Lake Michigan Film Festival

The Lake Michigan Film Festival is going out with a bang. This year’s event, the final hoorah, will feature 65 films from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. 

Festival director Susan W. Woods gave some insight into why the festival is coming to a close: “When we started the film festival in 1997, all films were only available on VHS, 16mm and 35mm. Now all the films are digitized, available electronically and by Blu-ray or DCP.”

The festival begins with the documentary “The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit.” Director Dan Loewenthal, producer Roberta Friedman and producer/writer Mark Stryker will be in attendance to discuss the film. 

Other feature-length films include:

• “1969: Killers, Freaks, and Radicals,” a documentary examining a string of brutal murders in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti in the late ‘60s and how the social and political tensions of the time may have contributed to the crimes.
• “Reverie,” a drama following a lonely writer who journeys too deep into his own fantasy world, casting aside reality.
• “Premarital,” a comedy about a pastor who launches a campaign to convert his daughter’s fiancé to Christianity before their wedding.
• “The Daughters of the Domino,” a modern noir about a detective who arrested her serial killer father, fracturing her relationship with her sister Laura, whose own daughter goes missing years later.

The festival will also offer three programs of short documentaries, a block of social justice documentaries, three programs of short films and a block of student films. Visit the event website for a full rundown of the schedule, films, directors and more.