The Show Must Go On

By Patrick Sullivan | July 15, 2017

Michael Moore, booked for a 12-week run on Broadway, can’t be at the festival he founded. A critical behind-the-scenes organizer died suddenly in June. And the largest venue is unavailable. Thirteen turns out to be a tough number for the Traverse City Film Festival. 

The Traverse City Film Festival’s 13th year is proving to be an unlucky one, but despite a series of incredible challenges, the show will go on.

On June 4, a fundamental player in the festival organization, Lars Kelto, died suddenly of a cardiac event. Kelto, who was just 40 years old, was the festival’s technology guru; he also ran the short films presentations.

Already, organizers were contending with another keenly felt absence: They’d learned that for the first time in the festival’s 13-year history, filmmaker Michael Moore would not be in Traverse City for the event he founded. Instead, Moore will begin previews of “The Terms of My Surrender” on Broadway July 28.

A lessor complication — the unavailability of Lar Hockstad auditorium — poses technical and logistical problems in a year when festival organizers already have a lot of other things to worry about.

The Northern Express sat down with Deb Lake, TCFF executive director, to talk about the plans to hold a successful festival despite the hardships.

Northern Express: Let’s start with the least disruptive thing to happen for this year’s festival — the loss of your largest venue, Lars Hockstad. When did you find out about that, and why is that venue not available this year?

Deb Lake: TCAPS let us know as soon as they knew, late this winter. They found out that they were going to have to close the school unavoidably for the summer, because they had a new inspector and a new inspection this year that found some materials that needed to be remediated, and it couldn’t wait. So they had to move their summer camp that they have there elsewhere. They basically had to tent it off as soon as summer started, and they just need to work as fast as they can to make sure that they can reopen for school. It’s a big school, and they need it. So we understood that. They let us know as soon as they could, and they’ve been very helpful trying to help us find alternatives. But we do plan to return next year. 

Express: What challenges does that pose to not have the venue available? Do the two replacement venues, Traverse City Central High School auditorium and Kirkbride Hall [at the Village at Grand Traverse Commons], make up for it?

Lake: We’re excited about the solutions we’ve come up with. I think they’re both going to be nice venues to screen films in. New venues are the most challenging and most expensive thing we ever do, right? I mean, it takes a lot to figure out how to turn a facility that wasn’t meant to show movies into a place to show movies. We had, over time, invested a lot of money into Lars Hockstad to make it a good place to see a movie, and to do that with two temporary spaces is a big (financial) hit. It’ll be really exciting to include Kirkbride in the festival; it’s a beautiful space, and that’s an amazing thing that’s been done over there, at the Village. That will be very neat, and we’re excited that people will get to have exposure to that. The chairs that we normally put into some of our temporary spaces wouldn’t work there, so we’re having to get some new chairs, but I think people will like them a lot. They are more comfortable than the chairs that we’ve been using.

Express: How is the Central High School auditorium going to work as a venue?

Lake: At the Central High School auditorium, you know, the renovations there are just beautiful. It’s very well designed for live production, but it’s not unfortunately well-designed for movies. The sight lines aren’t ideal. The seats are very comfortable, and it’s air conditioned, which is great. The lobby is quite nice. The bathrooms are probably going to be the best bathrooms of the festival. But I think we’re going to have a few challenges there. We want people to be able to see the screen. There’s a drawback there — however I think we’ve overcome that, and I think we’ve figured it out, and I think it’s going to be nice. And it’s of course very close to Milliken, so it’s already on the shuttle route.

Express: When did you learn that Michael Moore would be in New York and not in Traverse City for this year’s festival?

Lake: That was something that became apparent in the spring. He’s got obviously a lot of projects going on — not just the Broadway show, which opens on the Friday of the festival — but also a film and a TV series. So we found out that all of these projects were going on in winter and spring, but I think — you’ll have to forgive me, I’m not exactly sure what date we found out when the opening would be — but a lot of these things on Broadway, it’s when the venue is going to be available, and that’s when the venue was available, so that’s how the chips fall. So he’s making a lot of efforts just to make sure he has a real presence here via Skype, and there are other ways that he can be part of things here. And he’s obviously been programming and stuff. But he’s really going to miss being here this year. We have other exciting guests, like Leonard Maltin will be here, and there will be cool things happening.

Express: I know Michael is the heart of the festival. I imagine it wasn’t an easy decision for him to spend the summer on Broadway rather than be in Traverse City for the festival. Can you tell me what his thought process was like?

Lake: This Broadway show is really important to him, and a lot of people are hoping it can do some good. And it’s his first time on Broadway, so that’s an important thing, and it’s just when the venue is available. So he said, part of his thought process was from the beginning, when he started the festival, he figured there’d be a year when, due to either his filmmaking schedule or other projects that he had going on, that he wouldn’t be able to make it to the festival. He’s been surprised that he’s gotten this far, and he’s been able to attend every year. So he’s very sad, and he will miss it, and it is his favorite week of the year, but your chance to open on Broadway is something you have to seize when you can. He’s at the Belasco, which is a great theater.

Express: Moore's Broadway show, “The Terms of My Surrender” sounds like a really interesting project. Do you know if he has any plans to perform that in Traverse City after it closes on Broadway?

Lake: I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that. 

Express: When I look at everything Moore is involved in in a normal year, it’s amazing, but this year he’s got so much going on, between the film festival, media appearances, staying on top of current events on Twitter, all his other projects and his Broadway show. How much has he been/will he be involved in this year’s TCFF?

Lake: Other than that he won’t be able to be here physically — he’ll be Skyping in — he’ll still be as involved in the other things that he oversees. So he’s part of the vision of the festival. He’s been talking to us all along about the venue challenges that we’ve had. He helps us with the creative campaign. The poster. Of course he picks films. He’s the programmer. So he’s been doing all of that as he normally does. And on top of everything else. I think maybe not sleeping is part of his secret. I’m not sure. He just loves films.

Express: I see on the website that this year’s festival will be in many ways dedicated to the memory of Lars Kelto. What do you have planned during the festival to remember him?

Lake: I think, like most people who knew him, I think we’re all still — it’s been a month and yet, we’re still in shock. I mean, he was 40. So I think that we’re still trying to get our bearings. You know, he was a huge part of not just the social and professional makeup of the festival, but he literally did a huge part of the work, work that nobody else knew how to do. So we’re going to need a little more time before we know exactly the answer to that question. We will do the Saturday night screening of Star Wars in his memory. He was a huge Star Wars fan, and he really loved the Open Space.

Express: That bumper that he made about Star Wars and Star Trek fans was so good. 

Lake: He was a great filmmaker and a great editor, and you know, as everyone has said, one of the things that was remarkable about him was just how widely varied his talents were. You really just don’t often find somebody who can excel in so many wide-ranging areas.

Express: In losing Lars, I know you didn’t just lose a close friend, and you didn’t just lose someone willing to dedicate so much time and attention to the festival, but you also lost someone with a tremendous amount of technical skill that you depended upon. Can you tell me a little about that and how you are accomplishing what you need to accomplish?

Lake: Well, I guess we’ve been using the village approach. He has a lot of friends who have stepped in to offer their help, and the community’s been amazing. Not just in coming together to support his family and his wife and his two daughters but also to help the festival. I think we have probably about 10 different people — more than that, maybe about 15 different people — who are trying to patchwork together their skills and abilities to kind of make up all of the many, many things that he did. And so it’s not been seamless, but there was no way one person or even two people or even three people could have done what he did. He’s one of those very special people. But we’ve had great support, and this is an amazing community. It’s been very heartwarming and wonderful.

Express: What else is different about this year’s festival?

Lake: I think you’ve got the big three. We have a great group of interns and that’s normal, but that’s a relief. We had more trouble finding spaces than we normally do. Because as Traverse City continues to grow and build, it’s harder and harder to find things like box office space. Our partnership with Echo has been really nice — to have our box office down there, we’re relieved that worked out. It gets harder and harder every year. The first year Interlochen did it through their store, Bravo, which is now Red Ginger. Ever since then, we’ve had to move it around. The second year, Lars set up our box office for us in the State Theatre. That was before the State was open year-round, of course — that was 2006. And once the State was open, that was an impossibility. So it’s literally moved each year, and it’s gotten to the point where, if we hadn’t been able to work out things with Echo, we were just going to have to bring in a double-wide trailer and park it somewhere downtown. There’s no space. There’s no space at all, and it’s worrisome.

Let’s All Go to the Movies
This year’s Traverse City Film Festival takes place July 25 through July 30. Over a hundred movies, film panels, film school presentations and other events will take place at venues across Traverse City throughout the week. Films will be screened at the Open Space Outdoor Cinema, State Theatre, City Opera House, Old Town Playhouse, Milliken Auditorium, Bijou by the Bay, Central High School Auditorium, Kirkbride Hall, and Dutmers Theater. The box office this year is located at 121 E. Front Street – ECCO Event Space, on the north side of Front Street between Union and Cass. For more information, call (231) 242-3456 or visit traversecityfilmfest.org.