A film festival featuring local filmmakers will be held in metro Detroit this weekend.  The Royal Starr Film Festival takes place at the Emagine Birmingham 8 theater Thursday, Sept. 11 through Sunday, Sept. 14. The 10th annual festival, which originated in Royal Oak and relocated to Birmingham three years ago, highlights Michigan filmmakers and their projects and includes films from around the country and world. 

The festival is organized by the Royal Starr Arts Institute. It holds monthly filmmaker mixer events to cultivate a community and networking space for independent film creators.

“We’re also part of that community,” said Royal Starr Film Festival co-founder, secretary, and treasurer Billy Whitehouse. “So we do like to emphasize our Michigan filmmakers because those are the ones creating the films of tomorrow.”

Michigan filmmaker Andrew Templeton has attended Royal Starr’s filmmaker mixers and said he has seen how important they are to foster the local film community. 

“Independent film is tough, and you have to support other creators,” Templeton said. “I think there’s just a lot of interesting Michigan stories to be told, both fiction and nonfiction, so the more independent filmmakers can come together and collaborate, the more things we can share with the world.” 

Templeton is the director of one of the headlining films at the festival titled “1969: Killers, Freaks, and Radicals.” The true-crime documentary explores a notorious period of Michigan history that Templeton says is still poorly understood. In the late 1960s, a string of murders of young women and girls took place on the campuses of Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan. Only one of the murders was solved. “1969” explores how the investigations into the murders played out against the backdrop of political protests, radical counterculture, and social upheaval in the college towns at that time. The film plays at the festival Friday night at 7pm.

One Detroit’s Chris Jordan spoke to Whitehouse about the festival’s mission and this year’s lineup. He also sat down with Templeton to discuss “1969: Killers, Freaks, and Radicals,” the history that it explores and the process of making the film.