Welcome to the new era of the Traverse City Film Festival, founded and curated by Oscar-winner Michael Moore. 52 great movies in 52 weeks! A year-round festival of powerful, subversive, indie masterpieces made with the belief that cinema can save the world — and that one great movie can change your life.
TCFF 2025
SPRING SCHEDULE
All films show at 1pm & 7pm unless otherwise noted
FILM GUIDE
OPENING NIGHT FILM!
April 15
1pm, 7pm
BOB TREVINO LIKES IT
A working class girl sets out to reconnect with her working class father, only to realize again – and not for the first time – that he isn’t worth the trouble. In the process of this paternal rejection, Lily Trevino (played exquisitely by Barbie Ferreira) stumbles upon another man on social media who shares her father’s same name (the always excellent John Leguizamo) and these broken hearts and their broken souls begin to find not just each other but themselves. BOB TREVINO LIKES IT has won 8 Audience Awards since its debut last year – and also won the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature at SXSW. As The Hollywood Reporter calls it, this is not your standard early 21st century cynical doom and gloomer. Instead: “The film draws its emotional power not from watching its characters break, but from letting them start to heal.” And don’t we all need a little bit of that?
Comedy, Drama
USA
1h 42m
Director: Tracie Laymon
Starring: John Leguizamo & Barbie Ferreira
APRIL 22
1pm, 7pm
MARIA
Who is art for? What does an artist owe the world, and what does she owe herself? These are the questions Greek-American opera diva Maria Callas asks herself at the end of her life in this stunning, visually resplendent biographical drama. Academy Award-winner Angelina Jolie’s performance as Callas is a tour de force that earned her Best Actress nominations from this year’s Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. Set in the week leading up to the superstar’s 1977 death in her Paris apartment, MARIA envisions Callas’ final performance – both literally, as she summons her failing voice, and imaginally, as she revisits the emotional crucibles – from her childhood trauma to her affair with Aristotle Onassis – that drove her. MARIA is a blockbuster movie about an unstoppable woman with otherworldly talent; it is also a feast for the senses – it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and a Critics Choice award for Best Costume Design.
Director: Pablo Larraín
Starring: Angelina Jolie
Period Drama, Biography
Italy, German, Chile, USA
2h 4m
APRIL 29
1pm, 7pm
CUTTING THROUGH ROCKS
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for documentary, CUTTING THROUGH ROCKS is the story of Sara Shaverdi, who vies to become the first female councilwoman in her small Iranian village. A divorcée, former midwife and motorcycle enthusiast, Shaverdi has spent her life fighting for the rights of women and girls in the face of a misogynistic authoritarian regime. The husband and wife co-directors followed Shaverdi and her community for seven years, and the result is a deft, visually stunning portrayal of the grit, vision and determination of a woman who refuses to be confined by her gender – and who is committed to blazing a path for all the girls and women around her, whether they’re bold enough to ride motorcycles with her or are on the verge of being married off as children. CUTTING THROUGH ROCKS is a stunning achievement that is sure to continue sweeping the festival circuit.
Documentary
Qatar, Chile, Iran, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, USA
1h 35m
Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammad Reza Eyni
MAY 6
1pm, 7pm
ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO
On December 8th, 1980 – three weeks after the release of their album Double Fantasy – John Lennon is shot and killed in front of his home at The Dakota, at 72nd Street and Central Park West, with his wife, Yoko Ono, by his side. In the 45 years since, nearly 2 million Americans have died by gun violence. But this documentary isn’t about America’s love of shooting and killing each other – instead…It is a love story. Long before John was gunned down, the knives were out for him and Yoko – especially Yoko. The greatest rock n’ roll band that ever was…was supposedly torn apart by John falling in love with Yoko. Or at least, that’s what the critics at the time would have you believe. In this intimate and astonishing documentary, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO tells a true love story of two inimitable creative geniuses at work, at play, and in love. Grounded in never-before-seen footage that includes their 1972 “One to One” benefit concerts and their trip to Ann Arbor, MI to rally for John Sinclair, the film destroys the popular narrative surrounding John and Yoko’s relationship – fueled by John’s white male contemporaries, as well fans & music critics who heap blame on the woman – and instead captures two of the most fearless artists of the 20th century as they create something that’s not just music & isn’t only art. It is a timeless testament to love… if we want it.
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Starring: John Lennon, Yoko Ono
Documentary
UK
1h 40m
MAY 13
1pm, 7pm
THE ORDER
Jude Law is wildly convincing as a stoic FBI agent in this 1980s period thriller about a terrorist group of White Christian Nationalists. Based on the FBI’s real-life takedown of a neo-Nazi hate group called The Order, the film spends just enough time with the terrorists to see how easily they can operate in broad daylight – lurking behind class discontents and the perceived threats of what an equal society might look like. THE ORDER premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion Award for Best Film.
Crime, Drama, Thriller
UK, Canada, USA
1h 56m
Director: Justin Kurzel
Starring: Jude Law
MAY 20
THERE’S STILL TOMORROW
This post-WWII period dramedy set in Rome takes on domestic abuse and the far-reaching shadows of toxic masculinity broke. It broke box office records in Italy when it debuted in 2023 – even beating BARBIE! It is the debut feature from Italian actress and comedian Paola Cortellisi, who also stars as Delia, a working mother of three who also cares for her physically and emotionally abusive husband & father in-law in their basement apartment. When her daughter is faced with a shot at upward mobility by marrying the son of successful business owners, Delia is at first thrilled. But when she realizes misogyny doesn’t disappear with class status, Delia’s rage – and renewed agency – is awakened. This is Italian Neorealism that is at once exactly like you’ve seen it (its black-and-white style and working class themes have drawn comparisons to Fellini and Roberto Rossellini), and never like you’ve seen it – directed by a woman, centering women, and did we mention there’s an Outkast song? This is a stunning, must-see feminist film by a fresh cinematic maestra. Winner of Six Italian Academy Awards and an Italian Golden Globe for Best Film.
Director: Paola Cortellesi
Comedic, Period Drama
Italy
1h 58m
MAY 27
1pm, 7pm
THE ENCAMPMENTS
What if the news told you that the nation’s major universities had been overrun by terrorist organizations? What if the two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, spent an entire important election year telling you that our nation’s kids – our American college students – have become Hitler-loving anti-semites? Would you believe it? Or would you think: Maybe there is more to this story. THE ENCAMPMENTS is the inside story of the nationwide campus protests that rose up in the spring of 2024 and saw America’s youth organizing, across the country, to protest the genocide being committed in their name. Whatever you think you know about this moment and this movement, and whatever you’ve been told you know, the truth is worth seeing. THE ENCAMPMENTS is the real time story of what actually happened. Featuring ICE-detained student leader Mahmoud Khalil, the film – which broke box office records when it debuted last month – explains clearly the history that brought us to this point, and makes clear the future that these kids are going to inherit. THE ENCAMPMENTS isn’t a talking point you can debate. It’s a film about our future.
Documentary
USA
1h 23m
Directors: Kei Pritsker, Michael T Workman
JUNE 3
1pm, 7pm
SECRET MALL APARTMENT
If the films MALL RATS and PARASITE got together and made a documentary, festival darling SECRET MALL APARTMENT might be the result. Set in early aughts Providence, Rhode Island, it chronicles how a group of artist friends decided to see what would happen if they secretly moved into their local mall. Comprised of the group’s own videos they took while pulling this off, SECRET MALL APARTMENT is both an artistic yowl into the face of gentrification & a nostalgic ode to the universal longing for home. Winner of nine Grand Jury or Audience Awards and Executive Produced by Jesse Eisenberg, who says it “plays like a modern-day heist movie” but that “it’s also this amazing statement about art, socialization, gentrification, race, and class.”
Documentary
USA
1h 31m
Director: Jeremy Workman
JUNE 10
1pm, 7pm
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
This grittiest of cop dramas is one of the crown jewels of the golden era of 1970s New Hollywood style cinema. Gene Hackman and Roy Schneider star in breakthrough roles as a pair of crude, hardscrabble NYPD Narcotics Detectives who bring down an international heroin ring based on the real-life one whose bust inspired the Robin Moore 1969 book on which the film is based. THE FRENCH CONNECTION went on to win 5 Academy Awards, including Best Actor (Gene Hackman), Best Director (William Friedkin, whose next film was THE EXORCIST) and Best Picture. It also features one of the most memorable car-chase scenes ever filmed, replete with a hijacked NYC subway train and capped with a foot pursuit! In acting school, Hackman and his friend Dustin Hoffman were voted “least likely to succeed.” Instead of failing, the two moved to New York and became roommates with Robert Duvall. Hackman’s inimitable role as Popeye Doyle, earned him the third of his 5 Oscar nominations and the first of his 2 Oscar wins.
Crime, Drama, Thriller
USA
1h 44m
Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Gene Hackman
JUNE 17
1pm, 7pm
BANNED TOGETHER
If this is the age of banned books, it’s also the age of the resistance. Dedicated, stalwart librarians are on the frontlines of these punitive, self-serving bans – but in this documentary, we meet the young students who are fighting alongside them to regain the freedom to read books as wonderfully diverse as our nation’s children. BANNED TOGETHER is a sweeping contemporary history lesson and a call to action that features a group of South Carolina high school students & their adult mentors – including #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and Ibram X. Kendi – as they fight to reinstate nearly 100 books to their school libraries, and as they enter the much bigger battle to defend intellectual freedom.
Directors: Kate Way, Tom Wiggin
Documentary
USA
1h 33m
JUNE 24
1pm, 7pm
WILL & HARPER
What do you do when one of your dear old friends comes out to you as a woman? If you’re Will Ferrell, you fête her transition with an epic cross-country road trip. This documentary is not just a documentary about longtime SNL writer Harper Steele’s gender transition – but about the evolution of a friendship over time, gender and all the other foundational structures – and strictures – around which we build our relationships. Through heartfelt and hilarious interludes in diners, dive bars & other staples of the American Road Trip, Will & Harper reconnect with what drew them together and get curious about what drives our country apart. Often, the two are pleasantly surprised by strangers’ acceptance. But viewers also get a glimpse of the rage and fear trans people still face in this country daily – most, Harper acknowledges, without the protective cover of a celebrity sidekick. Still, you will leave this movie inspired – to find new ways to connect with old friends, to recommit to allyship however you can, and to always leave a little room in life to be surprised. A wonderful film.
Documentary
USA
1h 54m
Director: Josh Greenbaum
Starring: Will Ferrell, Harper Steele, Tina Fey
JULY 1
1pm, 7pm
LA CHIMERA
Set in the 1980s, this Palme d’Or-nominated Italian film from director Alice Rohrwacher is a revelatory cinematic achievement. In anyone else’s hands, a movie about a band of misfit gravediggers in search of love and treasure could end up as genre kibble; however, Alice Rohrwacher meets her characters where they are, and doesn’t deprive them of interiority or a shot at romance. When we meet our protagonist, Arthur, he’s a former archaeologist fresh from jail. He has nowhere to go except straight to his mother – an opera maestra played with fraught regality by screen legend Isabelli Rosselina. Back home, Arthur soon gets sucked back into the baser uses of his archaeological knowledge and joins a roving pack of “tombaroli” – the Italian word for tomb raiders. As their looting of millenia-old artifacts pays off, Arthur’s uncanny knack for dowsing rods drags him into mystical depths that seem to hold clues to lost love, though budding romance blooms around him. RogerEbert.com likens LA CHIMERA to an arthouse take on Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. Named one of the Top 5 International Films of 2023 by the National Board of Review.
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Period Drama, Adventure, Comedy, Romance
Italy, France, Switzerland, Turkey
2h 11m
2023 Archive
2024 Archive
TICKETS
EARLY BIRD PRICE GOES THRU APRIL 15 THEN GOES UP TO $79
| Single: | $10 |
| Student: | $6 |
| Season Pass (12 films) |
$69 |
| Student Season Pass (12 films) |
$49 |
VENUE
State theatre
Traverse City, MI
(231) 600-7272
SPONSORS
TERRY LYNN CARRITHERS
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
GRANT MICHAEL CARRITHERS
