The Freep Film Festival has announced that it will return to its traditional spot on the spring calendar this year.  Last year it was held in September,  a change it made largely because of the pandemic.  This year’s festival will be held from April 27 to May 1 as it had been held since its founding in 2014.

Like last year, the 2022 festival will be a hybrid of in-person screenings and streamed offerings of most of its films.  The in-person festival will include a festival hallmark,  the engagement activities built around the films, particularly in-depth conversations led by Free Press journalists. Those discussions with filmmakers, film subjects, and community members will continue, as will other related activities, including parties, music, and free educational events geared toward the filmmaking community.

The festival’s artistic team is busily working on the lineup now and the lineup of documentaries will be announced in the middle of March.  This year’s festival will again, as it has in the past, showcase many documentaries with strong local connections and interests,  created by Detroiters or Michiganders, or filmmakers who were raised in the state.  Festivals in years past have included premieres of films like “12th and Clairmount,” “The Russian Five,” “Boy Howdy! The Story of Creem Magazine,” “White Boy” and “Boblo Boats: A Detroit Ferry Tale.”

Many past festival venue partners are also expected back in 2022, including the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Birmingham 8 Powered by Emagine, the Redford Theatre, and Michigan Science Center.