Steubenville Film Festival organizers feel city a great place for the event
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STEUBENVILLE -- Kate Stapleton is sure that Steubenville is a great place to hold a film festival.
“I think Steubenville has every element to make it a massively successful film festival,” she said. “There are certain commonalities in film festivals that we have been to. Steubenville has the geography-- it’s a river town, and it’s got this condensed downtown. It’s got great architecture. It’s got a lot of up-and-coming artistic talent. There’s a lot of energy in the downtown right now -- and it’s also small, which is great for a film festival.”
Stapleton is a co-founder and the director of the inaugural festival, which will be held Nov. 6-7. She was talking inside the Sycamore Youth Center, which will be the host site, while taking a break from putting the finishing touches on the event.
There will be 58 films shown and other events, including discussions and workshops, held at the center during the two days. There will be films of all types, including documentary features and shorts, narrative shorts, animated films and a local block. Entries have come from many parts of the world. The list was developed from 260 submissions that came from 40 countries. Program director Ellen Marini invested a lot of time into crafting the final list from those entries
Countries represented, in addition to the United States, include the United Kingdom, France, Spain, China, Ireland, Afghanistan, Poland, Canada, Belgium and Brazil.
The film from Brazil, “Who Trains My Hands to War,” will be making its North American premiere in Steubenville. Stapleton said the filmmakers have expressed an interest in traveling to the city for the showing and festival.
Filmmakers from around the Tri-State Area will have their work featured as well, with entries from Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Pa., Waynesburg, Pa., and Steubenville.
The lineup will include “The Good Neighbor,” a short documentary that was directed by Stapleton. It tells the story of Doc Menn, a cowboy doctor in Southwestern Wisconsin who has spent his life making house calls on horseback to that region’s Amish community -- and looks at what happens to the community’s medical care when he dies.
It has been featured in film festivals across the country as well as in Dublin.
The Pittsburgh-based Stapleton said she and her husband, Casey, also a filmmaker, have found themselves on the festival circuit for the last 18 months or so. That experience led Bobbyjon Bauman, the executive director at the center who met the couple at a graduation party, to ask if they might be interested in being involved with something closer to home.
“We’ve had the chance to see a lot of film festivals,” Stapleton explained. “We attended a lot of them, and we saw some really incredible, powerful film festivals. When Bobbyjon approached me about starting a film festival here, he said, ‘You know, you guys have been out there at these festivals -- what if you brought a film festival here?’ I immediately realized that Steubenville was a perfect fit for the film festival.”
Film festivals are held in communities big and small in all parts of the world. It might be easy to assume that bigger cities are better locations for filmmakers to show off and discuss their work.
Stapleton said that’s not the case.
“Small towns make big festivals,” she explained. “If you look at even the most famous festivals, a lot of them happen in small towns. When I took our film to Dublin, it was like, no one cares. When you show up in a big city, there’s so much going on, and nobody’s excited to welcome you. But when we have gone to small towns that host festivals, when you show up you get to meet the mayor and people are so excited to see you in their town.
“As a filmmaker, it’s really warm and welcoming to have people be excited about you showing up. I think it’s the same thing for small towns, where you don’t have a million things to choose from. It’s really exciting when Hollywood comes to town, or even if it’s not Hollywood. I think what’s great about independent films is that, you know, Hollywood is kind of stale, like they’re making the same 15 movies over and over again,” she added.
When they aren’t making films, Kate and Casey, a graduate of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, perform as the Stapletons. She plays the harp and he plays the guitar. The couple has six children. Kate said their first film was the music documentary and adoption story “The Inner Sea.” The multiple-award winning film explored a topic not generally covered in film -- the perspective of birth mothers in the adoption journey.
It was shown at the Sycamore Center in March as part of the run-up to the festival.
Community interest has been very good, Stapleton said, adding many area residents -- or former residents -- have contacted her about volunteering at the festival. Students from the university’s film club plan to volunteer, she added. In future years, Stapleton said the festival is hoping to be able to work with local high schools to give those students a chance to learn from professionals.
Attending the festival is affordable -- the charge is $8 for each two-hour block of programming, which will include films and question-and-answer sessions with directors. A weekend pass is available for $50, and admission to the block of animated films will be just $2 per child. A free coffee-and-conversation event will be held at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 7 at Leonardo’s Coffeehouse and Renaissance Coffee Roasting Co. on Fourth Street.
“I think people are really excited about the festival,” Stapleton said. “The downtown merchants are excited to welcome people here. There’s a great bookstore. There’s a great coffee shop. The town has great elements, and when you come to this town, you really want to experience the feel of it.
“Geographically, it’s just beautiful. In downtown, the views are great. It’s such a classic American town. It’s got the steel history, it has the bridges. You really feel like you are somewhere that has the weight of history,” she added.
Next year, she said, the festival will be looking to expand to multiple locations. The Grand Theater for the Performing Arts; the theater inside the former Masonic Temple on Fourth Street that is being renovated by students from the College of St. Joseph the Worker; and the Oyo Brewing Co., which expects to be open in August, all are places that are excited about the prospect of being able to be a part of the festival.
“There’s an explosion of creativity and accessibility in independent film right now,” Stapleton added. “This is the chance to showcase that. I think Steubenville has everything that it takes to make a dynamic and exciting film festival, and that’s what we are planning to bring here Nov. 6-7.”