at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Wells Hall. Cost for the film is $2 for students with a valid ID and $5 for the general public. “Amores Perros” will be shown on October 19, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. each night. “Startup.Com” will be showing November 2,3 and 4.
The series was created in fall of 1998 and the organization has been sharing the Wells Hall building on weekends with MSU’s Campus Center.
The other highlight of the organization is the festival itself, in which the program shows a selection of films chosen from a pool of applicants. This year’s festival is scheduled for March, and the organization has already been receiving applications for months. The organization begins advertising for the festival at film schools all over the country and continues taking numerous applications until the final deadline in the winter.
English and film professor Bill Vincent has been involved since the inception of the society, as a member of the advisory board, judging films in the festival and as a regular attendee at the regular screenings of these fall films.
“I think they do a real service,” said Vincent.
He has already had a chance to see two of the four features and hopes to get to Wells to see them on the big screen.
“Unfortunately, there’s nowhere else to see these movies.”
