Batesville’s 18th Ozark Foothills Film Fest will reveal off the Melba Theater’s recovery

Judy Pest,” Cofounder and executive manager of the Ozark Foothills Film fest at Batesville, frequently refers to this yearly independent movie series as”the tiniest film festival in the nation.”

She isn’t being humble.

“I am actually sort of bragging,” she states. “I think the truth that We’ve managed to pull off this to so long at a rural area of 10,000 people is pretty remarkable.”

This Season’s 18th version of this festival is dispersed around Five days beginning Thursday and ending April 27. Additionally there is a fresh place on this program.

As the 2nd weekend will contain screenings at loyal Film Fest of porno Stand-by Freedom Hall at the University of Arkansas Community College in Batesville, the week’s pictures will probably be exhibited at the revived Melba Theater on Main Street.

“Down Town Batesville has experienced a pretty amazing renaissance within The last couple of decades, and mainstreet has a lot happening,” Pest says of this brand new place.

The festival begins Thursday using a time-traveling excursion to the quiet Movie ago. A restored edition of this 19-25 Charlie Chaplin classic gold-rush is going to be screened using Batesville artist Danny Dozier performing an original score to accompany the movie.

Friday’s screenings of six short films begin at 6:30 p.m. with Brookylino, roughly two sisters and a cousin stepping in to a condo inside their grandfather’s older locality. Other shorts comprise The

Lost Sword, The Moon and the Nighttime , Outdoor Arcadia, The Grid in Coal Hill along with The Character Seam. Robb Rokk, manager of Outdoor Arcadia, along with The Grid in Coal Hill manager Dwight Chalmers will attend the screenings.

Even the feature-length documentary Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story, wraps up Friday’s offerings in 8:30 p.m.

Directed by Jon Strong and comprising former Significant leaguers Hank Aaron, Gary Sheffield, Andrew Young along with Cal Ripken Jr., this film is all about race and also the introduction of some Minor League baseball tournament match in Florida.

On Saturday that the free Parkview Elementary School Show Case, using brief Films by fourth- and – fifth grade students from Parkview Elementary School in Van Buren, starts at 11:30 a.m.
The Annals of Lighting will screen in 12:30 p.m. Saturday. (Photo courtesy Ozark Foothills Film Fest )

The Wake of Lighting , a romantic drama of a woman Losing confidence whilst looking after the aging father and also their plantation, displays at 12:30 p.m. Director Renji Philip is likely to maintain presence.

Short movies start at 2:20 p.m. with Sent Forth and Fleeting Youth, The Heart of a Broken Story, How Out, Four Corners along with also the Kids’ animated job My Roommate Is a Moose. Directors Ryan Doyle, Doug Hoffmann, Kyle Fosse and also Matthew Myslinski will probably be available.

At 6 is Quebec City Mambo, also a brief film roksa that investigates cultural ties between both Quebec and French Louisiana, accompanied with the attribute starring Sushi and also Sauce Piquante: The Life and Music of Gerry McGee.

Both pictures are from Louisiana manager Pat Mire, who’ll attend the screenings.

“I have been understanding about the Ozark Foothills Film Fest to get quite a while Time,” says Mire, who set that the Cinema on the Bayou Festival at Lafayette, La.”I am real pleased with the guys.”

Sushi and also Sauce Piquante is all about Louisiana guitarist Gerry McGee who played with The Ventures and about studio sessions with Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, John Mayall and many others. The Batesville screening could be that the picture’s very first out Louisiana, Mire states.
Gerry McGee (left) and Dr. John look at the documentary Sushi and also Sauce Piquante: The Life and Music of Gerry McGee. (Photo courtesy Ozark Foothills Film Fest )

The final film Friday will be By Seed to Seed, a Documentary about two different people who quit careers as opera singers in Europe to pursue environmental farming and also to construct a food community from Canada.

— INTERMISSION —

The festival resumes in 6:15 p.m. April 26 with poster shorts, such as The Sacred Place Where Life Begins, The Emperor of America , Carlotta’s Face, Teddy Roosevelt and Fracking and many others. Directors Gregory Austin McConnell, Jack Cochran and Pamela Falkenberg are also present.

Director Jesseca Ynez Simmons’ documentary I Will Just Be Mary Lane starts at 8 pm and follows Chicago blues musician Mary Lane because she records her most recent album.

Experimental documentary Dreaming the Memories of Today will Close the night. Place in southern Mexico, the film follows visual artists Geska along with Robert Brecevic along with also their 5-year-old daughter, Katja, since they”uncover complex stories at that memory, time and nostalgia are always reenacted,” in accordance with some description at the festival site.

Short Foreign movies such as Subsequently Anthropocene, Milestone along with A View of the Lake are one of the offerings beginning at 1 1 a.m. April 27.

SPACE FOR RURAL PLACES

A panel discussion in 12:40 p.m. titled”Reel Rural: Rural America at Independent Film” using film makers James Choi (Empty Space), Andrew Paul Davis (Palace) and also Daniel Peddle (Moss) will exude screenings of the pictures, with the festival awards service along with wrap party after.

The board will”analyze the issues related to Film Makers’ Tries to supply authentic portrayals of those individuals, places, and methods particular to rural America,” in accordance with the festival’s web site.

Moss and also Palace have performed his Cinema on the Bayou Festival, Mire States, and therefore are highly Suggested.

“They are both storyline feature films with very good acting for smaller budget films. They truly are separate theatre at its very best ”

Empty Space, states Pest, is in regards to a socially embarrassing, heavy son who creates a experience of a blind female.

“A great deal of rural movies tend to be on the most adorable areas of existence or The harder elements of this, however, one has really a positive thought,” she states.

Needing awareness of fairy tales isn’t a denying for your own Batesville festival.

“Approximately three years ago we began with an eye on individual movies That portray rural America” Pest states. “It is sort of a succession within the holiday season. Film makers that have put their own films from rural places, together with its own challenges they desire rural crowds to see them”

Mire, that started making documentary films in the mid-’80s and led at the 1997 story feature Dirty Rice, enjoys that Pest and one different organizers are breaking a niche for rural-set films in Batesville.

“What I find alluring concerning the Foothills festival is that regional foundation That touches on the simple fact we’re all connected from how we proceed along with how we proceed through life”

Pest along with also her husband, Bob, founded the festival in 2002 after proceeding Into Batesville. They’d functioned a media arts centre at Kansas City, Mo., and worked together with non profits before landing Batesville. Bob expired in December.

She’s a part of a 11-person Board who perhaps not just Organizes the filmfestival, however, also places on the Tauri Movie Camp Youth Summer Residency Program each July.

Pest traces her film interest for her school days at the University of Pittsburgh and also a movie series at neighboring Carnegie Mellon University.

“I did not major in movie, but that I took a couple movie classes, and that I only Always needed a true affinity for individual film,” she states. “it is a fun artform. Indie pictures, in my own opinion, are enormously distinct from commercial films. They have been a lot more of a personalized announcement by the film maker. They truly are maybe not commerce-driven, they are about an artist understanding her or his vision instead of attempting to recreate the art around what is going to attract a mass audience”

SOCIAL FABRIC

With streaming solutions pumping content to our clever TVs, many Indie films is understood in the sofa, however there’s something special about being a portion of a film-loving festival collection, Pest states.

“it is a community of all people, and that’s particularly true in a little festival such as ours”

Unlike bigger festivals, the Foothills is little enough to possess screenings That do not overlap — merely 1 film plays in any given period — that increases this feeling of community.

“Those who come to get a day or 2 weeks are in each screening with. Eachother. People people today become familiar with eachother and also, equally significant, the audience members have to socialize with all the artists”

Mire states that the festival setting makes watching movies more pleasurable.

“There is a gorgeous societal fabric in separate theatre,” he states. “It is not only for film makers, however for its crowds and the folks who move there and share”
Ozark Foothills Film Fest

Thursday-Saturday, Melba Theater, 115 W. Main St., Batesville

April 2627 , Independence Hall, University of Arkansas Community College, 2005 White Drive, Batesville

Entry: $5; $4 pupils and adults 55 and over; $3 Foothills Film Society members. Tickets for individual screenings aren’t sold beforehand. Red-eye All Movie Pass: $30; $25 adults and students 55 and over; $20 Foothills Film Society members. Gold-rush screening Thursday, $55; $6 adults and students 55 and more than 5 Foothills Film Society members. Gold-rush progress tickets may be arranged by telephoning -LRB-870-RRB- 251-1189 or Demo ozarkfilm@wildblue.net.

Films, viewing times and other information is seen in ozarkfoothillsfilmfest.org.

Three years ago, when the idea of Black Point festered in my head, it was for two primary reasons. One was the location of Lake Geneva as the perfect setting for something like this. The business, restaurants, lodging, and most of all the beauty of the area made this an ideal site to have a film festival. The second reason was my appetite for independent films and music — an appetite that is far from being filled in an area such as this. In places like Chicago and New York, the choice of film and music is in abundance. In a place like Lake Geneva there is none. I’ve spent the last twenty years spending as much time as possible in Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee to see and hear new, daring, and exciting forms of art. I’m lucky to have these three cities so close, but it can be frustrating having to travel to experience these things. Why can’t there be something closer to here?

I’ve always believed that there was an audience for these things right here in my back yard. I had hoped that given the opportunity an audience would be there. In the world we live in today that is ruled by corporate money and greed, it seems impossible that anything outside the mainstream will ever be heard or seen again. There’s something wrong with the system when the best films can’t be seen until their release date in the video store or the only place to hear interesting music is either in T.V. commercials or on Conan O’Brien at 12:30 in the morning. Hollywood and radio only care about the bottom line and not about the final product. This is nothing new. It’s just more evident these days.

So what can be done about it? I don’t know. Besides boycotting the system and not spending your hard earned money on this crap, I don’t believe that there is anything that can be done about it. That’s why I believe in outlet like college radio, public radio, and film festivals.

Our goal at Black Point is to consistently offer independence to spotlight filmmakers, musicians, and artists that strive to create art. Look around you because you will find someone that is creating something special. Support those kids playing music in the garages and basements of our community. Support that filmmaker or artist who is creating a world that you might never have visited before.

This weekend, get out and experience what Hollywood and the mainstream don’t want you to see.

Deep thanks to my dear friends, Black Point partners, Lisa, Jo Anna, and Rich for helping to make this real. It would never have happened without you.

It all started in an airport cocktail lounge in Phoenix, Arizona. I was waiting out another plane delay due to all the bad weather that was ahead of me on my way back from Sundance in 2000.

I had spent a week in Utah by myself seeing the festival for the first time. It was exciting, fun and like nowhere else I have ever visited. I have been to many festivals but never one with so much energy and talent.

The films were great, the parties were better and the people I met were terrific. The week I was there alone was a long one and I was very anxious to get back home and back to reality. But, getting home was not going to be easy to do, due to the weather.

So in between flights and re-routes and one to many airport lounges, I started to convince myself that Lake Geneva would be the perfect place to start up yet another film festival. I figured that the more blockbusters Hollywood keeps putting out, the more there was a need for independent film festivals. So why not do one right here in Wisconsin?

Maybe I was overtired, maybe I was a little more drunk that I thought, or maybe, damn it! This might just work! Either way, I was obsessed with the idea and I was just waiting to talk myself out of it like I’ve done so many times before.

When I finally made it home, I gave the pitch to my wife, Lisa. There was a stack of bar napkins with notes, drawings, stains, last will and testament, shopping list and scribbles. I tried to make sense of it all, my delirium was infectious.

The next day, I sought out my friend, Rich who was on the board the second I uttered the words. We have always been on the same page with most things and this idea was no different. From there, Lisa got more involved and then we stumbled across this sassy little redhead, Jo Anna. She fought her best to not get involved with us but soon found her spot amongst us. Just like that a trio became a quartet.

In the two plus years since, we’ve laughed hysterically, screamed at each other incessantly, drank lots of coffee, smoked many cigarettes, failed miserably, won a few, agreed to disagree, and slowly became a foursome with one brain aiming at one goal.

I couldn’t have done any of this without my three dear friends and I will forever be in awe and indebted to them until the day I die for making this crazy thing work.

So have fun this week…goe see some really terrific films, check lotus some amazing works of art, and listen to some really cool music. Eat lots of food, drink even more, schmooze a little or just plan out your festival.

will be back for it’s fourth year
on April 17-24, 2005. The festival has been expanded to
one full week to accomidate more films and activties.

The opening party will be on Sunday, April 17th and the film
screenings will start Monday night, April 18th and run through
the week until Sunday, April 24th.

Many of the staples of the festival will still be intact including
the opening party at Hogs & Kisses, the Friday night Art Gallery
Walk, the awards ceremony on Saturday night and the best of
the fest all day on the final day of the festival.

Film submissons begin on Tuesday, June 1st and will run
through January, 2005.

2004 was the festival’s best year yet and plans for 2005
will continue on that path. Over 50 filmmakers participated
from all over the country in this year’s festival with Q&A’s,
parties and seminars. Attendance was great, and the music
this year was the best ever.

So mark your calendars for next year and stay tuned for some
major summer events and help us make the Black Point Film
Festival an event to cherish for the Lake Geneva area.