TRAVERSE CITY -- Tricia Noss cringes a little when she thinks about the 22 movies she'll see at this year's Traverse City Film Festival. But she recovers quickly.
"It's my vacation, my ultimate vacation," the 55-year-old Traverse City resident said.
She tried to limit her ticket-buying this year, especially after a power outage in Canada took down the film festival's system for a day, but in the end couldn't narrow her choices by much. "I'm really looking forward to 'CSNY,' because that's one of our groups," she said about a documentary covering a 2006 Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tour, "and 'Religulous' and 'Older Than America' and ... ."
She's not the only one having trouble winnowing the field.
"Top three? Can I do five? Wait, and add a bonus," said Michael Moore, president and founder of the film festival, scheduled for July 29-Aug. 3.
Public ticket sales start at noon Saturday. Members of the Friends of the Traverse City Film Festival have been able to purchase tickets since Monday -- then Tuesday, thanks to the glitches -- and many of the screenings are already sold out.
One of the sellouts that took Moore by surprise is "The Deal," an unreleased Hollywood satire starring William H. Macy and Meg Ryan.
"No one's even heard of it," Moore said. "Yet it sold out."
More predictable sellouts include "Religulous," a documentary by Larry Charles, a board member of the festival and director of "Borat," featuring Bill Maher traveling around the world, "investigating the state of religion," according to the film festival's description.
"I love Bill Maher," said Noss. "I like people who take a stand and push me to think." The movie has not been released yet.
Noss also scored tickets to another sellout, the Native American matinee, "Older Than America."
Moore said the film festival is planning on filling three remaining slots it has on its schedule, but "our plan is to not add" additional screenings, he said. "We only have so many volunteers. What we need next year is another theater downtown."
The film festival added a venue this year -- Milliken Auditorium at Northwestern Michigan College -- bringing it up to five indoor theaters and the Open Space, where free movies will be shown nightly during the festival.
Moore's top 5, make that six, movies are:
-- "Tell No One" is "the best mystery thriller I've seen in a decade," he said. "It's a cliché to say you don't know what's going to happen, but you don't because the characters don't even know." Tickets are still available for two screenings of "Tell No One."
-- "Theater of War" is a documentary about a 2006 staging of "Mother Courage" in Central Park. "This one works on so many levels," Moore said. "If you want a behind-the-scenes look at Meryl Streep getting into her role, if you know a little about (playwright) Bertolt Brecht you'll know a lot by the end and the story of 'Mother Courage,' which was written 50 or 60 years ago is relevant today."
-- "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" is a Canadian documentary about a heavy metal band. "It's about what happens when you're on top of the world but the world didn't come up when you were there," Moore said. "It asks, 'If you're great but you don't achieve, are you still successful?'" The band will be performing after each screening of the movie, once at Lars Hockstad Auditorium and once at the Union Street Station. Neither screening is sold out yet.
-- "Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame" was made by an 18-year-old Iranian woman. Moore said it tells the story of a 6-year-old Afghan girl who sees boys going to school and decides she wants to go, too. "It's wonderful and fascinating," Moore said. "The little girl lives in the caves where the Taliban blew up Buddha statues."
-- "The Pope's Toilet" takes place in a village in Latin America where the pope is due to visit. One entrepreneur realizes there are no public bathrooms and builds a toilet to charge people 25 cents to use.
-- "Johnny Got His Gun" is part of the festival's Dalton Trumbo Tribute. Trumbo's son Christopher will be in Traverse City. The movie is based on Dalton Trumbo's 1939 book and is "one of the most powerful antiwar movies ever," said Moore. "There's not a print available in the U.S. We had to get one from Germany."
Tickets for movies cost $9, with the exception of the opening and closing night movies, which are $25, the Open Space movies, which are free, and a children's matinee that costs $3. Tickets will available to the general public at noon Saturday online at www.traversecityfilmfest.org, by calling 929-1627, or at the box office, 300 E. Front St., Traverse City.
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