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07/27/2007
The rush to the startWorkers, volunteers put on finishing touches; Lahti to receive award
Oscar-winner Christine Lahti will receive the Michigan Filmmaker Award. TRAVERSE CITY — Oscar award-winning film director, Birmingham native and part-time northern Michigan resident Christine Lahti is the second recipient of the Traverse City Film Festival's Michigan Filmmaker Award. The University of Michigan alum is expected to accept the award at opening ceremonies for the festival Tuesday at 3 p.m. in front of the State Theatre, said festival founder Michael Moore — and hopefully this time she won't be in the bathroom. Lahti, also an actress, was famously occupied when she won the Golden Globe in 1998 for her role in TV's "Chicago Hope.” It was one of several awards she has received during her long stage, film and television career, including the Academy Award for best short live-action film for 1995's "Lieberman in Love,” which she directed and starred in. Her new film, "Smart People,” is due out this fall. "She's really a fine actress and someone we're all very proud of, being from Michigan, and we're honored that she's coming to accept the award,” said Moore, Lahti's Torch Lake neighbor. Former Michigan Gov. William Milliken, honorary chairman of Friends of the Traverse City Film Festival, will present the award, along with Moore and the film festival board. The 200 block of Front Street will be closed off for the event, which will be followed by a ticketed reception for Lahti and her family — a fund-raiser for the festival — at Federico's Design Jewelers. Lahti's husband is Thomas Schlamme, a film and TV producer-director who has worked on "West Wing,” "ER” and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” The first Michigan Filmmaker Award was given to Jeff Daniels, an actor and director of such films as "Escanaba in da Moonlight.” With the third annual festival just around the corner, organizers are working feverishly to ready the State, which the film festival recently acquired. Workers took the old roof all the way down to the I-beams and began installed a new one this week, said festival volunteer Marc Ryan. They also built a 24-by-42-foot wall on stage, in front of which a giant screen and new curtains are being installed; covered the rear wall with insulation for soundproofing; and refitted the front entrance doors. A remodeled concessions area also is in the works. "I'm so fortunate to see this history being made here,” Ryan said, as he led a tour of the building. "I just get goosebumps.” Upstairs in the projection room, Boston Light and Sound vice president Larry Shaw was working Tuesday to reassemble the two new 35mm film projectors, which had to be taken apart to be carried up the four flights of narrow stairs. "They're really, really nice ones like the studios use,” said Shaw. Moore said he hand-picked the German-made projectors with help from Deluxe Laboratories, a leader in entertainment industry services and technologies. "They are the Mercedes of film projectors,” he said. "We are creating essentially a state-of-the-art theater on par with what you would find at the American Film Institute and the Academy Awards theater” and at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. When the current round of improvements is completed, the theater will boast a 40,000-watt sound system that includes 12 surround speakers on the rear and side walls and several more behind the screen. The State is one of four venues for this year's festival, including new addition Lars Hockstad Auditorium. To help alleviate festival traffic, organizers have created a new shuttle bus route that will operate every 15 minutes, beginning an hour before the first show and ending an hour after. Film-goers can park free at Traverse City Central High School and hop on a shuttle for the loop between the State, the City Opera House, Lars Hockstad and the Old Town Playhouse. The two Bay Area Transportation Authority buses also will make a stop at the State Street parking garage before returning to Central. Besides helping to control downtown traffic, the shuttles will add to the festival's atmosphere, said festival manager Deb Lake. "When I went to Sundance, one of the best things was getting on the bus after a film and talking with people who had seen the same film,” she said. Tickets for many festival films and events still are available, including the opening and closing night films and parties and Mike's Surprise, Moore said. This year's parties will be glitzier, with more upscale food and drink and more opportunities to rub elbows with filmmakers and industry insiders, he added. "When Bob Dylan comes to Interlochen there's not a party afterwards where you can meet Bob and the band,” Moore said. "That's what's great about the egalitarian nature not only of the films we're showing but of this particular film festival.”
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