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08/05/2006
Festival goes worldwide as press convergesTRAVERSE CITY — Don't Google the Traverse City Film Festival unless you have lots of time. Thanks to dozens of visiting journalists and news agencies, stories about the festival have been broadcast or printed all over the world. Those attending the event so far include a producer-correspondent for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation and correspondents for The Associated Press and Reuters, two of the world's largest international multimedia news agencies, said Chuck Lombardo of the Traverse City public relations firm CML Associates. Many more have called for interviews, including France's version of the Associated Press. Voice of America-Pakistan reporter Aisha Munira and a cameraman arrived Monday for more than a week in the area as part of a conference on Great Lakes issues. Munira said that while they planned to broadcast five days a week on environmental and conservation issues of significance to Pakistanis, they also hoped to interview Michael Moore. "I want to know what's the reason for having a big event in a small city," she said. Daily Variety film reporter Gabriel Snyder arrived Wednesday and said he planned to take in as much of the festival as he could before leaving today. He said the Los Angeles-based entertainment industry daily, which has a circulation of about 35,000, is curious about the festival and who is showing up for it. "The personalities involved and Michael Moore make it interesting enough for us to want to cover it on the ground ourselves," he said. "In addition to getting the films, Moore has managed to get a bunch of folks from the entertainment world to make the trek here." Snyder said all but one of the films in the festival have been screened "pretty widely" in the industry, so reviewing them wasn't a priority. But Traverse City is getting the jump on other festivals by showing "Borat," whose screening at the Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 7-16, is being billed as the North American premiere. "It was quite a coup to get a screening of that here," he said. One of the most controversial films in the festival, "Borat" stars Sacha Baron Cohen of HBO's "Da Ali G Show" as the fictional Borat Sagdiyev, "the most famous man in Kazakhstan." Filmed in real documentary settings, "Sagdiyev" travels the United States in a quest to make Pamela Anderson his wife. The film and American reaction to it also is raising interest in London, home of the Sunday Times. Lombardo said the paper asked his firm to arrange for local free-lance writer Jane Boursaw to cover the 10 p.m. Friday screening of the film. "It's kind of funny because last year I was pitching a straight story about the film festival all over the place and I couldn't get any takers," said Boursaw, who writes a syndicated movie review column specializing in films suitable for families and children. "It's picking up steam, I guess." National Geographic Traveler contributing editor Barton Lewis is in the area for three weeks to scope out Traverse City and the film festival for a future story. The story would cover next year's festival and would profile "uniquely different" festivals around the world in the context of travel and tourism, he said. A Flint native who has a vacation home on Crystal Lake, Lewis said the Traverse City Film Festival fits with the idea because it rejuvenates a unique building — the State Theatre — showcases an open space, and serves as a catalyst for many different people, among other things. There's even a possibility that National Geographic could collaborate on future festivals, he said. "We know films and filmmakers much before they reach any festivals. At a point in time, it may make sense," he said.
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