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Film Fest Wrap-up

This is a summary article I wrote on the examiner.com to give an overview of the awesome fest we had this year. 


To say that the past week has been the best week of my life would be an understatement. The Little Rock Film Festival has produced one of the best programmed festivals I have ever been to. Throughout the entire five days the only complaint people gave was that there was just “too much to see.” It’s true you could walk down the Riverdale Cinema and go into any LRFF sponsored screening room and see an amazing film. 

Opening Night was full of excitement with crowds of people gathering in and outside of the theater lobby to catch one of the two screenings of That Evening Sun. The director, Georgia-born, Scott Teems was accompanied by his co-producers and stars Ray McKinnon and Walton Goggins. Both screenings were completely full and the reception afterwards had people really moved. 
“I was amazed by how they were able to make such fully realized characters out of a short story,” one film-goer mentioned to me referring to the short story by William Gay that the film was based on.

The next day the festival began with the wonderful film Daytime Drinking by filmmaker NOH Young-seok. Later that evening The Arkansas Shorts Program #1 was a packed screening and Made in China played to a similarly full room across the hall. 


Friday there was half a dozen or so LRFF Youth! workshops at the Chamber of Commerce that I peaked in on some very young and talented up and coming filmmakers that will hopefully have films of their own at next years festival. The Way We Get By a documentary by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly played to a teary eyed audience that night.
Friday night was capped off with a bustling Gala with speeches from the Attourney General Dustin McDaniel, Governor Beebe, and filmmaker Phil Donahue whose film Body of War played at the Clinton School of Public Service earlier that day. The Golden Rock (sculpted by local artist Kevin Bell) was given out to the documentary The Way We Get By and the narrative film That Evening Sun. At 10:00 pm The Room made it’s Arkansas debut at Market Street Cinema to a big crowd of sado-masochists who looked like they were enjoying themselves laughing every minute at the screen.

Breaking Upwards played again on Saturday to a hip and interested audience who relished the Q and A afterwards with the director/actor Daryl Wein and co-writer/actress Zoe Lister-Jones. Tim Basham of Paste Magazine moderated a panel on Distibution at the Chamber of Commerce. Local Little Rock Film also played to its second sold out crowd and was attended by many of its cast and crew including director John Schafer, and actors Rhett Brinkley and Zach Turner. The late night after-parties included the Music Video Competition at the Revolution Room with a lineup of great bands including Fayeteville’s Vore and the Boondogs. The Good Fear won the competition for best video. Crush wine-bar hosted the after-party for the Made in Arkansas and Best Short award. The crowd-favorite Slumberland took away the Made in Arkansas award and Manual Practico del Amigo Imaginario (abreviado) took the Best Short award. 

Sunday the Miller brothers (Noah and Logan) screened their film Touching Home to an audience who bought up all their books at the signing in the lobby of their book Either You’re In, or You’re In the Way about their experiences making the film. The award winning films had an encore screening as well as a panel on the Art of Producing with host Philip Martin, Courtney Pledger, David Allen, and Noah and Logan Miller. The night ended with a festive cookout at Dickey Stephens Park followed by a screening of Field of Dreams. The Audience Award went to the deserving film Breaking Upwards. Dozens of sleeping bags and blankets littered the giant green expanse of grass in front of the classic baseball film. It was all to sad to see the festival ending, but leaves me anxiously awaiting next year. 


See this article in its original form here on the examiner.