By Hope Madden
Already tired of blockbuster season? The Gateway Film Center has just the remedy. Their Independent Film Showcase launches this week, running May 9 to May 16. This edition of the semiannual event screens seventeen flicks you’d be hard pressed to find onscreen anywhere else.
Anchored by Brit filmmaker Ken Loach’s charming The Angels’ Share – the only film in the series to boast a full slate of showings – the program offers dramas, comedies, documentaries and thrillers, each one rotating through a handful of screenings across the week.
According to Gateway president Chris Hamel, programming a series like this takes quite a while.
“The May program contains 17 films, and I watched around 50 to decide on those,” he says. “We originally planned this as a quarterly series, but to be honest, I can’t program IFS at that speed. Too many films to consider. It’s fair to say about 100 – 150 hours of watching and planning went into this festival before the marketing team started working on it.”
Why make the effort? Gateway’s goal, according to an official press release, is to “bring a diverse, compelling selection of indie films to central Ohio while also giving patrons an opportunity to see tomorrow’s Hollywood stars and A-list directors.”
Hamel believes Gateway is an ideal fit for such a showcase. According to him, “Our audience is so diverse that IFS makes great sense here. While all of these films are very good, they have a hard time finding an audience. I believe that our central location, downtown sensibilities, technology and product mix make use a great place to see a film, and IFS is just one more opportunity for our patrons to be part of the independent film world.”
Highlights include film festival favorites such as Rebecca Thomas’s fanciful religious conundrum Electrick Children, Keith Miller’s gritty redemption drama Welcome to Pine Hill, and the dark drama Rubberneck – one of two featured films (alongside Red Flag) by prolific newcomer Alex Karpovsky.
Hamel has a couple of other favorites, though.
“I absolutely loved Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film about Levon Helm, The Silence, and Welcome to the Punch,” he says.
You’ll get the chance to see these and more beginning at 7pm Thursday with the screening of Michael Gondry’s The We and the I. From there, films rotate throughout the day until it all winds up with newcomer Marialy Rivas’s controversial Young and Wild at 11:45 pm on the 16th.
Says Hamel, “I hope audiences give these films the chance the deserve.”
The full schedule of events:
Thursday May 9
The We and the I 7:00 PM
Electrick Children 9:15 PM
Welcome to the Punch 11:15 PM
Friday May 10
Welcome to Pine Hill 12:00 PM
Rubberneck 2:00 PM
Red Flag 4:00 PM
Somebody Up There Likes Me 6:00 PM
Aint In It for My Health: 7:45 PM
A Film about Levon Helm
Welcome to the Punch 9:45 PM
Young and Wild 12:00 AM
Saturday May 11
Patang 12:00 PM
Bert Stern: Original Madman 2:15 PM
Supporting Characters 4:15 PM
The Silence 6:15 PM
The Happy House 8:45 PM
Tied 10:30 PM
Sunday May 12
Bert Stern: Original Madman 11:00 AM
You Don’t Need Feet to Dance 1:00 PM
Somebody Up There Likes Me 3:00 PM
The We and the I 4:45 PM
He’s Way More Famous than You 7:00 PM
Ain’t In It for My Health: 9:15 PM
A Film about Levon Helm
Monday May 13
The Happy House 1:00 PM
The We and the I 2:45 PM
The Silence 5:00 PM
Electrick Children 7:30 PM
Welcome to the Punch 9:45 PM
Tuesday May 14
He’s Way More Famous than You 1:00 PM
You Don’t Need Feet to Dance 3:10 PM
Patang 5:20 PM
Bert Stern: Original Madman 7:30 PM
Rubberneck 9:40 PM
Wednesday May 15
Rubberneck 1:00 PM
Red Flag 3:10 PM
Supporting Characters 5:20 PM
Welcome to Pine Hill 7:30 PM
Tied 9:40 PM
Thursday May 16
The We and the I 12:45 PM
Electrick Children 2:45 PM
The Silence 5:00 PM
Welcome to the Punch 7:30 PM
Ain’t In It for My Health: 9:45 PM
A Film about Levon Helm
Young and Wild 11:45 PM
Regular ticket prices apply. For tickets and information, visit www.gatewayfilmcenter.com
This piece ran originally on Columbus Underground.
