Editor's note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Visit WCMU's community calendar listing on the Thunder Bay International Film Festival for all the details about upcoming screenings.
Tina Sawyer: The Thunder Bay International Film Festival kicks off today in Alpena. Documentaries focus on oceans and the Great Lakes. This year's festival will also include special presentations and competitions, and WCMU’s News, David Nicholas, spoke with Thunderbay’s Stephanie Gandulla. The conversation began with her talking about this year's student film competition.
Stephanie Gandulla: We changed the name this year to student shorts because they are indeed 5 minutes or less in length and it's so rewarding to sit down in the theater and see on the big screen the skills and the, with these young filmmakers, the middle school to high school, age filmmakers can produce. What's exciting this year is we have entries from really all over the state. We've got entries from the downtown boxing gym in Detroit. We've got a group from Harbor Springs who has entered a film. We have a group from Interlochen High School that's entered a film. So, we’re just appealing to students and classrooms from further afield.
David Nicholas: One of the things that we always look at and it seems that over the years that there's been something that stands out a little bit above the rest. If you will and it's so relatable and so timely I think. The film, “All Too Clear.” It's a pair of film makers from Canada and involving the impact of the muscles and the filming and the filming technique that they used down deep in the Great Lakes. We've been hearing about the invasive muscles and what the impact that they've had on the ecosystem for years. Tell us about this film, “All Too Clear.”
SG: Yes. Well, when I first saw the trailer for “All Too Clear,” I was struck by the amazing cinematography Zack and Yvonne deploy state of the arts underwater robot equipped with amazing high definition cameras, really sensitive to light, so they can go hundreds of feet deep below the Great Lakes. They focus a lot it in Lake Huron, and really gets a wonderful insight and visuals of what's happening to this very precious ecosystem of our Great Lakes.
DN: And in terms of what they have found or as it plays into the ongoing research, where does it fall into what we understand now or are continuing to understand about that impact?
SG: I think what we'll learn and that's something that's wonderful about the Film Festival, is that we all learn something, many new things every year with all these oceans and Great Lakes documentaries, but I think what we'll learn is how much this ecosystem has changed. And then who and what and how it's really affected industries, it's affected ecosystems, it's affected, of course, shipments, even so, we're really seeing an up close like you're seeing it visually. Not just being explained to you. You get to see the best filmmaking in the Great Lakes under the Great Lakes and really get a good picture of what's happening because of these invasive zebra and claw muscles.
DN: Congratulations on having such a significant award-winning film as a showpiece for this Stephanie and congratulations as well on the 25th anniversary of the sanctuary. I’m sure we'll be talking about that more as the year continues as well and all the best once again for the festival this year. Appreciate the time.
DN: Thank you very much, David. We look forward to showing a bunch of movies again this cold bitter January.
TS: Stephanie Gandulla's with the Thunder Bay International Marine Sanctuary, now in Alpena. The 13th Annual Thunder Bay International Film Festival starts today and runs through Sunday. For more information, you can visit thunderbayfriends.org.
