Sept 29, 2025 (Or…just call it October?)
We had a nice trial film screening at the church earlier in September. (If you’re a GPCG member you may have heard about the Star Wars lock-in that the Pastor arranged for members. So…it worked nicely!
And now we’re ready for Metro Film Festival events. We’re going to start with some Star Trek fan-made films, and then we’ll screen winners from the MetroFilmFestival. Here’s the poster and link to our first PUBLIC-SCREENING of films at the Grosse Pointe Congregational Church in GPF, MI.
The poster is on the Church Bulletin, and It’s a PDF file, found on menu on the church website. Here’s the direct link to the page; https://gpcong.org/bulletins/
And here’s the poster…
This is just the beginning. We’re now supporting FAN FILMS of all types, and we’re happy to screen yours (NONCOMMERCIALLY OF COURSE.) All of these screenings are FREE.
About the programming at our monthly screenings…
We’re screening family-friendly Fan Made films and television programs like the kind of thing produced at the Neutral Zone studios. You may have watched Star Trek Continues on our NON-COMMERCIAL and FREE “Star Trek Continued” Roku channel. No? Well, you should watch STC because it’s a classic in the fan film arena. Not to mention, well, okay, yes we’ll mention The Verse by Julian Higgins, and his other work like DeadPool (the Musical –haa! you just gotta see this show!)
Forgive me, I ramble sometimes when it comes to great stuff that you may watch FREE and AD-FREE. New films like Dreadnought Dominion, and stuff from the Alien, and Predator series plus more classics like the Fan Films featuring George Takei (Sulu,) Walter Koenig (Chekov,) and Tim Russ of Star Trek Voyager are also slated to be SCREENED on the BIG SCREEN.
Not in the Metro Detroit area? Okay then, I get it — please add our Free, NonCommercial Roku channel called “Star Trek Continued.”
More…
Look for the submission guidelines on our FilmFreeway festival page. It will also tell you all about our FREE streaming services, designed just for NON-commercial programming. If you’d like to get more info about our new project, then I’m on Facebook.com/DeanLach.
Outside of the fan-film arena: Distribution and promotion of indie film/TV-shows.
We stream Hollywood content on connected TV via our Movies Plus branded TV-Apps on FireTV and Roku. See MoviesPlusTV.com for links.
We’d like to announce the release of our GoogleTV/Android TV app on GooglePlay, here’s the link. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=quickcast.tv.movies_plus
We have a commercial unit called Apple Pie Films, LLC – a company that produces all sorts of apps, and APF acts as a “pre-distributor.” In other words, if you stream your content on a APF Roku or FireTV channel, and your content gets a large amount of viewers, then APF can present your “commercial” product to other people, like broadcast partners. Talk to Dean on FB or at the monthly Royal Starr “Michigan Community Filmmaker” film mixer’s in Hazel Park, Michigan.
Older Blog material is below…
About CTV or “Connected TV” on Smart Television’s and TV-App’s
Our Roku and FireTV presence has expanded since we started in 2015.
We started as a commercial venture, with independent VOD films on our first channel: Movies Plus on FireTV. Now we stream Indie films from our Metro Film Festival, and we have “live” channels that run 24/7.
In 2016 we expanded to Roku with MPTV (Movies Plus TV) at this link on Roku. Movies Plus channels are cornerstones in our organization.
The Movie Network (TMN) is our second largest channel on Roku. And we have Niche channels on Roku that target audiences, and these are changing from a VOD to an all Live broadcast this year. (So please check our channels every week to see our updated content-feed.) Here’s the links for two of our favorite Niche channels: “Badass TV” only on Roku (for Boxing and Sports fans.) Also “ArtHouse Movies” is geared towards Filmmakers and film festival attendees — again only on Roku. Again, these are commercial channels outside of our NonCommercial operations associated with the Metro Film Festival’s FAN FILM live screenings in Metro Detroit, Michigan.
Fast aka Live and “Simulated Live” Television
We’re adding more “FAST” channel partners! You’ll find the selection of “Sub-Channels” is expanding this year. Tune into any of our Roku and FireTV channels, and you’ll find HOLLYWOOD films and TV programs, everything from the newest X FILES to Star Trek Deep Space Nine, to classic fun stuff like KnightRider, Lost in Space, and Charlie’s Angels.
Studios, and Streaming Platforms, we’re very open minded and we’d love to talk about partnerships.
How the Metro Film Festival helps filmmakers get exposure
Metro aims to help filmmakers get exposure and distribution for their films. No matter what your release window is, we are here to help you. Trailers and Teasers are always free to submit, and we offer entry fee waivers whenever possible.
Below is a snapshot taken from our film festival. The article was taken from a newspaper. This is from our Commercial channel, and while it’s not a new article, it still drives home our mission.
The article writes of Alex, an indie filmmaker who streamed his film on our Movies Plus Amazon Fire TV channel for 6 months. Alex is a proactive filmmaker. He took the Movies Plus statistics to a venture capitalist who decided to finance the filmmaker’s next feature film. Alex may be a little more driven than some filmmakers, and his success proves to you that determination and good filmmaking skills can lead you to distribution on services like Hulu. That’s right, Alex’s film(s) made it to Hulu. We’d like to think that you can do so too!
A personal note…
Indie filmmakers, at Metro we are film advocates including Dean Lachiusa, who is one of our curators and a cinematography buff. If you are thinking about a film festival campaign or film or TV-program distribution please reach out to us. We’d love to hear about your work. Below is a pic from one of our happy filmmakers.
If you’d like to directly talk with Dean Lachiusa, then please reach out to Dean on Twitter @Dean_Lachiusa or FB (www.Facebook.com/DeanLach.)
Our Connected TV website is here: www.MoviesPlusTV.com
The Metro Film Festival is represented on FilmFreeway, enter your film, web-series or TV-show here (trailers are usually free.)
A reminder: Metro is open to giving FREE submissions to indie filmmakers like you, just ask for an Entry Fee Waiver.
We accept most formats including Promotional Featurettes and Proof of Concepts, and most FAMILY FRIENDLY genres (Graphic-horror will NOT be screened at our Church venues and is limited to our commercial channels Roku and FireTV.)