2024 FESTIVALApr 10-20, 2024Lansing, MI
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Thursday, April 9

Red Carpet Premiere Party (FREE)

Join the fifth annual Capital City Film Festival at its FREE kick-off party in downtown Lansing! Enjoy drink specials, delicious appetizers and live music at the newest bar in town,…

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Owen w/ Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) & American Opera

Owen's debut was a stark departure from previous Mike Kinsella projects. There no longer existed a need to play odd time signatures just for the sake of being different or writing parts that were technically challenging purely for the sake of being technically challenging. What remained was an artist finding his way through his home studio for the first time while recording all instrumentation on his own.

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Slow West

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* Set in 19th century Colorado but undeniably European in sensibility, SLOW WEST tells the story of sixteen-year-old Jay Cavendish as he travels from Scotland to Colorado in pursuit of his lost love. Quickly confronted by the dangers of the American frontier, he teams up with a mysterious traveler named Silas, who agrees to protect him - for a price. Jay’s quest will be one of double-crossing, violence and peril as the guileless adolescent learns that the West takes no pity, least of all on the innocent.

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Thursday Night Shorts

A curated compilation of short films. Selections include Cycle, I M Possible, Q.U.E.E.N., Muck, Femto-Management: A Micromentary, Little Darling - The Secret City, Food, and Where's Barry?

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Friday, April 10

Welcome to Unity

*DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE* Welcome to Unity is a light-hearted, comedy driven documentary that embarks on a journey of friendship, learning, understanding, and tolerance. As a group of people become a global family, they beat the odds in transcending cultural boundaries and moving past stereotypes. Welcome to Unity illuminates the integrity of the human spirit, proving that no matter how at odds the world may seem, there is always hope in finding “unity.”

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Wildlike

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* Mackenzie, a troubled but daring teenage girl, is sent to live with her uncle in Juneau, Alaska. She longs for her struggling, absent mother, but as her mom’s phone calls become less frequent and her uncle’s care is not what it seems, she must flee. Her only thoughts are to escape her uncle’s grasp and contact her mother somehow, but as she plunges deeper into the Alaskan interior she is suddenly helplessly alone.

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Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* In this darkly comedic odyssey, Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi stars as Kumiko, a frustrated Office Lady whose imagination transcends the confines of her mundane life. Kumiko becomes obsessed with a mysterious, battered VHS tape of a popular film she’s mistaken for a documentary, fixating on a scene where a suitcase of stolen cash is buried in the desolate, frozen landscape of North Dakota. Believing this treasure to be real, she leaves behind Tokyo and her beloved rabbit Bunzo to recover it – and finds herself on a dangerous adventure unlike anything she’s seen in the movies.

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Friday Night Shorts

A curated compilation of short films. Selections include The Stomach, Wedding Dress, Tobacco Burn, Save, Witnesses, and Moths

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River City Extension w/ Cold Fronts & Ellis

We are a band from New Jersey and though this bio desperately needs a publicist, here it goes: We started in 2007. A lot of people came and left. Here we are with our third full-length record. It is called Deliverance. If you want to know what we sound like come hear us live. We tour a lot.

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Jeremy Ellis w/ John Beltran & DJ Ruckus

*FREE SHOW!* Jeremy Ellis blows minds with insane live show videos, soulful productions, and even some lessons in live electronic music performance.

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Hard to Get

*U.S. PREMIERE* When SKIETS, an enigmatic, beautiful stranger walks into small rural township tavern and demands a beer, TK, a charming local lothario sets out to seduce her in order to prove his prowess to the locals.

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An Honest Liar

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* Renowned magician James 'The Amazing' Randi has been wowing audiences with his jaw-dropping illusions, escapes and sleight of hand for over 50 years. When he began seeing his cherished art form co-opted by all manner of con artists, he made it his mission to expose the simple tricks charlatans have borrowed from magicians to swindle the masses. This entertaining film chronicles Randi's best debunkings of faith healers, fortune tellers and psychics.

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Saturday, April 11

Science of Cinema at Impression 5 Science Center (FREE)

*FREE* The fifth annual Capital City Film Festival is partnering with Impression 5 Science Center to present a FREE family-friendly event! Dress up like your favorite movie character and join us as we explore the art and science of cinema. Ideal for family teamwork and independent explorers alike, activities are inspired by films featured in CCFF’s pop-up theater that will play throughout the day for all I5 visitors.

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Saturday Morning Shorts

A curated compilation of short films. Selections include The Way You Die, Bar, Sanctuary of Collell, Auguste & Louise, At the Door, Bahar Im Wunderland, Roadtrip, Border Batrol

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Animals

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* ANIMALS tells the story of Jude and Bobbie: a young couple that exist somewhere between homelessness and the fantasy of their imaginations. Though they masterfully con and steal in an attempt to stay one step ahead of their addiction, they are ultimately forced to face the reality of their situation when one of them gets hospitalized.

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Food Chains

*PANEL DISCUSSION* There is a revolution in America’s fields and it’s happening in Florida, once described by the Department of Justice as “ground-zero for modern day slavery [in agriculture] in the United States.” But in the past four years, this breeding ground for the most horrific abuses imaginable has been totally transformed.

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Big Significant Things

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* A week before they move across the country together, Craig lies to his girlfriend in order to go on his first road trip -- to the south. Alone.

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Second Shift: from Crisis to Collaboration

*FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE* When GM prepared to pull out of Lansing, a team of government, business, labor, education and other community leaders convinced them to invest over a billion dollars instead. This documentary tells the story of successful regional collaboration to create the “second shift” for a community in crisis.

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Cody High: A Life Remodeled

*DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE* "Cody High: A Life Remodeled Project” focuses on the efforts of the impoverished Cody Rouge community in Detroit to pull together to provide safe pathways for children by removing blight and abandoned homes.

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American Film Institute Shorts Showcase (FREE)

*DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE* The American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) is a hands-on film training program. All of the short films in this block are directed by DWW alumnae.

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The Legal Immigrants w/ Jesse Ray and the Carolina Catfish, Off the Ledge & Second to None

Four piece band rooted in Grand Rapids, MI playing gangster rock music. What’s that? It’s honest rock n’ roll delivered with a hastily cadence. Far from ‘white boy blues’ and even further from ‘modern rock’

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Symphonic Cinema (FREE)

*FREE* ONE NIGHT ONLY, the full Lansing Symphony Orchestra performs at the fifth annual Capital City Film Festival! The horror. The tragedy. The comedy. The spectacle. Join us for a symphonic and cinematic experience that’s anything but ordinary.

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Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers

Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers will make a sprightly young groove doctor out of anyone. With spectacular energy pulsating from every member of the band, the Rainbow Seekers could illuminate the very chambers of Heaven.

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Unexpected

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* An inner-city high school teacher discovers she is pregnant at the same time as one of her most promising students and the two develop an unlikely friendship while struggling to navigate their unexpected pregnancies.

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Ratter

*CINEMATOGRAPHER IN ATTENDANCE, MICHIGAN PREMIERE* “Ratter” is a chilling cautionary tale that illustrates how delicate a balance our love-affair with connectivity is and how, in the wrong hands, access to our digital world can have terrible and profound consequences.

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Sunday, April 12

Fortnight Film & Game Contest :: Screening & Awards

Tickets for the Fortnight Film & Game Contest :: Screening & Awards are available here. “Fortnight” derives from the Old English fēowertyne niht, meaning fourteen nights. CCFF is proud to…

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Sunday Afternoon Shorts

A curated compilation of short films. Selections include No ID, Johnny's Speakeasy, The Listing Agent, Catcher, Love Positive, Simorgh, Requiem for a Robot, Lothar

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An Honest Liar (Encore Presentation)

Renowned magician James 'The Amazing' Randi has been wowing audiences with his jaw-dropping illusions, escapes and sleight of hand for over 50 years. When he began seeing his cherished art form co-opted by all manner of con artists, he made it his mission to expose the simple tricks charlatans have borrowed from magicians to swindle the masses. This entertaining film chronicles Randi's best debunkings of faith healers, fortune tellers and psychics.

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The Hunting Ground

From the makers of "The Invisible War" comes a startling expose of rape crimes on U.S. college campuses, their institutional cover-ups and the devastating toll they take on students and their families. Weaving together verite footage and first person testimonies, the film follows the lives of several undergraduate assault survivors as they attempt to pursue - despite incredible push back, harassment and traumatic aftermath - both their education and justice.

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Listening

*DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE, MICHIGAN PREMIERE* David and Ryan are trying to harness the power of the human mind... and failing. They’re both broke and struggle to support their families, but spend all of their time in a garage-lab full of stolen equipment, hoping that inventing telepathy will solve all their problems. After they meet Jordan, a smart and seductive new classmate, they make a breakthrough that changes everything.

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Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (Encore Presentation)

In this darkly comedic odyssey, Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi stars as Kumiko, a frustrated Office Lady whose imagination transcends the confines of her mundane life. Kumiko becomes obsessed with a mysterious, battered VHS tape of a popular film she’s mistaken for a documentary, fixating on a scene where a suitcase of stolen cash is buried in the desolate, frozen landscape of North Dakota. Believing this treasure to be real, she leaves behind Tokyo and her beloved rabbit Bunzo to recover it – and finds herself on a dangerous adventure unlike anything she’s seen in the movies.

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Crescendo! The Power of Music

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* Since its inception in 1976, El Sistema, Venezuela’s phenomenal youth orchestra program, has brought social transformation to several million disadvantaged children in that country. In addition to producing world class musicians like conductor Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema is now a rapidly expanding global movement, changing countless young lives worldwide.

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mewithoutYou w/ Small Parks and Jahshua Smith & the Race Card

Whimsically morbid as an Edward Gorey alphabet, simultaneously self-abnegating and -aggrandizing, defying simplistic musical or intellectual categorization, mewithoutYou’s new collection of songs is the fabulously vivid outgrowth of an ongoing religious and irreverent eclecticism.

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Results

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* Recently divorced, newly rich, and utterly miserable, Danny would seem to be the perfect test subject for a definitive look at the relationship between money and happiness. Danny's well-funded ennui is interrupted by a momentous trip to the local gym, where he meets self-styled guru/owner Trevor and irresistibly acerbic trainer Kat. Soon, their three lives are inextricably knotted, both professionally and personally.

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