Event Recap: The Portage International Film Festival

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending The Portage International Film Festival brought to you by the fine folks over at Spook Show Entertainment and the man in charge, Willy Adkins. Festivities were held at the historic Portage Theater in Chicago on Saturday, January 12th. from 9:30 am-10:oo pm. If you’ve never seen a film at The Historic Portage Theater, then you are definitely missing out. The Portage is an example of a bygone era of movie houses that once were in abundance across the country, but sadly now are an endangered species. Originally opened in 1920, the Portage Theater is an architectural landmark and one of Chicago’s oldest movie houses. Since being purchased by new owners in 2006, the Portage Theater has been restored to its original beauty and serves as the centerpoint of the Chicago independent film community.

Throughout the day, independent feature films as well as short films were screened in blocks separated by short intermissions so patrons could stretch their legs and enjoy the great concession stand available at The Portage. Due to the inclement weather and football playoffs on television, the attendance was not as favorable as festival director Willy Adkins of Spook Show Entertainment had hoped for.

In speaking with Willy Adkins, he had this to say about the event, “My first common thought is always that I want to see a crowd. The whole idea behind this was to throw the Portage name out there and we wanted to take that name and keep building on it, bring on multiple genres worth of film and other live stage entertainment and hopefully build this festival to be a week long event, pulling films from all over the world as opposed to just local or semi-local.”

Adkins hopes his events at The Portage Theater are more than just watching a film. “To me, it’s my church of independent art. It’s open to more than just film, we put comedians on stage, we’ve had musicians on stage, it’s multi-genre sure, but it’s also multi-media. None of our events are just strictly films usually, there’s always something else happening with artists, vendors, and all sorts of stuff mixed together. If I can do more than just show a movie, that’s better than going to the local cinema and watching some new mainstream film to me. You’re paying pretty much the same price and getting a day full of entertainment, that’s above and beyond films. You’re also meeting some of the people involved with the films as well.”

Throughout the day, 20 feature films and short films were screened. The films ran the gamut in genre’s from documentary (The Summer of 81′, Soul Catcher), comedy (Common Law, What Do I Say?, Leaf Blower Massacre,

Electrical Skeletal, Visiting Hours), drama (Faster!, Sunday in the Middle of Nowhere), thriller (Wrong Number), sci-fi (House of the Degenerate Brain-Eating Mutant Fog

Insects, Ed and the Awakening), and of course horror (Down the Old Dirt Road, Special Day, Brain Death, The Cemetery, Vanity, Lost Soul, Ritual, Stormy Night).

The films were presided over by official host and actress Manya Palmer who introduced each of the feature film blocks. Also on hand was special guest and star of The Cemetery, Natalie Jean (Interview coming soon). Ms. Jean is an actress, stunt person, model, professional dancer, contortionist, performance artist, and athlete. Ms. Jean had a table set up in the lobby to sell photos and graciously talk to any of the attendees that came up. Rounding out the guests in attendance were the Spook Show Girls offering to take pics with any of the fans.

My personal favorites of the festival was The Cemetery (Review coming soon) by director Adam Ahlbrandt for feature films and Wrong Number by director Patrick Rea in the shorts category.

Here’s the rundown of The Portage International Film Festival Award Winners:

Best Actor-Juan Riedinger (Stormy Night)
Best Actress-Natalie Jean (The Cemetery)
Best Cinematography-(The Summer of 81′)
Best Director-Adam Ahlbrandt (The Cemetery)
Best Editing-(Soul Catcher)
Best Music-(Electrical Skeletal)
Best Short Film-(House of the Degenerate Brain-Eating Mutant Fog Insects)
Best Sound-(Soul Catcher)
Best Special Effects-(Electrical Skeletal)
Best Feature-(The Cemetery)

Congratulations to all the award winners and to all the films that screened during the festival. Hats off and a special thank you to festival director Willy Adkins for putting on a great show.