A total of 51 films from moviemakers around the planet will be screened at this weekend’s Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival.
Eric Dean Freese, the festival’s director, says the films were picked from among 99 entries, the most they’ve received in more than 15 years. Freese says he’s pleased by the quantity and quality of the films, and there’s one thing they all have in common.
“Every film has to have an Iowa connection,” Freese says, “and that’s either a cast member or a key crew member was born in Iowa, grew up in Iowa, worked in Iowa, went to school in Iowa, perhaps the film is about an Iowa subject, has an Iowa character, or it was filmed in Iowa.”
The selections include short films, feature-length movies, documentaries, and freestyle works across many genres, from students, hobbyists and seasoned professionals, though they’re all required to have some sort of an Iowa tie.
“You would initially think that while that just kind of limits you to local films, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth,” Freese says. “We’ve gotten films from around the world. It’s interesting to see how many people with Iowa connections, how many people that grew up in Iowa or went to school in Iowa are working in the production industry everywhere.”
Each of the films will be screened twice over the weekend, and there are two film-watching sessions planned for Friday with three sessions on Saturday.
“People can come for a single session. They can buy a ticket for individual sessions or they can buy a full event pass and come to the entire event,” Freese says. “Something new this year is on Sunday, we’re doing Student Cinema Sunday, where we’ll be showing just student films, and that’s anything from high school to college student to graduate students.”
In many cases, the filmmakers will be on hand for Q-and-A sessions after the viewings. The festival is being held Friday through Sunday at the Collins Road Theatres in Marion.