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Chattanooga Film Festival returns with special guest Elijah Wood

Chattanooga’s support for film has come a long way in the five years since Chris Dortch II’s only option for screening indie and genre works was on a white sheet hung on any bare wall that would have him.






In 2011, Dortch’s pop-up art-house theater Mise En Scenesters began hosting its annual Frightening Ass Film Festival every Halloween focusing largely on horror and genre films. Last spring, the group added a full-blown, four-day festival that attracted about 4,000 cinephiles, who watched 51 short and feature films across a range of genres at two downtown theaters.
“When it actually happened and that many people came out, it felt simultaneously shocking and like ‘This makes sense; of course this would happen,’” Dortch says. “People love movies. This town deserves this.



“As much as I love music and literature and everything else, the medium of the motion picture is a very artistically important one. I think every city in America should have a film festival.”
Tonight through Sunday, April 2-5, the Chattanooga Film Festival returns to Chattanooga, and pretty much everything is bigger. Thanks to a partnership with the Carmike Majestic Theater, the festival is spread to a third screen with seating for 214. That additional venue and screen has helped to more than double the festival’s offerings to 125 to 130 films.
At the festival’s conclusion, organizers will present three awards: juried Best Film and Best Short selections and an Audience Award to be determined by votes cast on ballots handed out after each screening.


Counting all the ancillary workshops, parties and discussion panels, the schedule includes well over 100 events, Dortch says.
The offerings run the gamut, between indie projects produced on a frayed shoestring to major productions. Two of the entrants — “Call Me Lucky” and “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” — will be introduced by celebrity presenters Elijah Wood and Bobcat Goldthwait, respectively.
Dozens of short films will be presented, some paired to features and others in 80-minute themed blocs such as a celebration of local filmmakers and animated/experimental works.

All Photography by Samuel E Burns

“I love movies of all types,” Dortch says. “I really wanted to have a canvas where I could paint in broader strokes and bring in movies of every type for everybody.
“That’s what CFF is. It’s about the whole spectrum of movies and what makes them great.”

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