Reel Stuff Film Festival takes off again in Dayton

The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) will host its Second Annual Reel Stuff Film Festival of Aviation March 12-15 in Dayton, Ohio.

Reel Stuff screenings, held at various theater venues throughout the four-day festival, will celebrate the diverse and colorful world of aviation as depicted through invited Hollywood studio productions and independent documentaries, according to NAHF officials.

The NAHF is a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring America’s outstanding air and space pioneers. Reel Stuff’s presenting sponsor is NetJets, with additional support from Airmail Greetings, ThinkTV, and a grant from the Gates Frontiers Fund. Reel Stuff is open to the public, with all ticket and merchandise proceeds benefiting the Dayton-based NAHF Learning Center and its education programs.

Invited projects to be screened are 13 documentary, classic and contemporary theatrical releases celebrating the people, wonder and joy of flight. Of those, 10 films will be introduced by an actor, director, producer, aerial coordinator or cinematographer associated with its production. Cinema historians will introduce the additional three, each one a Hollywood classic projected in its original 35-mm film format. All presenters will field questions from the audience after each screening.

Among Reel Stuff’s presenters are Cliff Robertson and Clay Lacy for “The Pilot,” Catherine Wyler for “Memphis Belle,” Nikolai Mullerschoen for “The Red Baron,” and Steve Hinton for “Always.” Robertson, who both starred in and directed “The Pilot,” is an Academy Award-winning actor, pilot and 2006 enshrinee of the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Aerial cinematographer Clay Lacy and aerial coordinator Steve Hinton, both pilots, are each nominees for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame.

Additional Reel Stuff Film Festival presenters and projects include Jeffrey Roth for “The Wonder of it All,” Paul Glenshaw for “Barnstorming,” John Ellis for “Steve Canyon,” Richard Hoerle for “Captain Eddie,” James Farmer for “Twelve O’clock High” and “Strategic Air Command,” Cliff and Cathy Fleming for “We Were Soldiers,” and Rocco DeVilliers for “The Fly Boys.”

“Our subjects cover everything from barnstorming the Midwest in homemade biplanes to landing on the lunar surface,” said Ron Kaplan, NAHF executive director and founding director of Reel Stuff. “Among our original film screenings in Dayton’s historic Victoria Theater is the Cold War classic, ‘Strategic Air Command,’ starring Jimmy Stewart, who happens to also be a true-life aviation hero and one of our incoming Hall of Fame enshrinees this July.”

Catherine Wyler, daughter of Oscar-winning director, William Wyler, will screen both the 1944 documentary of her late father’s, “Memphis Belle,” and the 1990 Warner Brothers action-drama of the same name, which she co-produced.

Kaplan also points out that Reel Stuff has gone “international” in only its second year, boasting the first major North American public screening of Der Rote Baron (The Red Baron), a German-funded and produced film released in Europe in 2008. The powerful big-screen account of the life of legendary World War I ace, Baron von Richtofen, will be introduced by its producer and writer, Nikolai Mullerschoen.

Admission to each movie is $10 per person, including the presentations and Q&A sessions. Full Festival Ticket Packages are available by advance purchase and feature 13 tickets for $95, a $35 savings. Tickets are transferable and may be used for admission to any screening. A complete schedule of Reel Stuff show times and locations, special reception events, presenters’ bios, sponsors and other festival details are available at ReelStuffFilmFest.com. (Click here to download [PDF] of the schedule and map).