The first Fort Myers Film Festival, which was founded by a Cape Coral resident, will provide the community with an opportunity to view an number of films by two dozen local filmmakers this weekend.
Eric Raddatz, filmmaker, director and film festival founder and creator who began the Naples International Film Festival in November 2009, decided to introduce Lee County residents to the Fort Myers Film Festival because “we sometimes ignore the smaller independent filmmakers” and focus on the “Blockbuster” films.
Raddatz said the film festival will provide Southwest Florida with the opportunity to explore some unchartered intellectual grounds. The two dozen filmmakers will showcase their features, documentaries, shorts, short shorts, strictly local, faith and spiritual and diversity Latin films.
“We are all about supporting local filmmakers,” he said.
The festival will kick off with a “Short Showcase” of four 20-minute short films at 1 p.m., Friday, March 25, at the Alliance of the Arts. Presentations of other films will continue until 6 p.m., Friday, and from 1-6 p.m. on Saturday.
“You can’t see these films anywhere,” Raddatz said. “Everything is really fresh and raw.”
Tickets, which can be purchased at the door, are $5 per session or $10 for the day.
Raddatz said a film festival always enriches the community because it makes people “more tolerant and more appreciative of those surrounding us and aware of where other people are coming from and their point of view.”
“These local filmmakers have the potential of a global impact,” he said.
For information, visit www.artinlee.org, www.fortmyersfilmfestival.com or call Alliance for the Arts at (239) 939-2787.