News

Join the Cleveland Institute of Art in celebrating our artists in the film industry at this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival. Don’t miss the screenings of these remarkable movies coming to town from March 25 through April 3.

The new film Aardvark, produced by CIA associate professor Kasumi, has its Cleveland premiere on opening night. Two CIA alumni, Joe Bluhm ’03 and Lynn Hershmann Leeson ’62, debut new films that they’ve animated and directed, respectively. And award-winning Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque Director John Ewing is the subject of the documentary John Ewing: The Canton Years.

Fri 3/25 8:30pm
Aardvark
CIA associate professor of digital arts Kasumi executive produced this new independent movie that has screened in film festivals all around the world. The film will be introduced by CIA President Grafton Nunes and will conclude with a question-and-answer session featuring Kasumi, director Kitao Sakurai, and actors Larry Lewis Jr. and Darren Branch. Based and shot in Cleveland, Aardvark is a simple yet dramatic thriller starring two men who essentially reenact their lives together in order to tell a larger story about relationships and how they can reveal a man’s true nature. Read more here about Kasumi’s involvement with the film. Note: The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque will also screen Aardvark later this year.

Fri 3/25 4:45pm, Sat 3/26 11:15am, Fri 4/1 12pm, and Sat 4/2 11:10am
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
CIA alumnus Joe Bluhm ’03 was the story and concept artist as well as the character designer for this short animated film combining 2D animation, computer-generated animation, and miniature sets. Bluhm studied illustration at CIA and now works at Moonbot Studios with William Joyce (Meet the Robinsons, Rolie Polie Olie, Robots, etc.) and many other talents. The film, a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story, recently won recognition at CINEQUEST film festival in San Jose, CA, and has been screened at about a dozen other festivals around the country.

Sat 3/26 6:20pm
John Ewing: The Canton Years
Don’t miss this nine-minute film in the Ohio Shorts Program documenting award-winning Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque Director John Ewing at the beginning of his illustrious career. Ewing talks to the filmmaker Kim Ann Pfau about his years (1975–83) at the Stark County District Library running the Canton Film Society, a weekly library-sponsored film series.

Sun 3/27 7pm and Tue 3/29 4:45pm
!Women Art Revolution
Directed by CIA graduate Lynn Hershman Leeson ’62, the film is a beautifully crafted exploration of the political forces that have shaped women’s art over the past several decades. Raised in Cleveland to be a “proper lady,” Hershman Leeson realized after experiencing Berkeley in the 1960s that there was no turning back to complacency. Shooting for the film began 40 years ago and has been waiting for the right ending. The optimism on display among contemporary young women artists seems to indicate she’s found it.

Tue 3/29 8:50pm and Thu 3/31 4:10pm
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is partnering with the film festival to present this haunting, dreamlike tale of a dying man’s last internal and external voyages. The delicate Thai language and the film’s meditative cinematography underscore the grace with which its protagonists accept life and death—past, present, and future—and memory and clairvoyance as part and parcel of one floating world. (In Thai with subtitles.)