Group works with new partner on fall date for Reel Stuff Film Festival of Aviation

(Feb. 9, 2010 – Dayton, Ohio) The National Aviation Hall of Fame will not hold the 2010 Reel Stuff Film Festival of Aviation during its originally scheduled Feb. 26-28 dates, but officials are working out details of a partnership with a local arts group to produce the event this fall.
“With the loss of a major sponsor and the reorganization of the Hall of Fame operations in 2009, we simply could not make the February date,” said Alan Hoeweler, chairman of the Hall of Fame’s board of trustees. “But Southwest Ohio has a vibrant creative community, and we believe that working with one of these organizations and signing on some new sponsors will help make a great event even better.”
The board is in discussions with a Dayton-based nonprofit group that expressed its interest in producing the festival while keeping the Hall as the beneficiary. Board members declined to identify the organization until further details of funding and operation of the festival are settled.
In November, the Hall of Fame underwent a reorganization that included staff reductions and other cost-cutting measures.  Kaplan, the Hall of Fame’s former executive director, was hired in January to act as a consultant to help the board coordinate the organization’s 2010 enshrinement weekend activities, set for July 16-17.
While Kaplan will focus his attention on the enshrinement, he said the Reel Stuff Film Festival is another event that can help showcase not only the area’s unparalleled aviation heritage, but the arts and business communities of the greater Dayton area.
Kaplan, the founding director of the Reel Stuff festival, added that he hopes the film festival can make a 2010 date, noting that the Hall again had a robust lineup of presenters eager to screen their feature films and documentaries this year.
“This event has been second only to our annual enshrinement ceremonies in nationally spotlighting the Hall of Fame,” Kaplan said. “For anyone with a passion for flight and the filmmaking process, Reel Stuff makes the ‘Birthplace of Aviation’ the place to be.”
Past presenters at the Reel Stuff Film Festival include Academy Award-winning actor, pilot and enshrinee Cliff Robertson; aerial cinematographer Clay Lacy (who is set to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame in July); Catherine Wyler, producer of “Memphis Belle” in 1990 and daughter of William Wyler, director of the 1944 documentary, “The Memphis Belle: The Story of a B-17.” The 2009 festival also included the North American premiere of “Der Rote Baron,” (The Red Baron), a German production of the life of Baron von Richthofen that has its national release next month.
“In just two years, this festival has become the top aviation film festival in the country,” Hoeweler said. “We’ve set a high standard, and have every intention of raising that bar even higher.  The postponement will be worth the wait and a “win-win” for the Hall of Fame, the Festival and the region.”

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Contact:  Ron Kaplan
O: (937) 256-0944 x16
C: (937) 212-8847