Midwest Movie Maker

The heroine (maybe?) from 'Sweetest Day'  > > > A new film festival in Akron, Ohio, kicks off the spooky season on Sept. 16, but The Akron Independent Horror Short Film Festival is less about grisly visual effects and jump scares. It’s about community, says festival director Neil Sudhakaran.“It’s community building,” Sudhakaran explains. “It’s about giving artists a stage and an audience to showcase their work.” As if to underscore the festival’s commitment to community, films will unspool at The Akron Civic Theatre , which has a rich tradition of funding and producing local programming led by local artists. “We want to give these filmmakers the most eyeballs and exposure to their work as we can - and horror brings in eyeballs,” Sudhakaran says. We sat down via email with Sudhakarn recently to learn more about the new film fest. Q&A with Neil Sudhakaran, director of The Akron Independent Horror Short Film Festival Midwest Movie Maker: How important was it to show...

The mission of 6 with Heels Productions. In a 1982 Frank and Ernest comic strip a female friend of the two main characters makes a poignant observation about Fred Astaire: “Sure, he was great,” she says, “but don’t forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards and in high heels.” The observation caught national attention with Texas Governor Ann Richards used it in a convention speech. Others, like Ohio-native filmmakers Sarah Chaney and Heather Olt, would use it as inspiration. The spirit of that phrase is the foundation for their production company, 6 With Heels , and its mission. “It’s an homage to the notion that women have often been underestimated and have, throughout history, had to work harder to prove themselves, especially in the entertainment world,” explains Sarah. “Our mission is designed to help level the playing field so that women don't have to do everything ‘backward and in heels’ to achieve the same result or level of success,” says Heather. ...

Spider-Man 3 shooting in Cleveland Hi, hello, and welcome to Midwest Movie Maker, your premiere source for informative and entertaining news and views about filmmaking and filmmakers in and from the Midwest. As you can see, we’re still hanging lights and moving props. You might even call this Midwest Movie Maker: Take Two. (It’s a long story – so let’s just say this: We won.) So what’s our deal? And why is there a picture of Spider-Man in our profile? (The same one that adorns this blog post?) Originally, it was because our first stab at MMM launched on the same day Spider-Man 3 premiered in theaters in 2007. And that’s not a promo pic, by the way. That’s a snapshot I took on my way to work in April 2006. That’s when a second unit crew from Spider-Man 3 spent the better part of a week and a half in Cleveland, shooting one of the summer blockbuster’s larger action set pieces. The crew took up nearly 10 city blocks along Euclid Avenue. They sped, crashed, flipped and demolished all m...