 "Photo: Courtesy of Drexel Theatres")
Four days, 11 films and not a touch of Hollywood to be found.
Today marks the beginning of the second annual Columbus Alive Deep Focus Film Festival. Held at the Arena Grand Theatre, this event showcases some of the country's best movies made outside of Hollywood studios.
The Deep Focus Film Festival was created by Columbus Alive! assistant editor and film critic Melissa Starker and Mark Pfeiffer, a film critic for WOCC-TV3 at Otterbein College. After becoming acquainted with each other at various screenings around Columbus, the two film buffs, along with Drexel Theaters president Jeff Frank, organized the festival in a way which complemented their tastes.
"The festival as a whole has a broad spectrum. We're hitting a lot of different audiences," Pfeiffer said of this year's collection of films. "It's certainly something I thought Columbus could use."
Starker said the films are all Midwest, Ohio or Columbus premieres, since a lot of great films were not making it here because there was no room for them.
The Arena Grand Theatre is the best place in Columbus for such an event, Frank said.
"When we built the theater we always had in mind that it could be home for a film festival," he said.
Although Pfeiffer possesses years of critical experience with mainstream Hollywood movies, he said he enjoys the variance of styles often displayed in independent and "arthouse" films.
"They're more uncompromising of artistic visions generated by the director or the screenwriter. You are often times getting character studies that you don't get in mainstream movies," he said. "You're more likely to see something that gets into the psychology of a character."
The opening night's feature "Brick"starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("3rd Rock from the Sun), is a noir drama set at a Southern California high school "Brick" received the Special Jury Prize for "Originality of Vision" at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was called unexpected and daring by Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times.
Pfeiffer expects "District B13" to be another highlight of the festival. The film exposes the fluent, gymnastics-like fighting style created by star David Belle, known as "parkour."
"It's a lot of fun - silly but in a good way," Pfeiffer said. The film was co-written by Luc Besson ("The Fifth Element").
"It's a great all-around action film," Starker said.
Not to be confused with "District B13," the animated comedy "The District!" will also be screened on May 6. The film has only played in one festival in the United States prior to the Deep Focus.
"It's a perfect example of a film that would not play in Columbus if not for the festival," Starker said.
Pfeiffer said the lude humor of "The District!" resembles that of "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" with its unique visual style.
"Art students may want to check it out," he said.
Starker and Pfeiffer said OSU was considered in the organization of the Deep Focus Film Festival.
"We've got a lot of films with young protagonists," Starker said. "It's all about trying to present films that wouldn't make it here otherwise. It's a lengthy and sometimes torturous process, but we're doing pretty well for our second year."
Pfeifer said they were conscious of trying to present films that a younger audience might be interested in.
"We're building an audience, and we expect this to become a major arts events for Columbus," Frank said.
The festival opens tonight at 7:30 and runs until May 7. Tickets to the opening night gala, which includes an after-party at Red Star Tavern, are $15. The additional screenings are $10 for general admission and $8 for students with ID.
Tickets for the Deep Focus Film festival can be purchased at arenagrand.com.
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