In 2014, the Detroit Free Press launched its Freep Film Festival to highlight documentaries focused on Michigan. To that end, this year’s fest includes a number of items of local interest such as the Michigan premiere of “23 Mile,” an experimental doc by filmmaker Mitch McCabe that looks back at the surreal 2020 election year that included the FBI thwarting militias meeting in the basement of a vacuum repair shop to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (On Saturday, you can catch a panel discussion with McCabe and Free Press editorial page editor Nancy Kaffer, and on Sunday, McCabe speaks with the paper’s politics editor Emily Lawler.) Another highlight is The World According to Allee Willis, which looks at the late songwriter known for co-writing Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” and the Friends theme song, among many others. Beyond Michigan, filmmaker Sav Rodgers reevaluates Kevin Smith’s 1997 romantic comedy-drama Chasing Amy, finding the film to be a lifeline as a queer kid growing up in Kansas. The festival features more than 20 feature-length documentaries and nearly 50 events, including a dinner-and-a-movie series at Hazel Park’s Frame.
