The 2008 Riverside Saginaw Film Festival

In its second year, the festival is slated for a Wednesday, June 25, through Sunday, June 29, run at the Temple Theatre, Pit and Balcony Community Theatre, Court Theater, Castle Museum of Saginaw County History, Hoyt Library and Old Saginaw City Lawn Chair Film Festival venues.

MISSION: Riverside Saginaw Film Festival is a community event designed to celebrate, explore and screen great movies, thus adding to the cultural life of the Saginaw Valley and beyond.

UPDATES:

UPDATE – Due to United Airlines cancelling flights, James Kerwin's workshop on Directing for Film and Theater has been rescheduled for 11:00am on Friday. This is just before the workshop on Filmmaking on a Micro Budget which is at noon.

UPDATE – Thursday, June 26, at the Castle Museum
14 Women, 4 p.m. showing DELETED. (It will not play at all).
In its place: Gypsy Caravan, at 4 p.m.

UPDATE – Thursday, June 26, at the Castle Museum
Delirious, 6 p.m. showing DELETED. (It will not play at all).
In its place: In the Shadow of the Moon, at 6 p.m.

UPDATE – Friday, June 27, at Pit and Balcony Community Theater
Delirious, 11 a.m. showing DELETED. (It will not play at all).
No other film is replacing.

UPDATE – Friday, June 27, at Pit and Balcony Community Theater
Time Change: Refusing To Be Enemies, now starting at 8 p.m. (An hour later than printed).

UPDATE – Saturday, June 28, Pit and Balcony Community Theater
Time and Venue Change: Honeydripper, 4 p.m. showing CANCELED.
Showing moved to Saturday night at 8 p.m. at the Castle Museum!

UPDATE – Sunday, June 29, Castle Museum
Addition: Winners of the Short Film Contest, 1:30 p.m. showing.
Additional programming. Watch a selection of Juried and Audience Award winning films from our Shorts Film Festival.

For a complete breakdown of any updates or changes in scheduling, visit our Updates Page.

NEW THIS YEAR – Added this year is a free mini-film festival for youngsters, during which they'll get a chance to make their own claymation-style characters, and a short subject film contest in the categories of narrative, documentary and animation/experimental.

SHORT FILM CONTEST SELECTIONS – The selection committee has narrowed the submissions down to 18 short films that will be shown in two separate programs of nine films each. Audience members will have a change to cast their vote on their favorite short for the Audiences' Festival Favorite award. Visit the Film Contest page for more information.

NOW SHOWING – Riverside Saginaw committees are still selecting the 10 to 14 feature films which will show at this year's festival, many of them top independent and foreign film releases.

But among the special events already booked are:

"Yesterday Was a Lie", a take on the classic film noir genre in a movie currently playing the film festival circuit to great acclaim.

Producer Chase Masterson and writer-director James Kerwin will attend and, in addition to talking after the showing of the film, will offer workshops on filmmaking with a mirco budget, acting and directing. Masterson also is an actress and starred as Leeta on the television series "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." In "Lie" she plays a major role as The Singer.

Says Riverside committee member Jerry Seward, "The film is absolutely amazing – powerful, thought-provoking, beautiful. It takes you on quite a fascinating journey – imagine mixing 'Citizen Kane' with 'Blade Runner' and topping it all off with 'The Maltese Falcon' for good measure."

In it, actress Kipleigh Brown is cast as a hard-boiled detective who discovers that the mystery she is pursuing is rooted in her own past and the depths of her unconscious.

"The General" silent movie starring Buster Keaton with live musical accompaniment by Blue Dahlia of Kalamazoo.

The 1927 classic is a comedy set against the true Civil War story of a stolen train and Union spies. Film critic Leonard Maltin, in his movie and video guide, gives the movie four stars. The Blue Dahlia quartet specializes in composing world-style music scores for early Hollywood films and are veterans of both film festivals and the independent music circuit.

Wrote the Detroit Free Press, "They are more adventurous than anyone else dares to be."

Following the showing of the movie the band also will play a concert of its other music and will answer audience questions about its unusual instruments.

"A Year at the Movies With Kevin Murphy and Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Murphy played the gumball robot Tom Servo in the "Mystery Science" series which is celebrating its 20th anniversary year and will discuss it as the festival shows the movie version released in 1996.

Beyond that, however, Murphy is quite the movie buff himself and will share anecdotes from his book "A Year at the Movies" – a journal of his experiences attending a movie every day for a year in every setting, from the Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals to drive-ins in the Southwestern desert and tin-roofed huts in the South Pacific. He even lived for a week solely on theater food, and dressed up as a nun for a singalong showing of "The Sound of Music" in London.

Murphy also will unleash his one-man rant on why the movies are as bad as they are and what audiences can do about it.

"Refusing To Be Enemies" documentary by Laurie White of Ann Arbor.

The film profiles a group of twelve Ann Arbor women – six of them Arab and six Jewish – working to transcend the long-standing hatred between their two cultures.

In it, a Jewish member's childhood memories of Nazi persecution are juxtaposed with a Palestinian member's recollection of being forced to leave her homeland after the 1948 establishment of Israel.

White will attend the showing, and film festival committee members are hoping to also bring in two of the women in the film which offers a vision of people working locally to find their own foundations for peace.

2008 FESTIVAL SPONSORS –Funding and support for Riverside Saginaw Film Festival comes in part from Citizens Bank Wealth Management, The Saginaw News and Saginaw Celebrates Summer, sponsored by Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation, a Dow Corning joint venture.

For a complete list of our 2008 sponsors and supporters, visit our Sponsors Page

WE NEED YOUR HELP! –2008 Festival Sponsorships are STILL available. Contact us to support this great community arts event.

For more information send an e-mail to info@riversidesaginawfilmfestival.org or call (989) 752-2861.