Atlanta Film Festival Begins

By Martha Dalton

Atlanta – The 35th Atlanta Film Festival begins Thursday. The ten-day celebration of cinema will feature a variety of films, including documentaries, narratives, and shorts. WABE's Martha Dalton has more.

More than 125 films will be shown at this year's festival - chosen from more than 1500 submissions. Festival director Carol Ann Lafferty says when selecting films, the festival's staff looks for different trends:
"Whether it's in technology, how something is displayed whether it's just a really refreshing take on a topic we've all heard before, but a new way of presenting it."
Lafferty says in addition to independent films, the festival will also feature seminars for those who want to break in to the industry:
"Everyone from the burgeoning filmmaker, the established person in the film industry, and even those people at home that just want to see how can they get involved? How do they make their home a location? How do you get your child in movies or commercials?"
She says the festival promises to have something for everyone. "Breaking and Entering" is a documentary that will debut at the festival. It follows three people who spend their time trying to break world records. Benjamin Fingerhut is the film's director:
"There's a guy who juggles while running marathons, called a joggler.' There's a guy who's on a stationary bike for a really long time; he goes for the longest time on the stationary bike. And then there's a guy who catches grapes in his mouth."
The festival will also feature 12 "gala presentations," including a film called "The First Grader." It's based on the true story of an 84-year-old Kenyan man who decides to go back to school to learn how to read -in a class full of six-year-olds. Director Justin Chadwick says he was inspired to make the film after meeting the central character in person:
"It's a film to be enjoyed by audiences sitting together in the cinema watching a story that will be surprising, funny, moving and shows the power of education and the power of determination that this man truly never gave up."
The films will be shown at three venues this year: The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, the historic Plaza theater, and the Lefont Sandy Springs. Prices for most general screenings and seminars are 10 dollars - about the same as a movie ticket.