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November 11, 2005Longer and later in '06Organizers are planning for August 1-6TRAVERSE CITY - Organizers say the Traverse City Film Festival will be one day longer, one week later, and not a bit more glitzy in 2006.The festival will take place Aug. 1-6 and feature more family films, more parties, more panel discussions and one more venue. "The best and most exciting thing about the festival last year was the number of people I saw downtown and the different kinds of people I saw downtown," said co-founder Doug Stanton. "They came to watch movies, they didn't come to watch movie stars, because we didn't have any." Festival spokeswoman Tracy Kurtz said she could not say yet what the added venue would be. Films also will be screened at the State Theater, the Old Town Playhouse, the City Opera House and on a floating screen at the Open Space. The lineup of movies is expected to be announced in February. Stanton said the festival was moved back a week so it would not fall on the same weekend as the annual Northern Chapter H.O.G. Ride for Father Fred, a fundraiser that attracts hundreds of motorcyclists to Traverse City. Stanton is enthusiastic about the prospects for attracting independent filmmakers because the 2005 event - organized in 60 days - received worldwide attention. "Because the festival already has an international profile, directors want to submit their movies," Stanton said. That international profile is courtesy of Michael Moore, a part-time Antrim County resident, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and the festival's founder. Stanton said Moore will be involved in the planning of the 2006 festival. Organizers will focus in coming months on fundraising - projected income for the 2006 festival is over $2.6 million, and they hope to raise nearly $1.7 million. Organizers plan to hold fundraising events in New York and Los Angeles. Stanton said he hopes to retain the character of the festival, lauded by attendees and downtown merchants in 2005. "The thing that really pleased me is that people really showed up to watch the movies and then they stood outside in the evening and talked about them afterwards," Stanton said.
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