CIFF: 'Move On!' Shows the Heart of Near West Theatre

Photo courtesy of Move On!

One member was discriminated against for her race. Another was rejected by a casting director for her weight. But not here. These actors are accepted at Near West Theatre. That's the kind of place it is — one where people, whether they may be black, white, gay, straight, disabled or able-bodied, can have a turn in the spotlight.

Move On! captures the heart of the diverse community theater by chronicling the group's farewell show in its former location on the third floor of the Club Building at St. Patrick's Church. Since 1978, the theater has had incredible reach — more than 15,000 adults, teens and children have been a part of its productions. What they do is so impactful that former members, including one battling cancer, came from as far as Iowa and New York to be a part of the final show.

Artistic director Bob Navis Jr. steals the documentary with his colorful comments — This is assaultive theater! — and unconventional teaching methods — pulling out a candle that inspires members to discuss problems group-therapy style. It's soon apparent that while Navis encourages members to build a character onstage, he's really teaching them to use theater as a way to find themselves.

While much of the film mourns a place that became a home for so many budding artists, it also opens the door for another era in Near West's vibrant new $7.3 million space anchoring Gordon Square Arts District and makes the argument that  — if for heart alone — you'll want to grab a seat for their shows.

The Cleveland International Film Festival runs through March 29. To view a schedule, visit clevelandfilm.org. Near West Theatre opens its season with Shrek the Musical April 24.

CIFF: 'Just Eat It' Examines Food Waste

Grant Baldwin looks out over a dumpster of perfectly good hummus
(photo courtesy of Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story).

If you've ever avoided an imperfect-looking apple at the grocery store, filmmaker Grant Baldwin's examination of food-waste culture will make you realize that desire for aesthetic perfection is part of the problem. But it's only one dimension of a multifaceted quandary that Baldwin's quick-moving and insightful 74-minute film Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story does an excellent job explaining for those of us with last week's leftovers still hanging out in the back of the refrigerator. 

The Canadian filmmaker's documentary is built on a simple premise: Baldwin and his wife eat nothing but discarded food for a full six months. They start with a box of leftovers supplied by Baldwin's brother as he's cleaning out his home prior to a move, but it's not long before the couple are dumpster-diving for their daily menu. What they find extends far beyond the expected questionable-looking bags of lettuce and reveals a much deeper and disturbing side to the amount of perfectly fine food that is tossed away due to either store policy, appearance or mere convenience. In some cases — such as the discovery of a "small swimming pool"-sized dumpster full of hummus that still has more than three weeks of shelf life left — Baldwin can't decipher the reason for the waste. 

But the film goes beyond the food experiment at its core, talking to farmers, food processors and the like about the waste that is inherent in our food production. It starts in the field and wasteful practices continue up the chain to our homes, where an estimated 25 percent of the food we buy from the grocery store ends up in the trash.

Just Eat It is an eye-opening examination of our attitudes toward food. By the end, you'll never look at that bumpy grocery store apple the same way again. 

Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story screens at 12:20 p.m. March 26. The Cleveland International Film Festival runs through March 29 at Tower City Cinemas. For a full film schedule, visit clevelandfilm.org. 

CIFF: 'Bread and Butter' Awkwardly Approaches Dating

Photo courtesy of Bread and Butter

"I have a couch," virginal Amelia points out to her date Daniel as he plops down on her single bed. Instead of moving, the gecko-owning, life coach-going Daniel stays put like he's completely frozen. Amelia uncomfortably slides in next to him, stacking pillows to make a barrier between them. This painfully awkward exchange is relatable enough to make audiences chuckle at indie rom-com Bread and Butter.

Thirty-something Amelia (Christine Weatherup) has never dated but suddenly finds herself balancing two guys — Daniel (played by Saturday Night Live's Bobby Moynihan) and the poetic, jobless Leonard (Micah Hauptman). Each character is plagued with eccentricities, from Daniel's odd tendency to pause at least three seconds before responding in any conversation to Leonard's habit of making video wills for friends and families.

The film is endearing in its quirkiness. Despite the fact that Amelia is in her 30s, it makes us feel nostalgic for clumsy first kisses, bumbling dances and nervous hand-holding. It is evident, however, that this is director Liz Manashil's first film as the story's momentum slows two-thirds of the way through. Despite an underwhelming third act, it's good for lighthearted laughs and makes us — hopefully the majority — thankful that we are past those incredibly uncomfortable dating firsts.

The Cleveland International Film Festival runs through March 29 at Tower City Cinemas. To view a full schedule, visit clevelandfilm.org. 

CIFF: 'Traficant' Offers a Portrait of an Unforgettable Character

James Traficant gets his due in director Eric Murphy's insightful and entertaining documentary (photo courtesy of Traficant: The Congressman of Crimetown).

Those who are not from Mahoning County, Ohio, may not fully understand how James Traficant became a fixture in the U.S. House of Representatives for 17 years. Eric Murphy's documentary Traficant: The Congressman of Crimetown gleefully examines the phenomenon that was the Youngstown area's charismatic, entertaining and embattled sheriff-turned-congressman.

Known for sporting bell-bottom pants and a long-on-the-sides, who-knows-what's-going-on-up-top hairstyle, Traficant rose to prominence in the Mahoning Valley first as a maverick high school quarterback and then as a candidate for sheriff. The son of a truck driver could easily identify with the region's blue-collar population and embodied a swagger that got their attention. 

Taking on the area's established Democratic machine, he won the job of sheriff but ran up against the Cleveland- and Pittsburgh-area mob families, which both had their hands in the industrial city located between them. That's just the opening salvo in this film, which makes wonderful use of historic footage of the charismatic and blustery Traficant to show off his larger-than-life persona. 

It's easy to see why voters were so drawn to Traficant. Even when he's spinning what seems the tallest of tall tales to get himself out of a jam, you want him to prevail. Even when he's making bad jokes on the floor of the House of Representatives, you snicker. Along the way, you find out that was a large part of his allure ... and his downfall. 

Traficant: The Congressman of Crimetown screens again at 11:55 a.m. on March 23. For more information and a full Cleveland International Film Festival schedule, visit clevelandfilm.org.

CIFF: '1971' Offers Inside Look at Historic Heist

1971 uses filmed re-enactments to help tell the tale (photo courtesy of 1971).

Living in a time when a government contractor can steal 1.7 million documents from a computer and fly to Hong Kong with them, what happened in Media, Pennsylvania, on March 8, 1971, shows just how different our world has become in the past 44 years. 

As Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier squared off for the "Fight of the Century" on that night in 1971, a crew of eight people broke into a small, suburban Philadelphia FBI office and made off with every document stored there. The file-folder-in-suitcase heist seems startlingly analog in these days of digital data. Even more surprising is how what started as an act of government disruption ended up revealing evidence of the FBI's far-reaching practices of spying on and intimidating U.S. citizens. 

Those who broke into the building that night were never caught and their identities remained a mystery for more than four decades. Johanna Hamilton's film 1971, a documentary that includes re-enactments and news footage from the time, tells the story with efficiency and style. It is fascinating not only because of how unbelievable this corner of U.S. history seems today, but because — for the first time — those responsible for the break-in step out from the shadows to tell what happened in their own words. 

The film works as both a dissection of a heist and a portrait of the people behind it. When you find out who they are and the reasons why they risked so much, the story becomes all the more engaging. 

1971 screens again at 12:20 p.m. on March 20 at Tower City Cinemas and at 2:15 p.m. on March 21 at the Akron Art Museum. For more information and a full Cleveland International Film Festival schedule, visit clevelandfilm.org.

Get a Sneak Peek of Three Short Films Chosen for CIFF

A worldly young man, two mismatched would-be thieves and a pair of curious little sisters star in three shorts selected by Get Shorty attendees to screen at the Cleveland International Film Festival March 18-29.

Film fanatics packed the Capitol Theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District for the Film Feast last night to spend an evening as a CIFF programmer watching 10 shorts and ranking each. The winning  23-minute short, The Hyperglot, is a charming tale that follows a young man who has a unique verbal talent but struggles to communicate with the ladies. 

In second place, the 9-minute Sequestered zooms in on two would-be robbers who wear opposing presidential masks and debate policy matters and cross-the-isle issues. Stars Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas' funny on-screen chemistry will be familiar to fans of ABC's Castle — where they play partners enforcing the law instead of trying to break it.

The third pick is the French 6-minute Dad in Mum, about young sisters who hilariously try to figure out what that thumping noise coming from mommy and daddy's bedroom is. 

Some other standouts that I personally enjoyed were Yearbook, a poignant animated flick about an oh-so-average man charged with chronicling the history of humans, and the quirky French People of Mylonesse, Mourn Thy Queen Naphus about a bumbling actor who just wants to see his bit part through. 

So how do the CIFF staff program the mammoth cinematic fest? Each of the 2,065 feature films and 1,600-plus shorts submitted are rated by at least three viewers. To get an idea of how many make it into the Oscar-nominating festival, 10.9 percent of submitted features were programmed last year as well as 11.6 percent of the shorts.

If you want to feed your appetite for films once more before opening night in March, get in on the Oscar conversation at the final Film Feast Feb. 19 at the Bop Stop with Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor and Cleveland Cinemas marketing director Dave Huffman. 

Action: Direct a Short Film to Win Tickets to CIFF's Get Shorty

Shorts often get overlooked at the Cleveland International Film Festival. There’s always a hot Sundance flick to see or a film with a cameo from a favorite cult star or an ultra-quirky indie that’s too intriguing to pass up.

But thanks to the Get Shorty Film Feast at 7 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Capitol Theatre, film buffs feed their appetite for shorts. Guests watch shorts exclusively all night and vote on which ones they’d like to see at CIFF. The top scorers join the more than 350 films screened at CIFF March 18-29 at Tower City Cinemas and off-site venues including Playhouse Square, Cedar Lee Theatre and new location, the Cleveland Art Museum. Get Shorty attendees can satisfy actual hunger with food and beverages from Culinary Occasions. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased at clevelandfilm.org. 

But aspiring short filmmakers can win tickets from Cleveland Magazine by making a 15-second short film on Instagram. We’ll send the best filmmaker and a guest to Get Shorty. Need some reel creative inspiration? Watch our short. 

Submit your film via Instagram tagging @Clevelandmagazine and @CLEFilmFest. Or Tweet us the link @ClevelandMag and @CIFF. Use the hashtag #clesupershort. We’re accepting films until Jan. 23 at noon. Winners will be notified that day. Action!

CIFF: "Oliver, Stoned" is Baked with Laughs

Oliver, Stoned has some high expectations to live up to in the stoner comedy genre. But it fits right in with Half Baked and Pineapple Express, both of which are sidesplitting classics in the subversive category centered around glorifying marijuana.

Oliver is a 26 year old living in his father's garage. A bit of a loser who can't seem to keep from screwing up in life — it might have something to do with smoking a bunch of pot —his shenanigans take a serious turn when a classic car he was driving for a customer to his father's car wash gets stolen. He steals an ice cream truck, believing the truck's driver had stolen the classic car and goes on a weed-empowered adventure to find the car. He gets some help along the way from Megan, who he met after destroying her scooter with the ice cream truck, and his paranoid pot-dealing friend.

The movie is full of laughs, including a hilarious dance montage in front of the ice cream truck and a generally crazy cast of characters who need to be seen to be believed, such as Oliver's dad, who thinks he is a rad 20-something bro dating someone half his age, or a sexually depraved blind clown. And a young kid riding around on his bicycle periodically shows up between scenes to move the film's plot along. Keep an eye out for pop-culture references throughout to movies such as Memento or the Veronica Mars television show.

The 38th annual Cleveland International Film Festival runs through March 30. To browse the schedule, visit clevelandfilm.org.