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Marcel deJure and Matthew T., the organizers of the upcoming 20,000 Leagues Under the Industry Film Festival that takes place on Friday, Sept. 19, and Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Treelawn, first met in the late ’90s. They both used to frequent underground film festivals in Chicago and New York.
“We would always be the first guys in line at those festivals,” says deJure one afternoon from the patio of an Ohio City coffee shop. Matthew T. sits by his side as the two talk about their decades-long friendship and collaborating together. “There was limited seating and certain films were really popular and would sell out. We wanted to make sure we had seats. We were the first guys at anything.”
“We were both long hairs,” adds Matthew T. “We didn’t know why our films weren’t accepted to the festivals, but we became friends by going to the screenings.”
After a few years of going to film festivals, the two started talking and decided they could do a film festival of their own in Cleveland. They launched it in 2000 at the now-shuttered punk club Speak in Tongues. When Speak in Tongues closed, they took the festival to the Beachland and then the Museum of Contemporary Art. They even took the festival to California.
After a good run, the festival ended in 2005, but Matthew T. and deJure remained friends and kept in touch. When Matthew T., a film location manager here in Cleveland who recently worked on the new Superman movie, decided to “retire,” he contacted deJure about reviving the festival. DeJure had just gone to the Slamdance festival and was up for it.
“I just ate [Slamdance] up,” says deJure. “I had flashbacks from 20 years ago when I used to go to festivals more regularly. I saw people I knew from the ’80s punk scene. I saw the [documentary film] The Secret Lives of Bill Bartell because I was waiting for another documentary called KBLT Silver Lake 40 Watts From Nowhere to screen.”
Both films will screen at the upcoming festival, and KBLT Silver Lake director Sue Carpenter will be on hand for the screening of her film.
The festival will also feature the cult classic Heavy Metal Parking Lot as well as animation films and music videos from acts such as Shonen Knife, Black Flag and Torpedo Coffins. DeJure himself directed the new Torpedo Coffins video that features cardboard cutouts o of the band members.
Local comedians TJ Maclin and Stepanie Ginesi will deliver about 10-minute sets to open each night, and there will be a a new Cinnamon Roll Gang Puppet Troupe performance.
The duo hopes that the festival will once again become an annual affair.
“We are talking like we will do it again next year,” says Matthew T. when asked if the festival will return on an annual basis once more.
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Jeff Niesel
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