One of the many great things about filmmaking is that it’s such a collaborative art form. You rarely ever do a film with just one discipline involved. Even animations have writers, directors, and sound editors. In the same way the Little Rock Film Festival is collaborative and it shares a certain bond with other festivals throughout the state and region. The Arkansas Literary Festival is a great primer for LRFF. If you’ve never been to the Arkansas LIterary Festival you are truly missing out on an inspiring four-day festival dedicated to the art of storytelling. The festival begins April 12-15, right here in Little Rock. What is a film if it doesn’t Have a great story? You can’t walk two feet at this festival without running into someone with a great story. Authors from all over the globe will be in attendance including highlights of famed American humorist Roy Blount JR, radio and television host, social activist and author Tavis Smiley, and even home grown talents from Arkansas.
More directly related to film I was asked to moderate a discussion with author Jason Zinoman, a critic and reporter who writes for the New York Times, regarding his book Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, ConqueredHollywood, and Invented Modern Horror. It is an excellent book that details the likes of famous horror directors like Wes Craven, John Carpenter, and Roman Polanski. His tales of the dark side of the New Hollywood coin of the 1970s is fascinating and really puts in perspective the early makings of the genre came to be. Zinoman has mentioned to me that he will have some short film clips from back in the day of a certain screenwriter of a certain sci-fi horror movie I consider to be one of the greatest films of all time.
Video: Jason Zinoman reads an excerpt from his book Shock Value.
Please come to the Arkansas Literary Festival and come to our discussion of Jason Zinoman’s book on Saturday, April 14, 10:00 a.m. on the 1st floor of the Main Library downtown. Check out the schedule here for other panels, workshops, and presenters you might be interested in like Arkansas native Jenny Wingfield who wrote the script to the Reese Witherspoon film The Man In The Moon and for all you visual artists, I’d also recommend the Graphic Novels & Comics panel too.
