Super Troopers 3, the latest comedy from the Broken Lizard improv troupe, centers on a romance that threatens to destroy the camaraderie that exists between the fictional Vermont state troopers. Farva (Kevin Heffernan) has become engaged to Thorny’s (Jay Chandrasekhar) sister, and Thorny sets out to do what he can to break them up before the Big Day.

The film opens areawide on Thursday.

On tour to promote the film, the entire Broken Lizard gang, which also includes comedic actors Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske) rolled into Music Box Supper Club recently for a sold out fan event. Local comedian and podcast host Bill Squire moderated the discussion.

Before the event began, we squeezed into a booth with the five actors and comedians to discuss the movie and the comedy group’s cult following. 

Talk about what it’s been like to stop in different cities to promote the film.

Heffernan: We have a great grassroots fanbase. We crowdfunded our second film, and the fans contributed to a large portion of the budget. It was the only way to get it made. You spend a year working on the movie and six months in a dark room editing it, and finally you can show it to people and say hi to the fans.

Soter: We tend to go on tour for every project and film. We have done standup on the road together. It’s always our favorite part of the process because it’s much more relaxing than shooting a movie. With a movie, there are always fires to put out. We love it. We get more quality as a group than in any other point in the process. It’s fun in that way. 

Stolhanske: It’s like being in a band. We get to tour and meet our fans.

What inspired you to want to do a third movie?

Heffernan: We had a story for a different angle. It was this wedding story. You sit around and think about a funny premise. The premise is what if the worse guy you knew was sleeping with your sister. What if they were going to marry your sister? What would you do? Would you stop it? We put the conflict in there. There is a cultural thing too with the Indian stuff. It snowballed from there and shows a different side of the troopers. It grew from there.

When did you start working on the script?

Chandrasekhar: We all write it together. We outline it and then each person does 20 pages for the first three drafts. Someone is the point person who turns the notes into a script.

Soter: There were three or four Frankenstein drafts. Five guys writing 25 pages. It’s all over the place. The point person gets brought in to synthesize and get everything done and write down everything that was thrown out there. It’s a thankless job.

Where did you go to film?

Chandrasekhar: We shot it in Massachusetts near Boston. It’s the same place we shot No. 2. We had a station we already built. We rebuilt it. It was great. We already knew how to light it.

The plot revolves around Farva’s wedding, so that is a twist. But what else did you want to do differently with this film?

Heffernan: It was to get behind-the curtain of these characters and see more of their personal sides of their lives in terms of romance and family. There’s already a fanbase, so it’s fun for the fans to see that and go deeper into that universe, which I think this accomplishes.

Lemme: We’ve had some sexual content, but we get to see the Farva character in action, and he is quite the lover and Lothario. 

Soter: [Actress] Hannah [Simone] was so delightful and put all of us at ease. All of a sudden, we were looking at it, and the film was an actual romance. We wanted to see them survive.

Brian Cox has become a superstar since the last Super Troopers film. What was it like working with him again?

Heffernan: Between Super Troopers two and three, he shot Succession, which was an iconic role. He became this crotchety Logan character. It’s a ferocious character. And then, he came to our set and made us all nervous because we had seem him as Logan

Soter: He’s a capital A actor. We are clowns. He always carried more gravitas and legitimacy, which made him more imposing. We tried to take the piss out of him whenever possible. This time around, he was larger than life.

I’ve always like actor Nat Faxon. Talk about what he brings to the film.

Soter: He’s an Oscar winner but not the first Oscar winner we’ve ever had.

Heffernan: He’s an old friend of ours. He was in Club Dread, which was about 20 years ago. He’s been in a bunch of movies since. It was nice to find someone in the same food group as us with the same improvisational skills. [Brian] Cox made a point to us that he is 79 years old. Cops that age still aren’t on duty. We need to figure that out. We went to this guy who can do anything.

Soter: A new captain would still be our age. We realized there were opportunities for comedies in that our new boss is also our contemporary. Our new boss is also our contemporary. It gave us the chance to fuck with someone who went to academy with who is technically our boss.

Broken Lizard has been together for decades. Did you know you had great chemistry from the get-go when you formed in college in 1989?

Chandrasekhar: We met in 1987 when we were 18 before we did anything. The group didn’t form until three years later. We started out as close friends before we had ambitions.

Heffernan: You can see the banter. You stick the knife in and twist it. It’s a lot of grab ass and sarcasm. Then, you put it into a movie.

What was the New York comedy scene like in your early days?

Heffernan: It was cool. There was sketch stuff. There was us and the State, and the Kids in the Hall were rising. At the same exact time there was this independent low budget film moment led by guys like Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater. We went that route.

Soter: We were on the sketch success track. Then, we thought, maybe we can make movies. We looked around and everybody is making low-budget movies. We skipped the line.

Chandrasekhar: There was a bunch of sketch stuff. I think there were also five sketch shows. It was between us and the State. [MTV] saw the State one night and us the next night. They gave [a contract] to the state. We killed it but the State killed more.

Why do you think the other two Super Troopers films became such cult classics?

Chandrasekhar: I think it’s the rhythm of our dialogue. Some people say it’s because we remind them of their friend group. That could be another reason. We are in the footsteps of Jon Landis movies. They play it straight and write good jokes and make good films with good characters. The logic makes sense.

Are you improvising in the films?

Soter: It feels that way because the writing process was improvisation. It was five of us acting out scene, and the improv routines turned into scripts.

Chandrasekhar: It’s funny to me that it feels like improv. It’s very, very structured. We pour over every little bit. We argue over dashes and ellipses.

Soter: The biggest joy is watching two or three guys argue to the death about something I don’t give a shit about.

Any plans for a fourth installment?

Chandrasekhar: If this movie makes enough money. We have fun making them. If they let us, we would even be happy to make five.

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With 15 years under his belt as director of the annual locally based Short. Sweet. Film Fest., Michael Suglio finally had the chance to expand last year. By chance, he met up with a college friend from Case Western who landed in New York and worked at a brewery. Upon visiting the brewery, Suglio had an epiphany.

“I went to New York for Pokemon Go Fest,” says Suglio one recent afternoon over a few cask ale beers at Brick and Barrel.  “We went to the basement area of the brewery, and I had goosebumps. The space was exactly the same size as [the site of a previous Short. Sweet. Film Fest.]. Market Garden Brewery. He had surround sound and a stage where they do comedy and music. I asked if we could have a film festival there. He said, ‘Let me ask the boss.’ She said, ‘Yeah sure.’”

In addition to expanding to New York, where an abbreviated version of the festival will again take place this year, the festival will expand its Cleveland program. Suglio received nearly 600 submissions for this year’s event and chose just under 350 films to screen at his festival, which kicks off on Monday, March 2, at Atlas Cinemas at Shaker Square. The festival runs through Sunday, March 8, at the theater.

“The big new thing is that we have three Women in Focus programs,” says Suglio. “It’s films made by women that explore areas that are uniquely women-based. It was interesting to learn things that wouldn’t even cross my mind. I learned about issues and heard stories that I normally wouldn’t have heard. They are great short films for everyone.”

While other film fests are shrinking, Short. Sweet. Film Fest. is growing and adding new programs. An opening night featuring local student filmmakers takes place on Monday, March 2, and more student films will screen on Tuesday, March 3, and Wednesday, March 4. Local filmmakers get the spotlight on Thursday, March 5, as do documentary filmmakers. Friday, March 6 is devoted to experimental films, animated movies and comedy and drama, and many more films will screen on Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8.

“This year, we have a closed captioning program on Tuesday,” says Suglio. “We have an opened-captioned film about accessibility and voting in Cleveland. That’s a first. And it’s free. Anyone can attend. We’re also pushing the environmental program on Wednesday, March 4. We’re showing a documentary about the Ohio National Parks system, which is really cool. We have several horror programs. It’s popular and we had so many films. We even have a program that is just local horror.”

The number of replies from directors who said they would attend the festival for Q&As has increased, and Suglio says that’s been a pleasant surprise.

“The likelihood of having a filmmaker present is really high this year, especially on the weekend,” he says. “I allowed a few days to allow people to travel in. It’s really rewarding to see people get to experience the city where I’ve lived my whole life and obviously love and care about.”

Suglio says he’s always surprised by number of dedicated local filmmakers who submit their movies.

“It’s nice to have that community of filmmakers present and represented,” he says. “With so many people coming in, [the national filmmakers] will hopefully meet and network with the local guys.”

Going forward, Suglio says he wants to continue to develop programs that focus on women’s issues, and he also wants to feature Latin American and Hispanic films.

“In the future, I will also have a category that features vertical films,” he says. “They’re designed to be seen on your phone. I’m hoping that will attract a whole new audience. That’s a whole new type of filmmaking that’s becoming popular. I think short form is here to stay. All these TikToks are essentially short documentaries. I am glad we have been a part of this short film movement for 15 years now.”

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Filmmaker Tommy Nickoloff met the late singer-songwriter Jason Molina on a soccer field at Admiral King High School in Lorain in the summer of 1988. Molina was 14. Nickoloff was 16. Molina graduated and went on to study at Oberlin College, where he remained friends with Nickoloff. Molina’s bands SONGS: OHIA and Magnolia Electric Co. would become national acts that toured the U.S. and Europe and put out several records before Molina died at age 39.

“His passing was a major impetus for getting my own mental health in order,” says Nickoloff, who’s directed a documentary about Molina, You Fuckers Figure It Out: A Jason Molina Story,in a statement. “With hard work and determination, my depression and anxiety slowly faded over the next decade. Putting a pen to paper was one of the best medicines. It seemed that I owed Jason [Molina] something for that. I owed him forever believing in me in the first place. I owed him for the expression he was ever so willing to inspire, even from the other side.”

When Nickoloff attended a family reunion in Lorain in 2021, he shared Molina’s song “Leave the City” with several cousins. They had no idea Molina was from the area, and Nickoloff set out to make his documentary. His movie includes interviews with siblings and friends as well as bandmates and artist William Schaff, who created album cover artwork for Molina.

Nickoloff has submitted to 20 film festivals across the United States and the United Kingdom, with more than 30 additional submissions planned throughout Europe and North America. Festival selections are expected to begin in February, and Nickoloff has hopes for a world premiere at the upcoming Cleveland International Film Festival.

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A terrific annual event that takes place each fall in downtown Chagrin Falls, this year’s Chagrin Documentary Film Festival will feature 74 documentaries selected from more than 500 submissions from 32 countries. The programming includes 10 world premieres and 23 U.S, Midwest, or Ohio debuts, cementing CDFF’s reputation as a premier destination for documentary discovery.

“The caliber of submissions continues to exceed our expectations year after year. Our program director, along with our selection committee has assembled an extraordinary collection that represents the very best in documentary filmmaking,” says Morgan Crawford.

CDFF opens on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at the Chagrin Falls Intermediate School Theater with the premiere of John Candy: I Like Me from Amazon MGM Studios. The evening begins with a VIP reception at 5:30 p.m.

Another highlight, local director Laura Paglin’s This Is Pike County, centers on a rural part of southern Ohio facing “generational pressures.” It screens at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at Federated Church and then again at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre.

Venues throughout walkable downtown Chagrin Falls include the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, Chagrin Falls Intermediate School Theater, Federated Church, South Franklin Circle, St. Joan of Arc and Triangle Park.

More than 50 filmmakers from across the country and the globe will attend to participate in Q&A sessions and audience discussions. The festival will award $10,000 in prizes to winning directors, providing recognition for documentary excellence.

CDFF concludes on Sunday, Oct. 12, with Amal, a short directed by Eros Zhao, featuring a special performance by  Israeli pianist Yaron Kohlberg. The closing event takes place at Federated Church.

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Marcel deJure and Matthew T., the organizers of the upcoming 20,000 Leagues Under the Industry Film Festival that takes place on Friday, Sept. 19, and Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Treelawn, first met in the late ’90s. They both used to frequent underground film festivals in Chicago and New York.

“We would always be the first guys in line at those festivals,” says deJure one afternoon from the patio of an Ohio City coffee shop. Matthew T. sits by his side as the two talk about their decades-long friendship and collaborating together. “There was limited seating and certain films were really popular and would sell out. We wanted to make sure we had seats. We were the first guys at anything.”

“We were both long hairs,” adds Matthew T. “We didn’t know why our films weren’t accepted to the festivals, but we became friends by going to the screenings.”

After a few years of going to film festivals, the two started talking and decided they could do a film festival of their own in Cleveland. They launched it in 2000 at the now-shuttered punk club Speak in Tongues. When Speak in Tongues closed, they took the festival to the Beachland and then the Museum of Contemporary Art. They even took the festival to California.

After a good run, the festival ended in 2005, but Matthew T. and deJure remained friends and kept in touch. When Matthew T., a film location manager here in Cleveland who recently worked on the new Superman movie, decided to “retire,” he contacted deJure about reviving the festival. DeJure had just gone to the Slamdance festival and was up for it.

“I just ate [Slamdance] up,” says deJure. “I had flashbacks from 20 years ago when I used to go to festivals more regularly. I saw people I knew from the ’80s punk scene. I saw the [documentary film] The Secret Lives of Bill Bartell because I was waiting for another documentary called KBLT Silver Lake 40 Watts From Nowhere to screen.”

Both films will screen at the upcoming festival, and KBLT Silver Lake director Sue Carpenter will be on hand for the screening of her film.

The festival will also feature the cult classic Heavy Metal Parking Lot as well as animation films and music videos from acts such as Shonen Knife, Black Flag and Torpedo Coffins. DeJure himself directed the new Torpedo Coffins video that features cardboard cutouts o of the band members.

Local comedians TJ Maclin and Stepanie Ginese will deliver about 10-minute sets to open each night, and there will be a a new Cinnamon Roll Gang Puppet Troupe performance.

The duo hopes that the festival will once again become an annual affair.

“We are talking like we will do it again next year,” says Matthew T. when asked if the festival will return on an annual basis once more.

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An opening night party takes place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4, at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Murch Auditorium. It features the award-winning French drama Once Upon My Mother. A dessert reception follows the screening.

“This is our largest festival to date,” says Deborah Bobrow, Manager of Arts and Culture at the Mandel JCC, in a press release. “We reviewed hundreds of films and are excited about the rich, diverse lineup. These stories challenge perspectives and bring people together through culture and dialogue.”

A slew of significant special events will accompany the screenings. Filmmaker Yael Melamede will participate in a Q&A following her film Ada: My Mother the Architect, a documentary about her mother’s groundbreaking career. Former Clevelander Simcha Shtull will be on hand to present her short film, The Windows on Rue Saint-Dominique.

Another highlight, Eid, centers on a young man from Rahat who dreams of becoming a playwright. Shadi Mari won an Israeli Academy Award for his role in the film. It screens at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 13, at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.

A limited number of weekday 1 p.m. matinee screenings are free for adults age 60 and older.

Find a complete schedule on the website.

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“It’s been really incredible,” says Hu. “I don’t think when I set out to make this movie that I could have predicted or foreseen how it would be perceived. When I started it, it was and still is, first and foremost a love letter to my mother, who passed away when I was 20. That was the reason I wrote the script. I really felt it was a story that would resonate with many people. I’m so grateful it has.”

She says that filming in Cleveland and then screening and winning at the Cleveland International Film Festival was “an amazing homecoming” and a “cherry-on-top moment.”

At the CIFF screening, she says she felt there was a certain amount of pride she felt from the audience, which embraced the movie from the beginning.

Before she even consciously realized it, Hu expressed an interest in film when she was a kid.

“I was always drawn to storytelling,” she says. “One of the things I did as a kid was write and illustrate storybooks for my classmates. This was in elementary school. Like second and third grade.”

In middle school, she began directing skits for her school’s events.

“I would write a skit and get my friends to act in them,” she says. “I was essentially directing them. I just didn’t know it. By the time high school came around, I was torn between fine art and film. I originally studied painting and drawing. After my first year of fine art, I realized that I think in terms of stories instead of single pictures. I realized that I wanted to be a filmmaker. I haven’t looked back.”

“Shadowing Marc Webb was a huge moment,” she says. “It was amazing to see Marc work. He’s an incredibly gracious and kind man. I learned so much from him and the whole experience. It was the first time I saw a production of that scale and with studio funding. The Netflix Original Series Director Program was like a deep dive course on directing television. I’m really grateful for these experiences.”

The idea for Lunchbox came to her when she scrolled through her Facebook feed and came across a video called The Lunchbox Moment. It featured stories of Asian-Americans who were bullied for their homemade lunches. Those narratives sent her down memory lane, recalling her own painful memories of being teased for bringing her favorite home-cooked meal, zongzi, to school.

“This is rare — and I don’t usually work this way — but the first draft was literally written right after I watched that video,” she says. “It was something I needed to get out. From there, I worked on revising it and polishing it. What you see now in the final film is not too different. The three-chapter structure was in the original script. The changes made over the years were more fine-tuning. Structurally, the story didn’t change.”

Hu also stars in the movie and plays Shirley, the Taiwanese-American woman who uses her late immigrant mother’s recipe book to make zongzi, turnip cake, and hand-cut noodles. As she cooks, each dish evokes a childhood memory in which she grows progressively older and more distant from her culture and her mother.

“I always say that making a film is a miracle,” she says. “There are so many moving parts and things can fall apart at any moment. We had a lot of challenges throughout that process. It took a long time to raise the funding. We wanted to shoot in 2020 but had to postpone a year because of the pandemic. I insisted on shooting in Cleveland. There were some producers I interviewed that wanted to shoot in New York, where I was based at the time. I wanted to shoot in Cleveland for the authenticity of the story and cast in Cleveland as well. A lot of the kids are cast in Cleveland. The ones that aren’t are still from the Ohio area. That was intentional. East Coast kids move and talk differently than Midwest kids. There are subtle differences. I wanted that specificity and authenticity in the film.”

“That was not intentional. They just happened to be the best fit. I’m really proud of them. They did an amazing job,” says Hu.

At the moment, Hu is working on a feature-length screenplay.

“I have a horror comedy in the works,” she says. “It’s very different from Lunchbox. It’s still in the early stages, but I feel ready to make my first feature. That’s my next focus for the career.”

Lunchbox is available on YouTube’s Omeleto and on TaiwanPlus for a limited time.
For the latest on where to watch Lunchbox and to learn more about the film, please visit linktr.ee/lunchboxthefilm. For more about Hu, please go to linktr.ee/annehufilms.

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“Cleveland Cinemas used to do show these types of films as Late Shift movies,” says Huffman via phone. “The theater gave it another try after the pandemic, but the whole industry has changed a lot, and it wasn’t quite the same response, but [the Capitol’s horror marathon] 12 Hours of Terror still does really well. And someone else at Cleveland Cinemas is working some other unique programming.”

For Huffman, WTF Wednesdays will offer a chance to see the kind of extreme films that don’t generally make it to the cineplex.

“I want to show movies that push the envelope and movies you wouldn’t necessarily want to watch sitting next to your mom” he says. “I originally thought it might be out-there horror movies or strange films. Society, which screens on May 28, was fresh in my mind because of [last year’s Oscar-nominated] The Substance. Society is classic body horror from the ’80s. It has some great practical effects. There might be some new films that I’ll pepper in there if it makes sense for it. But for now, they’ll be retro-y cult titles.”

Based on the manga by Hideo Yamamoto, Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer: The Digitally Restored Director’s Cut, which screens at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30, follows the exploits of Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a notoriously sadistic yakuza enforcer whose search for his boss’s killer leads to an encounter with an assassin known as Ichi (Nao Ohmori).

“I think the same year that Ichi came out, Miike had five or six other films that came out,” says Huffman. “He’s extremely prolific. This one is really really violent and makes you very uncomfortable. It’ll make you squirm in your seat.”

So far, Huffman has booked the series into June and hopes there is enough of an audience to continue.

“There are decent advance tickets for Ichi and I think Society will do well too,” he says. “ I always say that horror movies and comedies are the ones you need to see in the theater with an audience. It’s a communal audience you never get at home. With both Ichi and Society, which is kind of a slow burn that gets weird, you want to see them with an audience.”

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“Lost & Found in Cleveland is about building our future dreams on the treasures and memories of our pasts,” says writer-director Marisa Guterman in a statement. “It’s been our mission to have audiences around the country see this film in movie theaters, where dreams are shared. With the Fithian Group and Attend, we see the future of theatrical distribution for movies like ours.”

The Fithian Group is supported by more than 90 filmmakers including big names such as Steven Soderbergh, Damien Chazelle, Patty Jenkins and Sean Baker.

“The Fithian Group is developing technologies through Attend to feature mid-range movies that have disappeared from cinemas, international movies seeking domestic releases, and independent movies that typically receive limited theatrical release but could gain broader audiences through data-driven theater selection, scheduling and marketing,” reads the press release.

“Lost & Found in Cleveland is precisely the kind of movie that benefits from changing outdated business models around a theatrical release,” says Jackie Brenneman, a Fithian founding partner. “Attend allows for unprecedented collaboration between filmmakers, theater owners, and marketers in expanding the reach of theatrical moviemaking. [Writer-directors] Keith [Gerchak] and Marisa [Guterman] bring filmmaking passion, a legendary ensemble cast, and brand partnerships with their social media reach to combine with the local marketing power of targeted movie theater locations.”

When the film showed at the just-concluded Cleveland International Film Festival, it drew a record crowd of 2700 in attendance.

“The response tells us the audiences are there for a film like ours,” says Gerchak. “We know that with the help of movie theaters and The Fithian Group and Attend, we will find them across the country.”

Local brand and community partners include Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams, the Cleveland Guardians, KeyBank, Viking River Cruises, WorthPoint, Malley’s Chocolates, Discount Drug Mart, Destination Cleveland, and the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum.

Original Post 9/20/2024:
Directed, Written and Produced by Marisa Guterman and Keith Gerchak of Double G Films, the film Lost & Found in Cleveland, which was filmed in Northeast Ohio, serves as a love letter to our fair city.

Now, the filmmakers have just announced that the film will make its world premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Press materials describe it as a “new American fable about the post-Industrial American Dream in the Industrial Midwest — a slice-of-life depiction over a 24-hour period that follows the personal odysseys of five very different people whose lives intertwine when America’s favorite televised antiques appraisal show comes to their city.”

The cast includes Golden Globe/Emmy/BAFTA Winner Martin Sheen (West Wing, Apocalypse Now), Academy Award nominee June Squibb (Thelma, Nebraska), Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach (Nebraska, The Bourne Legacy) and Emmy nominee Jon Lovitz (SNL, A League of Their Own).

The directorial debut of Guterman and Gerchak, the movie was produced by Oscar nominees Shaun Redick and Yvette Yates Redick (Get Out, Blackkklansman, Day Shift).

A 50-piece orchestra with musicians from La La Land, Oppenheimer and John Williams’s films provides the score.

“We all have something in our attic that has value well beyond the sticker price,” says Guterman in a press release about the upcoming premiere. “Lost & Found in Cleveland is a celebration of often overlooked objects, people and dreams. Filmmaking and antiquing are both efforts in collecting and curating memories in the ultimate hope for connection, preservation and legacy. Hidden treasures come in all different forms — we think this film is one of them.”

“From the performances of our iconic ensemble cast to the cinematography and score, we think this film will catch audiences by surprise and have them laughing and crying at the same time. It’s been an incredible road to creating Lost & Found, and we’re thrilled that journey has led to our World Premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival,” says Gerchak. “We set out to tell a fable about the American Dream and came to realize our own in the process.”

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“We have added an acting competition, a fashion show and a video game fest,” says Suglio, an instructor at Case Western, CSU and Tri-C, over a few drinks at Forest City Brewery. “We have so many different types of artist and performing arts in Cleveland that have shared interests. I thought, ‘Why don’t we celebrate more than just film over the course of a week?’ Video games are different from films, but there are some similarities. Fashion is different but costuming and design have some correlation. And the acting has an obvious connection. “

Screenings will take place in the ground floor screens at the theater. Suglio says that’s intentional. He wants the festival to be accessible.

Out of 400 submissions, Suglio and panel of judges picked about 275 films to screen.

“The quality was really good this year,” says Suglio. “It’s sincerely really good, and the judges have been contacting me about the films and how good they are.”

The festival’s opening night will take feature only local movies, and the first two that’ll screen are noteworthy.

“If you want to come on Opening Night, you have to see local films,” says Suglio. “The opening film, Bully, is really cute. It’s about a 16-year-old girl who is so mean and has to do community hours at the library and sit down with the girl she’s been bullying and learn about the person she’s been bullying.”

The film that will follow Bully, Buried Treasure?, centers on friends from high school who try to relive the past and decide they want to see the one of their friend’s old drawings.

“He buried them in the backyard of his house when he was a child,” says Suglio. “In the middle of the night, they decide to dig them up. They decide to go to the backyard of this guy’s house and start digging, and the person who lives there now confronts them. It’s really funny.”

Both filmmakers will be in attendance.

Loose Change, another opening night film, tells the story of Skyler, a teen trafficking victim, who decides to break free and ends up seeking help from an unlikely source.

While there is an emphasis on local films, the festival features categories for student movies as well as horror and international. One night will feature animated films. A family films program will feature movies that are rated G or PG, and there will be a LGBTQ program.

In addition, there will be an art show in the theater’s lobby.

Suglio hopes this year’s expansion will continue and that one day the festival will grow even more.

“I hope it’ll be a week-long festival going forward, and I hope I can get to ten days at one point,” he says. “There was a survey that went out for all the film festivals in the world, and the average is ten days. It would be nice to expand again and draw more people.”

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The post Short.Sweet.Film Fest Expands Into Week-Long Event appeared first on Cleveland Scene.