Of Ants and Film

Originally printed August 2006 - bigIDEA

By John Sitkiewicz

During summer, certain things go without saying: The weather gets warmer and high-budget, studio-produced feature films lay siege upon local movie theaters. Heat indexes withstanding, perceptions of a figurative war against independent cinema, waged via decreased venue and commercial support, has simply become a stark reality for its supporters regardless of the season.

Launching a counteroffensive against this brazen attack are the owners and partners of Hamtramck, MI's Planet Ant Theatre, a coffeehouse turned theater company. Fresh off another successful run, the Planet Ant Film & Video Festival 2006 has once again served as one of metro Detroit's answers to Sundance and Cannes.

Only four years removed from screening submission solely from the Detroit area, festivalgoers this past June were treated to a showcase of 75 independent films of every conceivable genre - more than 10 of which were international entries. Spread out over two additional venues - The Detroit Film Center and HamtramckÕs Belmont Bar, which hosted the festival's independent music video portion - more than 1,000 attendees were estimated to have participated in this year's events.

According to festival director Nate DuFort, laying the groundwork for this annual convergence upon Hamtramck by independent film aficionados has taken extensive outreach efforts and has been aided in large part by the Internet and the networking site MySpace.com. For festival organizers, the Internet exposure - along with traditional word of mouth - is particularly welcome as the festival relies on grants, donations, sponsors and submission fees to cover expenses. And with a bare-bones approach to operations that consists of an abbreviated movie theater setting of 75 seats in front of a 10' by 8' screen, the only Hollywood remnant was the awards show during the festival's conclusion.

Nabbing this year's coveted Best of the Festival award was Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, a lighthearted examination of unfettered hope along a once pristine California waterway, directed by Californian filmmakers Chris Metzer and Jeff Springer.

Future plans call for growing the festival to unprecedented heights each year. For DuFort, that means finding more submissions and ways to increase venue size and attendance. "How much we've grown the last four years is amazing," he said when recalling the festival's evolution thus far.