Traverse City Film Fest 2018. A Good Summer Event for All

Summer has to be good for kids.  This is a very important time of year for them.  You would think that school is important, but think of it:  you don't want your kids just sitting inside all the time, the whole summer watching TV or watching their cell phone playing games on it, do you?  And you don't want them running with the bad boys getting into trouble.  And YOU the parent has to make it a good summer.  Even if you set them up with a good summer camp.  It is important.  Put some time into it. 

Summer activities and a good summer experience overall will give the kids strength and lasting fond memories.  

As I have posted several times I have a paradise of a summer with my kids in Michigan. We swim, bike, walk around the circle in the woods, go to the museum and even grocery shopping is fun and something nice to do.  

I had a long vacation with my kids so we weren't going places every day.  I tried to go some place "special" every third day.  But besides that it was great just to be swimming every day and being on the lake.  

But one very special event which I tried to incorporate this year with my kids was the Traverse City Film Fest (TCFF).  This was the 14th year.  It was co founded and still partially run by the documentary film maker Michael Moore, along with literally hundreds, if not a thousand volunteers.   

The TCFF is not some pie in the sky film fest like the Karlovy Vary or Cannes film fest.  Nor is it "unheard" of.  It is internationally recognized and gaining more and more in notoriety.  This year Jane Fonda was the guest of honor for instance.  Others of noted esteem have been there too. 

I have to say this year it was much more to my tastes as it had a lot of interesting documentaries that I would have really liked to have seen.  I was a little hard pressed to find a movie (I know hard core movie goers will see three movies a day, but I thought with kids, one a day is enough, and even that was not necessary) that we could all like.  

great name 

I settled with a documentary which sort of covered a musical genre which the kids could like and a comedy too.  Bathtubs over Broadway was a documentary "starring" Steve Young, former staff writer for the David Letterman show. He digs into the unknown genre of industrial Broadways made for the company staff and pretty much only seen by these staff, of big or even small corporations.  It is an amazing documentary of a genre which is totally heretofore under the radar of everything from American history, to Broadway`s and company history.  

Well, at the time it wasn't the greatest pick for my kids.  They didn't quite understand the humor or history.  HOWEVER, I think in retrospect and over their next years growing up, they will remember it fondly and as an oddity of their childhood that their father brought them to.  And they will be glad about that.  

It was funny that a couple days after we saw the film we were walking down the street still

Steve Young

during the festival and my kids saw the "star", Mr. Steve Young.  I didn't.  After they passed, they exclaimed and danced around, "it was him, it was the star of the movie.  He just passed us!"  As if it had been Jane Fonda or Madonna herself.  I thought that was a good sign.  I wish I had see Mr. Young, I would have thanked him for his fine performance and what he did, finding all this musical history.  

Besides that we saw a Saturday morning matinee  (It could have been at 10am instead of 9am though) of short films having to do with kids as the stars.  Some were mini documentaries, others were short films.  This was a great collection I have to say.  There was a kids short series three days.  Wish we could have seen more.  

That same Saturday they had a kids arts and crafts type little fair in a park on the bay.  I am not sure of any other film fest having that kind of set up during a film fest, but maybe I am wrong.  Not to mention the dusk family film shown outside on the beach park also.  

The point being that the TCFF is a good combination of small town homey festival, like the local asparagus, rhubarb, beaver or in the case of Traverse City, cherry festival, that happens in every town across the US in the summer combined with big tix serious films on the same level as the Venice or Toronto film fest.  My only gripe is they could do a bit more for kids on the film level and in an interesting way.  Not just the mainstream stuff that kids might like, but really interesting films for kids which might not be making it into the mainstream (is there such a thing?)  Or more aspects on making the films themselves at a kids level which could get kids interested in films behind the scenes more than just at a You Tube level.  

Clinch Park on the Bay

Downtown Traverse City, Michigan

Besides that, the TCFF has the beautiful location of picturesque Traverse City on the bay. It has the celebrity status along with a good enough kids section which makes this whole film festival a wonderful adventure any family would do well to go visit in the middle of summer. I think years later my kids will remember this particular event I took them too. I will. I hope we can make it there in future years.  

Michael Moore and Jane Fonda 2018