arts & life

f i lm

Film Fests

Director Jason Zeldes

Local festivals bring
the world of cinema
to our backyard.

Young writer Donte Clark channels Shakespeare to help heal the ills of his community in Romeo Is Bleeding.

Suzanne Chessler | Contributing Writer

N

Chantal Akerman’s D’est

details

To learn more about these two festi-
vals and their schedules, go to
freepfilmfestival.com and aafilmfest.
org. $10 per program Freep; $7-$10
Ann Arbor. Check these websites for
information on film festivals scheduled
in upcoming months: Capital City
Film Festival (capitalcityfilmfest.com),
April 6-10 in Lansing; Lenore Marwil
Jewish Film Festival (jcc.org), May 8-19
in West Bloomfield; Cinetopia Film
Festival (cinetopiafestival.org), June
3-12 in Detroit and Ann Arbor.

36 March 17 • 2016

early four years after Jason Zeldes
began seeking funds to make
the film Romeo Is Bleeding, he
returns to his home state with a complet-
ed production to showcase.
Zeldes, who grew up in Farmington
Hills, will introduce the documentary
he directed at noon Saturday, April 2, at
the Detroit Institute of Arts as part of the
Freep Film Festival, one of a number of
area events scheduling new or historic
movies. The film will be screened again
at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 3, followed by a
discussion with the director.
Romeo Is Bleeding focuses on creative-
writing students taking risks to bring
about change in their impoverished com-
munity. The film is based on the experi-
ences of Zeldes’ cousin Molly Raynor,
who started the writing group that is
documented.
The Freep Festival, which runs March
31-April 3 at various Metro Detroit loca-
tions, will offer some 30 programs involv-
ing full-length films and short projects.
It comes soon after the Ann Arbor
Film Festival, which continues through
March 20 and features cinema highlights

from the career of Chantal Akerman, who
died last fall. Akerman’s innovative proj-
ects, which inspired other filmmakers,
included movies honoring her mother as
a Holocaust survivor.
“It’s great to bring something I’ve
worked so hard on back to my home-
town,” says Zeldes, 29 and based in
California. “This was my first time direct-
ing a feature film. I’m really proud of it,
and I’m happy to share it with the com-
munity that raised me.
“I thank everyone who donated to
Kickstarter. Those funds allowed us to
move up to [where] we could be on the
ground filming every day. That sort of
proximity and access is the reason that
Romeo feels as intimate and personal as
it does.”
Funding came in stages.
“The early filming allowed us to apply
for all sorts of grants and complete
fundraising so we could take the film
through post-production and across
the finish line,” Zeldes says. “It was a
three-year process and very trying but
an incredible experience I wouldn’t trade
for the world.”

Zeldes, who graduated from North
Farmington High School, celebrated his
bar mitzvah at Temple Israel. He studied
editing and directing at the University of
Southern California School of Cinematic
Arts in Los Angeles.
The film enthusiast’s first big project
was as editor of 20 Feet From Stardom,
and he was on the team of editors behind
Racing Extinction and Chelsea Does. A
recent assignment has placed him with
The Music of Strangers, a documentary
about cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road
Ensemble.
Romeo Is Bleeding has been screened
at nearly 30 film festivals and has won 19
awards in the past year.
“I’m very proud that we were successful
in bringing something new to the form,”
Zeldes says. “This is a social justice doc
wrapped in a multi-media art film with
poetry, a history lesson about the decline
of post-industrial inner cities and an
intimate story of an incredible artist at a
crossroad.”
Chantal Akerman, known internation-
ally for bringing new forms to the world
of cinema, has served as a visionary for