TRAVERSE CITY — Zoe Allen-Wickler watched her sister Olivia's animated short film, "The Dancing Skeleton," become a Traverse City Film Festival favorite.
But Allen-Wickler, of Suttons Bay, didn't want her sister to have all the fun. So she created her own animated short, "Cherry Birds," which will show this year before several films.
"I'm excited to be a part of the festival," Allen-Wickler, 16, said. "It's a thing I do a lot — drawing and animating."
"Cherry Birds" — which has two cherries that look like birds, or birds that look like cherries, talking about attending the Film Festival — is one of four new trailers that will show before festival movies this year as the result of an annual contest. The films are screened and selected by festival founder Michael Moore and Lars Kelto, the festival's Internet technology manager.
Kelto, who also has a short of his own showing called "Film Festival Family," said having the short trailers before the films get more people involved.
"The great thing about the trailer contest is that it showcases local talent," he said. "We want to see as much of that being offered for the Film Festival attendees ... as possible."
Another trailer, "Lights," was submitted by the Suttons Bay Film Club. Using a technique called "pika pika," in which the filmmaker slows down the camera to capture a trail of light, Suttons Bay art photography instructor Scott Tompkins and his film club students created what he calls a "thank you" to the Film Festival.
"It was an activity to do with the film club to give back to the State Theatre," Tompkins said.
Traverse City resident Soren Nielsen's 2½-minute short, "Eternity," is made up of 748 pencil-drawn images on a single sheet of paper that he took a picture of and then erased.
"It stemmed from my feelings of routine and repetition," Nielson said. "It's a kind of view point into the eternal cycle of a sailboat on a cube of water. It sails to one side, reaches a climax and then falls. Then it continues sailing. It reaches another point, falls and then continues sailing."
Nielson said he was happy his film was chosen.
"It's an awesome feeling that other people are going to see your work," he said. "And personally, it's great for me to see it on the big screen."
Traverse City Film Festival
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