The 12th Annual Traverse City Film Festival gets underway next Tuesday.
This year, the 32 officially selected films are all directed by women. Meg Weichman is the Creative Director for the film festival. She says it was founder Michael Moore who had the idea making all the official selections, films that were directed by women.
"We did try to look for more films by female filmmakers this year, and we were shooting for maybe just having fifty percent," explains Weichman. She says what they found was staggering. "Michael loved so many great movies by women, he wanted to make all of our official selections in competition just directed by women."
Weichman says she's excited about a lot of guests that are the subject of documentaries. For exmple, Tony Robbins will be in Traverse City to promote his documentary, Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru. It's rumored that he will even be giving a motivational speech. "Leave your cynicism at the door," Weichman says. "I guess it's pretty eye-opening."
Continuing the emphasis on female filmmakers, the Open Space showings are films that are either written or directed by women. They include Pitch Perfect, Wayne's World, Adam's Rib, and Frozen.
"There's really nothing better than sitting under the stars, watching one of your favorite movies," Weichman says.
