Hi everybody.

I'm Ed Leon.

Welcome to the 260 where we cover life and community in northeast Indiana.

On this episode, we'll take you beyond the red carpet at Fort Wayne Hobnobben film Festival.

Hockey is back on ice.

The Journal Gazette previews the Komet's historic 75th season and the organization empowering women artisans and entrepreneurs.

It's all right now on the 260.

The 11th annual Hobnobben Film Festival returns to Fort Wayne October 22nd through the 25th at the Cinema Center downtown.

This year's festival features 35 film blocks and 154 films, with filmmakers and stories from around the world.

Here, to give us a preview, our festival director Alix Watson and Cinema Center Development Director Molly Conner.

Welcome to the 260.

Thank you for having us.

You bet.

154 films.

That's that's a big scale.

What's included in that mix?

That everything.

Every every length.

We have a lot of short films.

The majority of the 154 are short films, but we do have feature length films.

In addition to that, we have feature length documentaries and narrative.

And you watched all of these?

Watched?

I've watched every single one.

I watched the short list.

I've watched 400 films.

Yeah, that, I was gonna say How many did you need to see to get down to 154?

We had just shy of 500 films submitted to the festival, and I think I probably I watched just shy of 400.

Are you are you looking for a particular kind of film?

We're just looking for good stories.

It's a good story.

When you watch it.

When you're watching a movie, what makes you say, oh, I got to include that.

What pops out to you?

Is it a variety?

I know it's a variety of things, but what are some things that pop?

It really is that getting to that unique and good story.

One of the things I even tell some of our screeners is don't be blinded by high budgets and, you know, pretty production.

That's great.

And we love that too.

But but really, we want that that story in there.

And we have a lot of student films, for example, right, where people are learning how to become storytellers.

And we love seeing and supporting those films in the festival.

Molly, this the festival must be a big component of your yearly, you know, development fund, right?

It is.

So it's the 11th year for hobnobben, but it's Cinema Center's 50th.

Yeah.

Congratulations.

So it's a really big year for us.

And I just feel like hobnobben is just a huge part of, you know, Cinema Center's overall programing, offering a variety of different types of films.

And a huge part of Fort Wayne.

So you curate let's talk about curation because you curate into themes, talk about some of those themes.

They're kind of interesting.

We have a lot.

And as part of that curation, sometimes we'll also pair on some additional programing.

So one of the themes that we have is is death.

It is, you know, it's that transition and coping with death and grief.

And as part of that we're bringing in Lauren Deligne.

Lauren Richwine.

She's the death doula here in town.

You've heard of her.

I have interviewed her on this very couch.

Yes.

She's lovely.

She's helping us with a panel on death and grief.

Yeah.

Interesting.

So what about this one, man?

I feel like a woman.

What is that curation?

That curation is kind of.

It's films with women as the lead.

And I believe most of the filmmakers obviously are women in there.

And about kind of the complex realities and double edged swords that women constantly have to deal with.

You have a supernatural track.

What's in there?

Supernatural, one of the films in there is a play on calypso which people have just seen The Odyssey.

Calypso turns, you know, men into beasts or swine.

And so we have swine film in there.

We have a werewolf film.

We have.

Yeah, it's it's a good.

And then after the supernatural stories and we have our horror block in that same theater, there are Saturday night scarries So they lead into each other really nicely.

So do you have a place for Indiana films and Indiana filmmakers?

Opening night, opening night.

Thursday night, opening n All of the films on opening night are Indiana and local filmmakers.

Can you talk about a couple of those?

Yeah, I can.

One of the films that we're showing the feature that night is a documentary called Sincerely Ric, and the filmmaker is coming, and he'll be able to he's going to be doing a Q&A after the film that evening.

And that's, you know, Indiana Indianapolis film.

What about woven is there?

Is that one of the.

Well.

Well, then it's a great story.

That's a student film, okay.

And that is about an indigenous trans person navigating their identity.

And what about the last sunset?

The last sunset that is a Fort Wayne film that is in the I believe that's in the supernatural block and that is a local.

I think people will recognize even the park it's shot in when they come see it in the theater.

So cool.

So what are some films you've seen them all?

What are some notable ones that you're really excited that that are being featured?

I'm excited about the opening night film.

Sincerely, Rick.

I'm excited about.

We have a film called Little Gray Wolf Will come, and that is a documentary about the Russian journalist that defected very publicly.

And she made this documentary about her experience being a reporter for, you know, Russian news sites, but also navigating her relationship with her daughter.

And it ends with her defecting from Russia.

And you mentioned sincerely, Rick, a couple of times.

What's the story there?

It's a really interesting story about this individual, Rick, who started a magazine and a cable access TV show about dog shows.

And it's just this really sweet story about this, the filmmaker's relationship with Rick and Rick's process in, like, he created the breeding or the judging guidelines that kennels use now.

And he did it for his magazine.

And so it's just it's a really interesting one of those stories that it you would never see it anywhere else.

That's an Indiana story.

Indiana story.

Do you think that films continue to create public conversations?

Yes.

Is that what you're trying to achieve with the festival?

I think that's what we constantly trying to achieve at Cinema Center.

And the festival is just another extension of that.

Molly, do you the donors to Cinema Center, do they do they appreciate that aspect of it?

What do they tell you that that that makes a cinema center something that they want to support?

Absolutely.

So that conversation piece is a really special part that makes cinema center, cinema center.

You know, you can go see a movie at Regal, or you can go watch it at your house, at your house, in streaming.

But it's something different.

When you get to come to Cinema Center, it feels a little bit more intimate.

You can maybe check out a panel conversation afterward and actually, like, deeply process the film alongside other people.

Yeah, and I feel like that's why cinema, like cinema, exists in the first place.

Like, these stories are meant to be shared with other people and meant to be consumed alongside each other.

And that's just not something you get when you're streaming something.

Do you have the will, will Festival goers be able to have access to the filmmakers?

Yes.

No.

In fact, I think that's one of the unique things about the festival, is being able to connect with the people who have made these films.

I think right now we have, I think, 30 attending filmmakers and we're still a month out.

We haven't had all the RSVPs yet and we haven't had the RSVP deadline, so we're probably going to have even more than that.

And if people are interested in networking and meeting filmmakers, they can attend the workshops too.

We have the film blocks, but we also have a networking event.

And it's not just for the selected filmmakers, it's anyone can go.

If you're if you were creative, an actor or cinematographer and you want to, you know, really meet these filmmakers, we have multiple avenues for people to do.

That well.

And people can get tickets on the website, right?

Yes they can.

And it's a it's a great part of the the creative ecosystem here.

And so congratulations.

And we're looking forward to the festival.

The Hobnob and Film Festival takes place from October 22nd to the 25th at Cinema Center in downtown Fort Wayne.

Learn more at Hobnobben.org Oh, thank you for being on the 260.

The Fort Wayne Komets are playing their 75th anniversary season of hockey in Fort Wayne, making them one of the longest running franchises in North American professional hockey.

The Journal Gazette is previewing this historic season in a special section, and here to discuss it is sports reporter James Krause.

Welcome to the 260 James, thank you for having me.

So this is exciting.

What?

You know, this is the 75th season.

That's a big milestone.

What led to the formation of the Komets way back in 1952?

Yeah, it all started with Ernie Berg, who was a business manager with the Fort Wayne Daisies at the time.

The women's professional baseball team went to a game in Toledo for the the the International International Hockey League at the time and fell in love with it there.

And it's happened to be right around the time that Memorial Coliseum was being built.

It was primarily, at the time thought to be, you know, a building that would house the the Pistons now in Detroit for the NBA.

The Komets sort of come in.

And from reading about it from the start, it's sort of been like it is today where the fans, they love to go for the games, but they also love to come for the fights and things.

Like that.

Right.

So the whole place.

Yeah.

So what do you think?

Hockey is so successful here.

I mean, 75 years is quite a track record.

What what what what about this community is, is, you know, attuned to hockey.

I think it's a great minor league sports town as is just because of its its distance from Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, but also because it is sort of that big town with a small town feel where, you know, a lot of the people in the area are, you know, sort of blue collar workers.

And it feels like hockey is more of a blue collar game.

It's physical, you know, you go to the games and the people that or the players that fans, I think typically draw themselves to are the ones who are more physical and hard working and things like that.

And, and I think hockey has sort of been a great sport to, to find those types of players.

That's a great perspective.

You talked to some Komet Hall of Famers as part of your reporting.

Talk about those guys a little bit.

Guy Dupuis, Steven Fletcher, Kaleigh Schrock, you got to you got to speak with all of them.

What what stood out about their tenures here at in Fort Wayne?

Yeah GDP his has the record for most games played here.

Over 1000 games between regular season and playoffs.

But one of the things that really stood out talking to him was he was just as much worried about, you know, how fans, you know, interacted with him off the ice and from talking with a lot of people, caring individual and it sort of leads you to understand why he was a captain for as many years as he was.

And Steven Fletcher was a great enforcer for the Komets for a very long time.

Got to come out of retirement for one game in 2003, which is something I wrote a decent amount about and asked him about.

And KaleighSchrock is one of the hometown products of Fort Wayne that went on to play for the Komets.

He's in their Hall of Fame now, amongst a group of great products in the area that went on to to play in the Coliseum.

The Is Fort Wayne and the Komets and attraction for players around the league to to come here is like, what's the draw for playing here?

I think the fan base, honestly, you know, when you look at average attendance in the ECHL from year to year, Komets are typically top five.

And I think overarching over a certain period of time, you could find that they've probably been in the top five more than than any other franchise as volatile as minor league franchise can go.

And also, I think that the organization from from talking with people, the Frankie's who took over in 1990, a lot of people have good things to say about their ownership.

Yeah, there's a lot of engagement around the community.

Even here here at PBS Fort Wayne, there's there's there's some engagement with some of the folks who work here.

You mentioned the ECHL What level of hockey is that?

It is two below the NHL.

So it's basically how it works is the Komets have an affiliation actually with the Edmonton Oilers.

Okay.

And right below them in the AHL is the Bakersfield Condors.

And then below them is the Fort Wayne Komets.

So actually some of the players you see in Fort Wayne might one day end up in Edmonton or somewhere in the NHL.

A lot of the guys you'll see come through and sort of maybe see sporadically.

They'll be from the Bakersfield Condors as just sort of an area where guys can get some ice time when they're not maybe regularly in the lineups at the level.

What are some of the ways that the Komets themselves are celebrating this 75th anniversary?

Yeah.

So opening night, Saturday, October 17th, they'll be hosting a sort of throwback to that first game.

Their first game they played the Toledo Mercury.

Now they're the Toledo Walleye in the ECHL.

But they'll be throwing back to their old uniforms as well as the Komets.

Will they have a night at the Grand Wayne Center coming up in November where they'll have, you know, dozens of alumni there and a big panel event for for fans to to ask questions of several alum.

They have a sort of mini convention set up the day of a game in November, again against Toledo as part of a sort of Fan Fest weekend.

Yeah, and they have already unveiled a ton of throwback jerseys, obviously, from their time, you know, over the last 75 years.

That is so cool.

Let's talk about this year's team.

Okay.

A couple of local guys are returning Alex Aleardi and Matt Miller.

Yeah.

Alex Aleardi the captain last ye entering his 14th season.

And it sort of is the catalyst for new coach Ben Boudreau.

What he wants from this team, which is he wants an experienced corps that's going to get them through an early part of the season where they have a lot of new faces.

One of the I think it's three skaters who's returning is Matt Miller, as you said, another product from Leo High School sort of struggled to to find his place last year but came on late this year, though he he starts the year injured and sort of has to to reset and climb that ladder again.

But one of the fan favorites I know last year he scored his first game at the Coliseum in the playoffs, and it got one of the bigger reactions of.

The year.

Absolutely.

How are the Komets supposed to do this year?

What are their chances?

It's an interesting question because last year under... the last season under Jesse Kallechy they made the Western Conference finals.

They won the division for the first time in ten years.

Now they sort of reset under Ben Boudreau, who won the title his first time around with the Komets in 2021.

So I imagine the expectations are to go win the Kelly Cup again.

Yeah.

Does the J.G.

and you, do you have plans for more coverage along this 75th season?

Yeah, we have a lot we're working on obviously preseason wise, but we'll also have stories throughout the year about current players, about former players and obviously game coverage from throughout the year.

Fantastic.

You can read all the JG's coverage of the Komets historic 75th season.

at JournalGazette.net/260 Thank you so much for being on the 260.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

This next story is about creativity, entrepreneurship, and a little bit about shopping.

But shopping with a purpose.

Creative women of the world is an organization that equips women artisans from around the world with the entrepreneurial resources to develop sustainable businesses built on the power of their creativity, and then creates a retail experience that can change lives.

We're joined by the founder and board president of Creative Women of the world, Lorelei Verlee, and program graduate Melissa Pitts.

Welcome to the 260.

Thank you.

Melissa.

I'm going to get to your story in just a bit, but first I want to go back into the into the history of creative women of the world.

What's the origin story?

So I got this dream when I was only 16 years old, and it took me 40 years before I was actually able to see it come about.

But it started in Haiti, where I was working with a group of women, and we developed greeting cards that we sold.

And then in 2011, we found that we were getting a request from other places in the world because they heard about what happened in Haiti, and I knew that it was time to start Creative Women of the world in 2011.

So you worked and helped women who were come from very difficult situations, impoverished situations, trafficking, you know, some really tough stuff.

How did you get on to the idea that their creativity was the catalyst for, for for helping them to a better life?

I think that's the spark that happened at 16.

I really had that connection early on, but I recognized that creativity is not necessarily being artistic.

It just means that you look at what is and you imagine what could be.

And the reality is anybody can do that.

And when you are in desperate situations, extreme poverty, for instance, so many times they are so focused on what's happening that day, they can hardly think ahead.

So your your program is based on the idea of you can teach, you know, teacher, teach a woman to fish and she can feed herself.

Right.

So talk about what you actually helped them do.

What did what did you devise for them?

So in 2014, we put together an entrepreneurial training program that we initiated that year in Indonesia.

We have since worked in 15 countries where we have offered either an element of the training or all out training, and it covers all of the things that you would have in a business degree.

Right.

Ed: But but it's these these are women in some I mean, these are subsistence scenarios that they're living in.

And it applies.

It still applies.

Loreli: Absolutely.

They have often not even gone past fourth grade, if that.

But what I found is we have made it so accessible that anybody at any level of education, even the illiterate, I've had a few illiterate women take the class.

It's accessible, it's applicable, and I've seen huge changes.

And the women get together.

And I saw what you did in Haiti.

They get together, they're doing crafts there.

What are they creating?

What are some of the things that they're using their creativity to bring to fruition?

Yes.

To be honest, at the beginning it was mostly related to crafting skills that we turned into a business.

But since then, we've had everything we we have had a woman in Kenya who had a road construction company, and we've had other younger women who have little carts in the grocery in the marketplace, but it doesn't really matter what type of business you have.

It's about applying creativity in every situation.

Talk about the a little bit about the the esteem, the levels of growth that these women experience as part of this program.

That is the biggest focus.

We always start out by identifying your assets, and that means that women who have never been given a voice can suddenly look at themselves and say, oh, this is me.

I'm able to do this and I can make a difference.

And we always do.

All of the training focused on not only transforming that woman's life, but also her family and her community.

It's amazing transformation.

You've worked in some places where there is great need.

You also work with local people to.

I do, yes.

All right.

Well, Melissa, this is this is your cue.

Talk a little bit about how you know, what what brought you to this program and and what what resulted from it.

Well, I've always enjoyed shopping at Creative women of the world when I come to Fort Wayne.

And then I moved here in the fall, and I happened to be standing in checking out with one of the storytellers, which is what the store calls the folks that check you out, and they tell you a story about whatever craft you're buying or some what's behind it.

And I said, well, I think this is such a great place.

I love this place, and I just would love to know how this started in all these things.

And then Lorelei was standing right next to me.

And so she said, well, as a very humbly she said, well, that was me.

And then I happened to be there at the same time, decided to participate in their gala, which they had in the spring.

And then I started talking to these incredible women that are on the board and running the store and do all this, and I said, I just have to be around that.

And I had started a little business myself after my husband died, called General Grief Care.

And it was a different you know, I'm obviously not in an impoverished situation.

I'm very privileged and fortunate and all those things.

So what?

But I was asked to participate in the cohort in June as a trainee, and so that I could work towards helping other people receive this incredible training.

And what's so amazing about it is that, you know, we talk about women being empowered.

And I started into this.

My business was a hobby when I started this class in June.

It was a hobby, and I was doing it to honor my husband.

And and there's something that happens when you get this group of women together and you start learning all these things, which I knew I had a business plan and I had all those things, but it's just at a different level and you start to become empowered.

I mean, even myself, I was by the end of it, it was like, I'm going to make this make a difference in my community.

I'm not just going to sort of do this as a side hobby.

This is an important thing.

And a lot of that came from the other women in the class with me.

And it was it was very contagious.

And, and the businesses people were doing were very different.

Some of them were one another one was service oriented, like mine, where she was a writer.

She is a writer, very skilled.

And then other people have just turned things that they're doing for others into a business, one of them having making wigs and other ones doing jewelries.

All these just wonderful.

And that program is called Unlocking Your Design.

Correct.

And that's the same program that the women in Haiti went through.

It is.

And the overarching thing that we're looking at is taking creatives who want to do good in the world and give them the tools to do that.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

By the way, how does to help that person.

You must have some incredible stories of yes, yes, tell me one.

So one of the women in Haiti who is actually in that initial card making group, actually is now the director of our clinic down there, and she has just taken all the training beyond that.

That has really helped her.

But I want to tell you about one woman in Malawi.

That just is one of my favorite stories.

And she took the class.

And to be honest, while she was in the class, I wasn't sure she was listening to everybody were talking about.

But when we went back the next year, she came running up to us and was so excited and she said, you remember the five pocket accounting system that.

You.

Taught us?

And I said, of course, you know.

And she said, I use that.

I divided my money carefully every single day.

And I bought a brick by brick and built a house right next door to me.

And my big dream of becoming a landlady is fulfilled.

Wow.

Yeah.

You know, I think sometimes women can under undervalue their creative work.

Right?

And I think if there's one thing that you're teaching and you're bringing into the world, what would you say to that is.

Yes, I would say that you are a person that has a voice.

Is it empowerment, confidence?

What is it?

It's all of those things.

But I honestly think when a woman realizes her true value, she's willing to speak up in ways that no one else on this earth could ever speak in the way she does.

And she does it.

Fantastic.

Great, great story and great work that you're doing.

Good luck to you and your business, Melissa.

You'll find Creative women of the world at 125 W. Wayne Street in Fort Wayne and go on the web and check them out at GOCWOW.org Thank you so much for being on the 260.

Thank you.

I really appreciate.

That's all the time we have for this episode.

I'll see you next time on the 260.