Rebecca Berfanger

“I like that there are different steps to get to the final product.”

First, that name. Bollywood. It may seem like a no-brainer mashup—Bombay and Hollywood—to those of us of, um, a certain age. But for a younger generation that knows India’s biggest city as Mumbai, the portmanteau might not be as obvious. We’re putting the “Indian” in Indianapolis. The city is a target market for Bollywood films […]

“I was willing to try anything,” says Chip Gagnier of the study. “I would have done handstands if it meant I wouldn’t need to have my legs amputated.”

A few filmmakers with movies in the Hoosier Lens and Matter of Fact categories share what inspired them to create the works.

Survival tips for the 10th Indy Film Fest, July 18-28 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and elsewhere around town.

“Drinking Buddies” director Joe Swanberg looks forward to Indy Film Fest’s opening night July 18 and answers our questions about being a filmmaker.

Hoosiers are dipping their toes into the competitive pool of moviemaking. Just recently, Noblesville native Kate Chaplin and Indy resident Amy Pauszek teamed up to produce the sci-fi film Ingenthe story of a human analog being raised by a couple.

Walking around downtown Washington, D.C., on Monday morning amidst the crowds of inauguration-goers, it was difficult to tell who hailed from where—and then there was the man in a Purdue hat who said “Boiler Up!” with a big smile in response to my companion who initiated that exchange. Yet I learned ahead of time that there would be more than a few other Hoosiers in attendance, including performers in the parade after the official swearing in of President Barack Obama:

Although World AIDS Day, marked for the 25th time overall on Dec. 1, gets just one day of recognition, a movie shown at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, co-sponsored by the Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival on Dec. 1, served as a poignant reminder as to how far the disease—and its treatment and prevention—have come since the early 1980s.

If spending the night in one of the city’s most historic buildings is on your bucket list, or if you simply want to support the Athenaeum Foundation and walk away with a story or two to tell your coworkers, you are in luck. But you need to act fast. On Oct. 20, for the first time, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., the co-owners and tour guides for UnseenPress Historic Indiana Ghost Walks and Tours will host a group of up to 50 guests as a fundraiser for the historic Athenaeum building’s foundation downtown.

Arguably the greatest orator you’ve never heard will get his due in the downtown spot where he spoke more than 130 years ago.

The movies in this year’s Indy Film Fest that have Indiana connections are as diverse as the rest of the entries in the lineup: A love story about a girl and the search for just the right chair, Crush by Rebecca Pugh (co-directed with Jen West); a thriller about a home invasion gone wrong, Home Security from Kate Chaplin; and a road trip movie about old friends, Billi & Theodore by Ronald Short. These are just three of the films in the Hoosier Lens category in the festival’s ninth year.

The Indy Film Fest runs July 19-29, and a former IM staffer and current volunteer movie screener has the goods here:

The ninth Indy Film Fest, also known as the Indianapolis International Film Festival, started on a high note with a successful opening night, July 19, and continues through July 29. The movies vary in length, genre, and origin. Films in the first weekend represented filmmakers as far-flung as the Philippines, Iran, Italy, and South Africa, not to mention a number of films from the United States, some with connections to Indiana.

On Sunday night, close to 12 miles away from the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, another spectacle played out at a more-modest racetrack across town: the First Annual United States Figure 8 Championship 90-minute World Figure 8 Enduro race at Indianapolis Speedrome (802 S. Kitley Ave.), on the edge of the eastside Irvington neighborhood.