‘Bearded Child’ to visit Bloomington

The bizarre and out-of-the-ordinary will hit the big screen Tuesday night as the Bearded Child Film Festival comes to Bloomington. \nThe traveling festival features a collection of odd, experimental movies that challenge the norm of mainstream film. The festival starts at 9 p.m. at The Cinemat.\n“In the film world, people are afraid to step outside of the box for the fear that they won’t get their work shown,” said Dan Anderson, founder and program director for the festival. “The festival challenges people to think outside of the box and create something really unique and unusual.” \nAnderson started the festival in 2001 in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., at the age of 17. His hope was that filmmakers like him could have an outlet to show their weird and wacky films. \n“It’s hard to get movies like the ones I make shown anywhere, especially in a small town,” Anderson said. \nThe Bearded Child Film Festival selects its movies based on the amount of creativity and heart put into making the film, rather than production value and other traditional cinematic standards. The result is a mix of unique films that cannot be seen anywhere else, Anderson said. \n“Most of the short films you see at festivals are short on inspiration and long on necessity. Their focus is on making a good grade and not taking chances,” filmmaker Jesse Holcomb said. “Bearded Child movies tend to be the product of intensely personal visions and most are made without much of a crew or a budget. They are true art in that they have exploded out an artist who could no longer contain them.” \nWhile Bearded Child is still held annually in Grand Rapids, the annual festival has now expanded into a multimedia show that includes music and visual performance. Anderson began taking the festival on the road in 2005. \nSome of the films shown on the tour include “Cookies for Satan” by Dan Anderson, “My Little Pickle Love Song” by Skizz Cyzyk and “Disconnected” by Karl Lind.\n“The perfect Bearded Child film is one that effectively distorts your reality and presents you with such an unimaginable spectacle that your understanding of what’s possible is forever changed,” Holcomb said. “These films sure as hell ain’t on Youtube.” \nThe 2008 tour kicked off at the beginning of the week and continues touring throughout April.