Spotlight On: Columbus alive! Deep Focus Film Festival

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 22, 2006

It seems that these days every major city in America has their Film Festival. New York has Tribeca, Salt Lake has Sundance, San Fransisco has their own, and even Cleveland has a mildly popular Film Festival of its own. But did you know that there is a very awesome Festival held every year right here in the hometown of Film School Rejects? That’s right, Columbus, Ohio will host the 2nd Annual alive! Deep Focus Film Festival. The event will showcase some of the best new films made outside of the Hollywood mainstream, and will be held from May 4th thru May 7th. Today they announced their schedule of films for this year’s events, but first a little history:

Last year’s presentations included the Midwest premiere of the hilariously raunchy documentary, The Aristocrats. As well, the Oscar nominated Documentary Murderball was the closing night selection. Not bad for a first year film festival from the midwest.

This year’s list is equally as exciting. The opening night gala will feature Rian Johnson’s critically acclaimed high school detective film Brick (See the trailer here); the story of a modern day Southern California high school student whose ex-girlfriend mysteriously disappears and he sets out to shake things up and find her. The film was a winner of a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for “originality of vision”, and is probably the film that I am most looking forward to seeing at the event.

Another exciting screening that will be held during this year’s festival is the Ohio premiere of the French action drama District B13 (See the trailer here). The story of a cop and a vigilante who team up to take down a local crime lord and diffuse a neutron bomb in a crime ridden section of Paris, this film is becoming one that is being talked about all around the world of film as possibly one of the year’s best foreign flicks.

For those who enjoy film in its most pure state, this festival provides a great vacation from the Hollywood mainstream and also provides for a good reason to party! It will once again be held at the Arena Grande theater in Downtown Columbus’ Arena District, and general admission to most screenings is only $10 for adults and $8 for students. For more information on the Festival itself, feel free to visit the alive! Deep Focus Film Festival official website, or stay tuned right here at Film School Rejects where we will be bringing your complete coverage of as many of the films that Matthew Alexander and myself can see in 4 days…

Technorati Tags: Film, Film Festivals, Indie Film, Independent, Entertainment, Columbus, Ohio, Culture

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