• Communities
    • Advertising
    • Production
    • Marketing
    • Film
  • Submit Post Here
  • Editorial Spotlights
    • AdChat QuickChat™
  • Business Directory
  • About Us
May 29, 2022
  • Advertise with Us!
  • Contact Us
- Advertisement -
  • Communities
    • Advertising
    • Production
    • Marketing
    • Film
  • Submit Post Here
  • Editorial Spotlights
    • AdChat QuickChat™
  • Business Directory
  • About Us
Author

John Wildman

FULL SERVICE MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT CONSULTING We believe that festivals are advocates for filmmakers as well as important civic events. Our mission is to help you get the word out so that filmmakers connect with the film-lovers in your community. We can help you create a strong publicity and marketing plan with highest impact in order to deliver for film companies and filmmakers alike. Our experience extends from red carpet events, managing the most high profile talent, to making sure that press and journalists have what they need so that they can provide the coverage you need.




Film
Omar Sosa’s 88 Well-Tuned Drums has World Premiere at USA Film Festival
John Wildman Posted On April 11, 2022


Omar Sosa’s 88 Well-Tuned Drums looks at the life and music of the influential Cuban pianist and composer. A multiple Grammy-nominee, Sosa is one of the most versatile jazz artists on the scene today, known for fusing a wide range of jazz, world music, and electronic elements with his native Afro-Cuban roots to create a fresh and original sound—with a Latin jazz heart.

The film traces Sosa’s long and winding road to becoming an indelible and truly unique presence in the world of music. From his childhood in Cuba, conservatory education at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Música in Havana, military service in Angola during that country’s long civil war, and eventual relocation to Ecuador where he wrote, arranged, and performed commercial jingles, Sosa’s story is remarkable and unexpected. A stint as a sought-after sideman in the Bay Area’s burgeoning Latin jazz scene, and a growing reputation for creating a distinctive sound led to releasing over 30 albums with four Grammy nominations, three Latin Grammy nominations, and literally performing around the world. Sosa’s rhythmic style is as unforgettable as is the path he took to create that music and secure his place in that world.

 

Credits
Director/Writer: Soren Sorensen
Producers: Soren Sorensen, Scott Price
Executive Producers: Nathan Collins, Jess Collins
Associate Producers: Dave Decker, Greg Mallozzi, Holly E. Mello
Editor: Soren Sorenson
Consulting Editor: Chad Freidrichs
Cinematographer: Jason Rossi
Camera Operators: Dan Akiba, David Delpoio, Jay Heyman, Mark TB Matook, Roberto Medina, Scott Price, Jason Rossi, Soren Sorensen
Music: Omar Sosa
Animation: Floating Pear, LLC
TRT: 100 min
Country: USA


Continue Reading
0
116 Views




Film
USA Film Festival Announces 38th Annual KidFilm® Family Festival (FREE) | See Schedule Jan. 22-23
John Wildman Posted On January 17, 2022


The USA Film Festival announces the schedule of events for the (in-theater) 38th Annual KidFilm® Family Festival taking place on Saturday, January 22 and Sunday, January 23, 2022 at the Angelika Film Center, 5321 E. Mockingbird Lane, Dallas. All programs will be presented FREE to the community.

KidFilm is the oldest and largest-attended children’s film festival in the United States, featuring an entertaining, educational, and diverse line-up of new and classic films for both children and adults. KidFilm is an annual outreach program of the USA Film Festival/Dallas, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the recognition and promotion of excellence in the film and video arts.

This year, KidFilm celebrates diversity, equality, empowerment, family, friendship and community, and includes films that feature historical figures and events, different cultures, and environmental themes. The schedule of films includes magical journeys celebrating courage, perseverance and self-reliance, along with other important educational lessons in a program featuring live-action and animated films for audiences of any age.

Honorary Co-Chairs for KidFilm are USA Film Festival Board of Directors members Yvette Ostolaza, Laura Fox, David Dummer, Gail Terrell, and Megan Mitchell. “We are so pleased to be able to offer this year’s program as an all-free-admission event thanks to support from the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and from the Festival’s Sponsors,” said Fox who continued “We are honored to be able to offer this timely line-up of entertaining, educational and inspiring films.”

View Schedule

Highlights of this year’s program include:

NEW ANIMATED FEATURE FILM Maya the Bee 3: The Golden Orb (Australia/Germany) by Noel Cleary, based on the international children’s book beloved by generations.

NEW LIVE-ACTION FEATURE FILMS to be presented include Gilles de Maistre’s enchanting The Wolf and the Lion (Canada/France) starring Graham Greene, Molly Kunz, and Charlie Carrick; Alexey Telnov’s fantastical The Time Guardians (Russia); Kenny Gage’s & Devon Downs’ action-packed Kung Fu Girl (China); Ngo The Chau’s adventurous Dwarf Long Nose (Germany); DennisGansel’s epic JimButton and the Wild 13 (Germany), based on the bestselling book by Michael Ende (“The Neverending Story”); and Bragi Thor Hinriksson’s heartwarming Birta (Iceland).

EDUCATIONAL & FUN SHORT FILMS

Celebrate learning remotely in a theater setting! TEKS-based, character building, and environmentally informative short films to be presented include: four book-based films adapted for the screen by Weston Woods Studios — The Sun Is Kind of a Big Deal by Nick Seluk, Let Liberty Rise!: How America’s Schoolchildren Helped Save the Statue of Liberty by Chana Stiefel, Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler, and We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom. Additional independently-made, educational short films include Joseph Silva’s Earth’s Ekko and Sofia Bobriseva’s Mama Canada: Outer Space.

TWENTY-FIVE NEW SHORT FILM PRESENTATIONS featuring live-action and animated short films from around the world including works from Australia, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, United Kingdom, Ukraine, and United States (including two Texan filmmakers).

Schedule, Ticket & Location Information:

A full schedule of KidFilm programs may be viewed online via the USA Film Festival’s website at www.usafilmfestival.com. Printed KidFilm flyers may also be picked up at the Angelika Film Center Dallas beginning January 8th.

Tickets for all shows are FREE for children & adults!

Programs are free but you must have a ticket for admission; Tickets and seating are limited. Free books are for kids only.

Tickets for all shows are available day of show only, beginning one hour before each show time. (Note: Lines can form earlier.)

Safety Protocols — We will not fill theaters to full capacity; we will only seat to 50% capacity. Current mask guidelines will be posted on the Angelika Film Center’s doors day of show.

For additional information, please call the USA Film Festival at 214-821-FILM (3456) or visit www.usafilmfestival.com. During KidFilm, please inquire in person at the KidFilm Information Desk at the theater.

All programs will take place at the Angelika Film Center, 5321 E. Mockingbird Lane, Dallas. KidFilm is a program of the USA Film Festival/Dallas.

Sponsors

KidFilm programs for both the public and Dallas Independent School District students are made possible thanks to support from Sponsors — Carol and Alan J. Bernon Family Charitable Foundation, Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District, Sidley Austin LLP, Headington Companies, Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate, The Eugene McDermott Foundation, Gaedeke Group, Mary Fox & Laura Fox, Moody Fund for the Arts, MPS Studios, DFW Child magazine, and the Angelika Film Center.

The USA Film Festival is supported, in part, by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.

About KidFilm® DISD Outreach Programs

In addition to the KidFilm public weekend, special outreach programs are presented for thousands of Dallas Independent School District students (grades K–6) and educators throughout February. Students will view programs selected especially for them. This year, films will be presented virtually on DISD campuses. Many of the films presented are book-based and designed to be TEKS-compliant and curriculum-interactive including relevant topics and issues (cultural awareness and diversity, compassion and tolerance, history, math, social studies, the importance of education and reading, etc.).

About the USA Film Festival
Now celebrating its 52nd year, the USA Film Festival is a Dallas-based, 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the encouragement and recognition of excellence in the film and video arts. The Festival’s year-round programs and events include KidFilm, special monthly programs and premieres, TexFest, and the USA Film Festival held each spring. The USA Film Festival is supported in part by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information about the Festival is available online at www.usafilmfestival.com


Continue Reading
0
224 Views




Billy the Kid Film Festival  / Film
The 3rd Annual Billy the Kid Film Festival | In Person Screenings | Nov 5-6
John Wildman Posted On November 1, 2021


The Hico-based Billy the Kid Film Festival today announced a return to in-person screenings and events for the third edition of the popular film festival taking place November 5-6. Once again, the 2-day cinema experience will both put a spotlight on outlaw-themed films, as well as Texas-shot and made productions, led off by the Opening Night free-to-the-public presentation of Chris Zuhdi’s Hico-shot feature film, MEXICAN MOON.

Festival founders and directors, Philip Vasquez and Luci DiGiorgio, along with lead film programmer Justina Walford, have continued the Billy the Kid Film Festival’s mission to connect audiences and film lovers with filmmakers with a Hico/Hill Country flavor as they have done since the inception of the film festival. This year is also cause for celebration as BTKFF returns to Main Street for screenings and events including an appearance by comedy legend and Billy the Kid Film Festival Ambassador Ruth Buzzi. BTKFF’s Closing night party, red carpet and awards will be at the Historic Hico Jail (208 S. Pecan).

Vasquez and DiGiorgio said, “The Billy the Kid Film Festival combines the unique personality of Hico with our love of film and this year’s films and events is sure to demonstrate that once again. Introducing our film fans to the work of these talented filmmakers, many of whom made their films in Austin, Dallas, other locations throughout Texas, and of course, Hico itself, is always a big thrill for us.”

Milk For Violence

One of those Hico productions, Chris Zuhdi’s Mexican Moon, will be featured on Opening Night following last year’s virtual sneak peak of one of the film’s scenes. Zuhdi will be on hand to talk about the Western Noir about a down on his luck Vietnam Vet who puts himself in the crosshairs of a local drug cartel when he decides to help himself to some of their ill-gotten money. Saturday Night will feature a screening of Lisa Belcher’s Austin-filmed short comedy Javelina Run, about two idiot ranch hands who pretend to be fugitive train robbers to get attention from the ladies at an old west saloon. Another locally shot production, the film is designed to be the first entry as part of a series involving the characters as they continue their adventures in the Old West. Also featured on Saturday night will be Aaron Levine’s Milk for Violence, written by Texan Justin Heller pits a preacher’s wife bent on revenge against a violent outlaw.

Half and Half, Fearless

Other features include; Sri Charan’s Half and Half, a dialogue-free adventure with music (filmed in Dallas) involving a homeless man and an abused young bride who form an unlikely alliance in order to try and win a supermarket’s big sweepstakes and buy freedom for both of them; Alex M. Garnett’s After the Night with Valerie, about a man recovering from a bout with amnesia who struggles with what is real and what is not. Wojciech Lorenc’s documentary Fearless, follows the ups and downs of the people training in a boxing gym in the tiny town of Conroe, Texas.

Film festival passes and tickets are on-sale now. For more information on the Billy the Kid Film Festival go to https://www.billythekidfilmfestival.com.

The 2021 Billy the Kid Film Festival official selections:

OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION

 Mexican Moon

Director: Chris Zuhdi

Country: USA; Running Time: 101 min

The drug cartels are putting a financial strangle hold on a small Texas town, forcing a Vietnam vet to lose his job at a local garage. However, his luck may have changed when he learns about one hundred thousand dollars that has been buried in a false grave by that same cartel.

Preceded by:

Roofing in July

Director: Cooper Shapiro

Country: USA; Running Time: 7 min

The youngest roofer in his company, Alejandro falls victim to a prank by his coworkers with deadly consequences.

FEATURE PRESENTATIONS

After the Night with Valerie

Director: Alex M. Garnett

Country: USA; Running Time: 96 min

A recovering amnesiac’s memories are replaced by fantasies he believes actually occurred.

Preceded by:

Smoking Gun

Director: David Butterfield

Country: USA; Running Time: 10 min

An old bartender is ready to close up his bar due to tough times when a couple of previously rebel soldiers turned outlaws enter the bar and stir things up.

Fearless        

Director: Wojciech Lorenc

Country: USA; Running Time: 89 min

An intimate portrait of a boxing gym in a small town of Conroe, Texas. The film is constructed as an allegory for the challenges faced by people of color and immigrants in the US.

Preceded by:

Lesbian Bandida Massacre

Director: Vincent Augusto

Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min

  1. One morning, a girl chased by an angry landlord is saved by two gold diggers, who take her in. But the day after, a surprise awaits them…

Half and Half             

Director: Sri Charan

Country: ; Running Time: 56 min

Two worlds collide as an unlikely friendship forms between an optimistic homeless man, Adam, and a jaded young bride, Amira, as they discover they’re both playing to win one million dollars and agree to split the winning share Half and Half.

Preceded by:

UnHoused     

Director: Lauren C Unger

Country: USA; Running Time: 8 min

Unhoused is a short film about homelessness and Covid-19 pandemic. This short drama showcases three stories that collide in an unexpected way. Originally submitted to the 48-hour film project and now a 100 Hour Editors cut.

Milk for Violence      

Director: Aaron Levine

Country: USA; Running Time: 43 min

Aaron Trow, greatest outlaw this side of the Mississippi, has just escaped from jail and is on the lam. Meanwhile, in the nearby frontier town of Plymouth Flats, Ana, the preacher’s wife, is left home alone by her husband Caleb. Out of seemingly nowhere, Aaron breaks into Ana’s cottage and proceeds to terrorize her into feeding him dinner. When Ana confronts his errant behavior, Aaron retaliates the only way he knows how; with violence, before disappearing into the night. After trying unsuccessfully to enlist the help of local law enforcement and her cowardly husband, Ana decides to take matters into her own hands. Will justice be served? Will Ana be able to stop Aaron before he strikes again? And what’s up with the three dysfunctional bounty hunters who just showed up in Plymouth Flats?

Preceded by:

Javelina Run

Director: Lisa Belcher

Country: USA; Running Time: 19 min

Javelina Run, a western comedy, is a proof of concept for a feature film. This is the first chapter in a collection of entertaining little tales from Javelina County all narrated by the town barkeep. In the film, two men attempt to impress a couple of beauties by taking credit for a recent train robbery. However, they may get much more than they bargained for by passing themselves off as dangerous criminals.

LOCAL FILMS & SHORTS BLOCK

The Ballad of Emma Wright

Director: Carlos Diaz

Country: USA; Running Time: 22 min

Late 1800’s – Housewife Emma Wright lives her life feeling unfulfilled, unhappy, and “trapped” by her husband. Out in this small desert town, she dreams of moving to the more modern and fast paced lifestyle of New York city. Her husband, William Wright, is a hard working, caring, and honest man. Emma realizes there is no way she can ever leave this town or her husband for the big city life – unless of course, William’s life is cut short.

 Fade In Texas           

Director: George Meyers

Country: USA; Running Time: 51 min

Fade In Texas is a Documentary Film highlighting the Entertainment Industry in Texas and more specifically, the Western Entertainment Industry.

Judge Yancey and the 17 Hand Mule        

Director: Jason Watson

Country: USA; Running Time: 20 min

Based on a true story about a man named Jack Slate. He owned a livery stable and was known to raise fine quality mules. A circuit Judge tried to buy the mule. Jack didn’t want to sell. The mule turned up dead a couple days later. Someone had fed broken glass to the mule.  Jack suspected the judge and ambushed him to try and kill him.

Nolan 

Director: Moe Headrick

Country: USA; Running Time: 28 min

1800’s western, Nolan goes to break his brothers out of jail, with the help of two other outlaw gangs.

  

SHORTS BLOCK

Davis Family Values 

Director: Bettina Davis

Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min

Mother and son start the day.

Killer Miller   

Director: Austin Spicer

Country: USA; Running Time: 19 min

Follow the most feared and respected Texas Ranger of them all, Henry “Killer” Miller, as he trails a couple of murderous, outlaw brothers. He’ll try to bring them in peacefully, but as his name suggests – some people are just better off dead. Inspired by the Best-Selling novel, “Killer Miller” by R.J. Hendricks II.

My Dinner with Werner        

Director: Maverick Moore

Country: USA; Running Time: 18 min

Based on real events, real people, and real things they actually said, My Dinner With Werner is a wildly bizarre and wacky farce about a 1987 dinner date with a murder plot as the main dish.

Perdition       

Director: Paul N Foster

Country: USA; Running Time: 18 min

After losing a loved one, Mathews is caught off guard when Lilith shows up in the middle of the night seeking help, when her husband shows up looking for her, Lilith finds out that Mathew may not be what she thought he was.

Timber           

Directors: Cullen Hamblen, Feifei Gong

Country: USA; Running Time: 8 min

Two friends are faced with a tough choice after something goes down on their camping trip.

 

ABOUT THE BILLY THE KID FILM FESTIVAL

The Billy the Kid Film Festival is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting film, filmmakers and film education through our annual event. In November, 2019, the first edition of the film festival will debut in Hico, Texas, the Hometown of “Brushy Bill” Robert, alias “Billy the Kid”. It is the film festival’s mission to celebrate film makers from all over the world, while giving our local film makers and residents a place to come together and appreciate the art of making movies


Continue Reading
0
242 Views




Dallas Film
Film and Politics? Tackle the Conversation on Race and US History in Our Classrooms | Oct. 7th at Texas Theatre
John Wildman Posted On October 5, 2021


Attend Panel Discussion Plus Screening of Rachel Boyton’s “Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)


THE FILM:

Urgent and nuanced, Civil War (or, Who Do We Think We Are) travels across the United States, exploring how Americans tell the story of their Civil War. Filmed from the last year of Obama’s presidency through the present, it interweaves insightful scenes and touching interviews filmed in the North and South, painting a uniquely crafted, multi-faceted portrait of the American psyche and the deep roots of its turbulent times. With subtlety and determination, Civil War portrays a nation in denial, haunted by an embittered past and the stories it refuses to tell.

THE PANEL:

Tackling the Conversation on Race and US History in Our Classrooms uses the film as a leaping off point to go further, exploring how we can approach teaching young people and our communities about the truth of our past so we can have justice in the present. Among the topics discussed will be the lack of knowledge around Reconstruction and misinformation about “The Lost Cause” and the media sensation and political football that the discussion of Critical Race Theory has become.

MODERATOR

Jerry Hawkins (Executive Director, Dallas Truth, Racial Healing &
Transformation )

PANELISTS

Amber Sims (Young Leaders Strong City)

Aicha Davis (Texas State Board of Education)

Dr. Michael Phillips (Author, White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001)

Rachel Boynton (Filmmaker, Civil War (or, Who Do We Think We Are))

Screening and Panel information:
Thursday, October 7 at 6:30PM
Texas Theater  
231 W. Jefferson Blvd


Continue Reading
0
266 Views




EARTHxFilm  / Film
EarthxFilm 2021 Announces Film Lineup for 5th Edition (April 16-25)
John Wildman Posted On March 25, 2021


EarthxFilm announces ten days and nights of drive-in, outdoor and online screenings during this year’s hybrid edition of the Dallas-based environmental film festival. The Festival continues its mission to showcase films and emerging media that explore science, conservation, climate change, and the environment while honoring the heroes working to protect our planet. EarthxFilm aims to turn awareness into action through education, art, and media.

Opening Night for EarthxFilm will be highlighted with a drive-in presentation of Sally Aitken’s Sundance favorite Playing with Sharks, about the charismatic and groundbreaking diver Valerie Taylor, while Closing Night will feature the world premiere virtual presentation of Clark Johnson’s Percy Vs. Goliath, starring Christopher Walken, Adam Beach, Christina Ricci, and Zach Braff. Executive Produced by NBA champion Dwight Howard, this true-life story tells of a farmer taking on a multi-national corporation over the impact of GMOs on his livelihood. Additional film highlights will include an evening of Texas-focused films featuring EarthxFilm alum Ben Masters’ American Ocelot and Nicol Ragland’s Trans Pecos.

TRANS PECOS

“Over the course of the past year, EarthxFilm has worked to adapt and innovate the way we present environmental stories and messages to the world,” said Michael Cain, Co-Founder and President of EarthxFilm. “With over 12 million views since EarthxTV’s launch in September, we have seen great success with our online presentations, and we are excited to safely share these inspiring films with audiences in a public space once again.”

David Holbrooke, EarthxFilm Artistic Director, adds, “While environmental issues have been less in focus because of the relentless news cycle of the last year, we know at EarthX that these challenges are no less urgent. That is why we are so grateful to our many daring filmmakers and planetary heroes who have continued their work to bring us essential stories that will inspire our audience into action.

The 2021 EarthxFilm festival actively supports filmmakers through the payment of screenings fees and facilitating audience donations to their causes. In addition, cash prizes totaling $25,000 will be awarded to filmmakers and through impact grants to environmental organizations showcased in the films.

A highlight of this year’s edition is Christi Cooper’s Youth V Gov. The story of a groundbreaking lawsuit filed by America’s youth against the U.S. government, asserting it has willfully acted over six decades to create the climate crisis. The film was supported throughout its production by EarthX via a filmmaker residency and financing assistance.

YOUTH V GOV, 2040, OKAVANGO: RIVER OF DREAMS

Additional highlights include the award-winning film 2040, Damon Gameau’s visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, a vision board of how environmental solutions could regenerate the world for future generations; David Abel’s Entangled, about how climate change has accelerated a collision between the nation’s most valuable fishery, and a federal agency mandated to protect both; and Beverly & Dereck Joubert’s Okavango: River of Dreams, a film about the Okavango River in Botswana, seeing the animals and people that use her, as well as those who are victim to the changes, brought about by her.

Another focus of this year’s lineup are two Texas-themed films screening back-to-back, Ben Masters’ American Ocelot, about the endangered wild cats, and Nicol Ragland’s Trans Pecos, which looks at the issues of land and water rights in far west Texas. A group of animal-focused, family-friendly short films will include Ami Vitale and David Allen’s Shaba, about an elephant sanctuary in northern Kenya; Richard Reens’ Pant Hoot, about a genocide survivor transcending overwhelming odds to become a master chimpanzee linguist; Kaitlyn Schwalje’s Snowy, a whimsical look at a pet turtle’s happiness; and Dominic Gill’s The Linesman: Both Sides Matter, which is the story of one man’s mission to end the human-elephant conflict in Myanmar.

Announcements will follow with news regarding panels, music presentations, youth films, EarthXR and more. For more information please go to: www.earthxfilm.org.

EarthxFilm 2021 Film Lineup

OPENING NIGHT
Playing with Sharks DRIVE-IN PRESENTATION
Director: Sally Aitken
Country: Australia, Running Time: 95 min
Most people aren’t thrilled at the chance to be surrounded by a shiver of sharks, but Valerie Taylor isn’t most people. A fearless diver, marine conservationist, and Australian icon, she dedicated most of her life to exploring the beauty of sharks—forming a sought-after underwater cinematography team with her husband, Ron, and even shooting the real sharks in Jaws. Director Sally Aitken captures Taylor’s enduring passion for these intimidating creatures and her unflinching willingness to connect with them in their element. Now in her 80s, Taylor reflects on her lifelong journey with the sea while sumptuous, remastered 16mm footage transports us to the mysterious deep and testifies to the richness of the ocean as it once was.

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the VIRTUAL PRESENTATION
Earth Liberation Front (2011)
Director: Marshall Curry
Country: USA, Running Time: 75 min
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Daniel McGowan, a former member of the Earth Liberation Front, faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Marshall Curry (Oscar®-nominated Street Fight) provides a nuanced and provocative account that is part coming-of-age story, part cautionary tale and part cops-and-robbers thriller.

CLOSING NIGHT
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the DRIVE-IN PRESENTATION
Earth Liberation Front (2011)
Director: Marshall Curry
Country: USA, Running Time: 75 min
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Daniel McGowan, a former member of the Earth Liberation Front, faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Marshall Curry (Oscar®-nominated Street Fight) provides a nuanced and provocative account that is part coming-of-age story, part cautionary tale and part cops-and-robbers thriller.

Percy Vs Goliath VIRTUAL PRESENTATION
Director: Clark Johnson
Country: US, Running Time: 120 min
Based on events from a 1998 lawsuit, PERCY follows small-town farmer Percy Schmeiser, who challenges a major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified (GMO) canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crops. As he speaks out against the company’s business practices, he realizes he is representing thousands of other disenfranchised farmers around the world fighting the same battle. Suddenly, he becomes an unsuspecting folk hero in a desperate war to protect farmers’ rights and the world’s food supply against what they see as corporate greed.

FEATURE FILMS
2040
Director: Damon Gameau
Country: US, Running Time: 91 min
Award-winning director Damon Gameau embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Damon blends traditional documentary with dramatized sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board of how these solutions could regenerate the world for future generations.

Entangled
Director: David Abel
Country: US, Running Time: 75 min
Entangled is an award-winning, feature-length film about how climate change has accelerated a collision between the nation’s most valuable fishery, one of the world’s most endangered species, and a federal agency mandated to protect both. The film chronicles the efforts to protect North Atlantic right whales from extinction, the impacts of those efforts on the lobster industry, and how NOAA Fisheries has struggled to balance the vying interests. Entangled, from the makers of Lobster War and Sacred Cod, won a 2020 Jackson Wild award, known as the Oscars of nature films. It also won Best Feature Film at the Water Docs Film Festival, Best Conservation Film at the Mystic Film Festival, and the John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival.

Making A Mountain
Directors: Rikke Selin Fokdal, Kaspar Astrup Schröder
Country: Denmark, Running Time: 51 min
Following the process of a visionary project that combines waste management and infrastructure with spectacular architecture and a recreational urban space. Bjarke Ingels’ prestigious project Amager Hill – the waste-to-energy plant with a ski slope on top.

Okavango: River of Dreams
Directors: Beverly & Dereck Joubert
Country: Austria, Running Time: 94 min
Drawing on Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, the story is told as a journey from Purgatory into Paradise, a quest for truth, for the soul of this river, the Okavango in Botswana, seeing those who use her, as well as those who are victim to the changes she brings, used by her. Floods rise up and transport trillions of liters of water, and yet, each droplet makes a difference. There are characters like Feeketsa, a wounded lioness that makes it against all odds and becomes a kind of talisman for the tale, a symbol of hope through hardship. The film is like looking through windows into stories and then moving on, until we reveal that each story binds us to the next, and to the river herself. It is also a symbol of hope against a backdrop of climate change that threatens every pristine landscape in the world.

The Last Horns Of Africa
Director: Garth de Bruno Austin
Country: South Africa, Running Time: 97 min
With unprecedented access, The Last Horns of Africa is a gripping and intimate look at the current rhino poaching war raging across Africa. We follow the journeys of two conservation heroes who put their lives on the line to protect the rhino in their care, all the while a top-secret, covert operation endeavors to bring down South Africa’s most notorious rhino poaching syndicates.

There Is a Place On Earth
Director: Ellen van den Honert
Country: Netherlands, Running Time: 73 min
There Is a Place On Earth is a feature length documentary exploring the role of artists in wilderness conservation. Dutch Filmmaker Ellen van den Honert takes us on a beautiful and poetic journey around the world where we meet artists/conservationists who share extraordinary creative work and a commitment to the environment. In the process we experience a unique, intuitive connection to the wild – and the necessity to protect it.

Trans Pecos
Director: Nicol Ragland
Country: US, Running Time: 64 min
Trans Pecos is a timely intervention weaving together the issues of land and water rights, while painting an honest portrait of what is to come if we allow oil interest to supersede public good. It is a cautionary tale meant to inspire people from every walk of life to take action and work toward change that can happen if informed citizens and those in power hold oil and gas companies accountable. A documentary that uncovers the truth in Far West Texas and one pipeline reflecting the beginning of the invasion of one of the last American frontiers.

We Are as Gods
Directors: Jason Sussberg, David Alvarado
Country: Russia/US, Running Time: 90 min
“We are as gods and might as well get good at it.” This is the audacious opening line of the Whole Earth Catalog, a compendium of wonderful tools compiled by counterculture legend Stewart Brand. A psychedelic experimenter, cyberspace pioneer, and environmentalist, he is now urging humanity to use our god-like powers to reframe our relationship with time and life itself. Today, Stewart is using biotech to resurrect extinct species. He and a team of scientists travel to Siberia to collect ancient DNA in an effort to make a hybrid Woolly Mammoth. Former allies in the environmental movement vow to stand in his way, but Stewart forges ahead in his life-long mission to conserve the whole earth.

Youth V Gov
Director: Christi Cooper
Country: US, Running Time: 90 min
Youth V Gov is the story of America’s youth taking on the world’s most powerful government. Armed with a wealth of evidence, twenty-one courageous leaders file a ground-breaking lawsuit against the U.S. government, asserting it has willfully acted over six decades to create the climate crisis, thus endangering their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. If these young people are successful, they will not only make history, they will change the future.

SHORT FILMS

A Fisher’s Right to Know
Director: John Haley
Country: US, Running Time: 16 min
Fishers throughout East Alabama depend on the mighty Coosa River for food, recreation and a family pastime that goes back generations. But do fishermen and women — and their families — have a right to know which fish are safe to consume? Not currently in Alabama, the River State. Coosa Riverkeeper and other advocates are working to give fishers across the entire state that right.

After Ice
Director: Kieran Baxter
Country: UK, Running Time: 12 min
Glaciers reflect our past and reveal our future. Historical aerial photographs of Iceland’s glaciers can now be reconstructed in three dimensions and overlaid with current day images to shed light on the impacts of recent anthropogenic climate change. Four years in the making, this short film brings imagery from the archives of the National Land Survey of Iceland together with intimate footage of six outlet glaciers in the Hornafjörður region of Southeast Iceland to tell the breathtaking story of a rapidly disappearing frozen world.

American Ocelot
Director: Ben Masters
Country: US, Running Time: 32 min
American Ocelot tells the story of one of the most endangered and beautiful wild cats in the United States — a species so elusive that high quality images and video have never been captured until now. With fewer than 100 individuals remaining in the US, the ocelot is critically endangered, genetically isolated, and only exists in Texas. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on land acquisition, research, and conservation, ocelot numbers and habitat have steadily decreased since it was listed as an endangered species. But there is hope. Their genetics can be rescued by translocations from Mexico and suitable habitat exists on private lands.

Barriers to Bridges
Director: Robin Bean Crane
Country: US, Running Time: 20 min
There has never been a more important time for all people to be able to participate in the environmental movement. From the impacts of climate change to the need to spend more time outdoors, our health and our quality of life depends on it. Yet many barriers keep BIPOC (Black, Indigineous and People of Color) from feeling included in this movement. This film explores the ways in which organizations in Alabama are doing the necessary and critical work to make sure BIPOC are included. Through the lens of community science, individuals share their struggles to be included and organizations share their challenges and successes with creating more inclusive programs and opportunities.

Blue Calling
Director: Sarah Ziegler, Janis Klinkenberg
Country: Germany, Running Time: 6 min
This is the story of Daniel Bichsel, who takes us to an Italy unknown to most. Marettimo is a protected Mediterranean island off the coast of Sicily where rugged hills meet crystal-clear waters—and that’s where Daniel comes alive. A free diver and underwater explorer, Daniel shows us what he calls an “alien world”, where time stands still, where everything is in the present for the time of the breath hold. Free diving means you’re not just a spectator; you’re part of the underwater world, becoming one with the unique flora and fauna of the Mediterranean, from schools of fish to graceful seaweed to colourful coral. But this paradise is under threat, and as an environmentalist and educator, Daniel encourages others to become ambassadors for the underwater world.

District 15
Director: Anjali Nayar
Country: US, Running Time: 23 min
Communities for a Better Environment does critical work on environmental justice and empowers Californian communities to stand up to polluting industries and build a green energy future. This short film highlights the hope and tenacity of the young activists of Wilmington, California as they push the Los Angeles City Council to prohibit new and existing oil and gas drilling operations within 2,500 feet of homes, schools and hospitals.

Follow Through
Director: Adam Clark
Country: US, Running Time: 22 min
Haters gonna hate. Especially when you’re Caroline Gleich in the social media age. Her ski mountaineering exploits garner attention, though not all of it positive. Follow Through chronicles the journey of Utah skiing’s poster girl as she attempts an audacious goal: completing all 90 routes of the Chuting Gallery, a collection of the Wasatch Range’s most classic and gnarly lines. In addition to the cruel words of her online tormentors, Gleich is also haunted by the deaths of her half-brother Martin and friend Liz Daley, both lost in avalanches.

Guardians of the River
Director: Shane Anderson
Country: US, Running Time: 15 min
In this film by American Rivers and Swiftwater Films, Indigenous leaders share why removing four dams to restore a healthy Klamath River is critical for clean water, food sovereignty and justice. Guardians of the River features Frankie Joe Myers, Vice Chair of the Yurok Tribe, Sammy Gensaw, director of Ancestral Guard, Barry McCovey, fisheries biologist with the Yurok Tribe, and members of the Ancestral Guard and Klamath Justice Coalition.

Leaving for a Holiday
Director: Ariel Goldenberg
Country: Turkey, Running Time: 5 min
“Tatile Gidiyoruz” project; is a short film based on the theme of “Changing climates – Changing lives”. The family that owns Yeşilova Farm has been struggling with drought, disease and soil inefficiency due to global warming in recent years. This struggle is now over and the farm has to be abandoned. The film, which witnesses this family’s abandonment day, is narrated through the eyes of the house until you see the family for real in the road sequences, and this narration is accompanied by the voice of the little girl carrying the movie. The family tries to protect the little girl from this sad abandonment with the cover “leaving for holiday”. “Tatile Gidiyoruz” is the story of Yeşilova Farm family’s being ripped from their roots and abandoning their past.

Life Below Water
Director: Brian Shulz
Country: US, Running Time: 3 min
In the style of an engrossing, charming, and at times unsettling nature documentary, Life Below Water provides a bleak glimpse into the future of our oceans where plastic pollution grows at an alarming rate. Throughout the film, Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman introduces a new species discovered swimming in the depths of the ocean: plastics. The film shows an underwater world of plastics come to life. A future that will become real if we don’t take action.

The Linesman: Both Sides Matter
Director: Dominic Gill
Country: Myanmar, Running Time: 26 min
The story of one man’s mission to end human-elephant conflict in his homeland. With an unprecedented view of the plight of threatened villagers and their massive, majestic foes — the Asian Elephant — we come to truly understand both sides of this deadly struggle. Set in the rural landscape of Myanmar, The Linesman: Both Sides Matter illustrates how decades of massive deforestation, the loss of critical habitat, and the increase in elephant poaching for ivory and skin, have driven elephants to desperate measures to survive. In then search for food and safety, they invade nearby villages destroying essential crops and posing a lethal risk to villagers. To protect their livelihoods and their loved ones, these villagers have often resorted to killing elephants themselves or calling in brutal poachers to do the job for them. The destruction on both sides has created devastating results that demand a search for solutions.

Pant Hoot
Director: Richard Reens
Country: US, Running Time: 21 min
A genocide survivor transcends overwhelming odds to become a master chimpanzee linguist
As the world’s chimpanzee population dwindles in the wild, one-man risks everything to care for a group of mistreated animals rescued by Jane Goodall’s Chimp Eden Sanctuary in South Africa. Stany Nyandwi, a survivor of the Burundi genocide, overcomes insurmountable odds to become one of the only humans to master the complicated ‘pant hoot’ chimp language. Recognizing that it’s not just a chimpanzee/human struggle, he’s taken it upon himself to reconnect with our closest relatives on this planet. Love knows no man-made boundaries in this universal story about understanding.

Shaba
Directors: Ami Vitale, David Allen
Country: Kenya, Running Time: 11 min
In the mountains of northern Kenya, a Samburu community built a sanctuary for orphaned elephants to try to rehabilitate them back to the wild. The project is not just changing local attitudes about elephants, it’s changing attitudes about women too because the secret to Reteti’s success is all because of the special bond between a group of local women keepers and one special elephant named Shaba.

Snowy
Director: Kaitlyn Schwalje
Country: US, Running Time: 12 min
Snowy, a four-inch-long pet turtle, has lived an isolated life in the family basement. With help from a team of experts and his caretaker, Uncle Larry, we ask: Can Snowy be happy, and what would it take?

Soul Deep
Director: Dominic Gill
Country: US, Running Time: 14 min
Soul Deep is a look inside a burgeoning rock climbing movement of inner-city African Americans taking up the sport and making it their own. At 14-minutes it explores non-profit gym Memphis Rox and three of its customers who are finding their own ways to identify with the sport.

Stoke Chasers
Director: Jo Anna Edmison
Country: US, Running Time: 10 min
Stoke Chasers follows the story of a group of bold, young women who are breaking out the mold to start a new kind of movement. Facing generations of stigma, these Stoke Chasers must overcome the social and mental barriers to pursue their burning aspirations. By leaving fear behind and building a tribe, these young women discover something profound and exciting about life.

Understory – A Journey into the Tongass
Director: Colin Arisman
Country: US, Running Time: 40 min
Understory – A Journey into the Tongass is a short film that takes us deep into Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the largest remaining temperate rainforest on the planet. Our guide, Elsa Sebastian, is a young local fisherman who grew up “off-grid” in a remote village surrounded by the vast, ancient forest. When Elsa learns that the U.S. federal government is axing environmental protections for nine million acres of the Tongass, she is driven to action–first fixing up an old sailboat, and then setting sail on a 350-mile expedition along the rainforest’s coast. Elsa is joined by Dr. Natalie Dawson, a biologist who has spent decades studying Alaska’s wildlife, and artist Mara Menahan. For a month the team documents old-growth trees threatened by logging, witnesses the dark aftermath of clearcuts, visits streams teeming with salmon, and learns about indigenous cultural connections to the Tongass.

We the Power
Director: David Garret Byars
Country: Belgium/UK, Running Time: 35 min
This film follows friends, families and visionaries as they break down legislative barriers and take power back from big energy companies to put it in the hands of locals and strengthen their towns. The film chronicles local cooperatives from deep in Germany’s Black Forest to the streets of ancient Girona in Spain and the urban rooftops of London, England, as they pave the way for a renewable energy revolution and build healthier, financially stable communities.

ABOUT EarthxFilm
EarthxFilm showcases films and emerging media that explore conservation, climate change, and the environment while honoring the heroes working to protect our planet. Our mission is to turn awareness into action through art and media. We achieve our goals by partnering with top environmental, film, and entertainment organizations across the globe. EarthxFilm presents year-round programs culminating in a 10-day festival, April 16 – 25, 2021.

ABOUT EarthX
EarthX convenes the world’s largest environmental expo, conference and film festival, and is a member of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. EarthxTV, which launched in Fall 2020 is a web-based platform for balanced, inclusive environmental conversations, programs, emerging media & films. Founded in 2011 by environmentalist and businessman Trammell S. Crow, the Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promotes environmental awareness and impact through conscious business, nonpartisan collaboration and community-driven sustainable solutions. Earthx2020 was held virtually in April and drew over 550,000 visitors worldwide. Visit www.EarthX.org or follow us @earthxorg on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

 


Continue Reading
0
526 Views




Film  / Women Texas Film Festival
The 2nd Annual Billy the Kid Film Festival Announces Lineup | Teams with WTxFF Nov. 6-7
John Wildman Posted On November 3, 2020


The Hico-based Billy the Kid Film Festival today announced for their second edition they will team with Dallas’ Women Texas Film Festival for a two-day virtual presentation November 6-7. With 5 short film programs featuring 18 films, the 2-day cinema experience will both put a spotlight on women filmmakers, as well as Texas-shot and produced films. BTKFF will also present a special work-in-progress presentation of Chris Zuhdi’s Hico-shot feature film, MEXICAN MOON.

13 of the 18 films have a woman in a lead creative role (director, producer, writer, editor, cinematographer, or composer) and 11 of the films were shot in Texas and/or from Texas filmmakers).

Festival founders and directors, Philip Vasquez and Luci DiGiorgio, along with lead film programmer Justina Walford, the Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Women Texas Film Festival in Dallas, have continued the Billy the Kid Film Festival’s mission to connect audiences and film lovers with filmmakers with a Hico/Hill Country flavor as they did last year, but safely, in the virtual space for this edition. The added wrinkle is the team up with WTxFF and the emphasis on shining a spotlight on female filmmakers as well as Texas-made cinema.

Again, this year, Tarleton State University Department of Communications Studies is partnering with the film festival. This creates learning opportunities for the Tarleton students, allowing “hands on experience” in producing a major film festival.

Vasquez and DiGiorgio said, “We launched the Billy the Kid Film Festival last year because the thought of combining the unique personality of Hico with our love of film was a winner no matter how we looked at it. However, our audiences’ and our filmmakers’ safety is first and foremost, and this virtual presentation will also give us an opportunity to share these films statewide and hopefully introduce them to even more film fans.”

Walford added, “Celebrating the work of both women behind the camera as well as local, Texas-based film production adds a special – and we believe – necessary emphasis to these screenings. These aren’t just great films; they also highlight the great work of female filmmakers and also remind us of what filmmakers can accomplish in this state if they receive the support to do so.”

MEXICAN MOON

Chris Zuhdi’s cowboy tale, MEXICAN MOON, is a prime example of the locally filmed productions that the Billy the Kid Film Festival seek to give a boost. MEXICAN MOON was filmed in part in Hico, and had a female Director of Photography. Zuhdi will participate in a special sneak peek at a scene from the film followed by a discussion about the shooting process and current status of the film.

Among the films being screened include; David Feagan and Brian Elliott’s festival favorite, AGE OF BRYCE about a12-year-old pushed to the brink of pubescent revolution by his helicopter mom, and Jessica Wolfson and Jessie Auritt’s multiple award-winning documentary THE PAINT WIZZARD. The film, about a transgender housepainter who lives and works out of her bright yellow RV in Austin, was the Best Short Film winner at WTxFF and the Audience Award at the Sydney Underground Film Festival, among others.

CALAMITY JANE 1882, EBB & FLOW, GHOST IN THE GUN

Other highlights include; Enrique Novials’ Spanish production CALAMITY JANE 1882, (whose production team included a female editor, producer, and composer) in which the famous title character must face down a bad lawman and gang; Georgia Krause’s EBB & FLOW, which shows a South Texas community fighting to protect the hundreds of species of butterflies that live in duality between the US/Mexico border; Andrew Chen’s GHOST IN THE GUN, a thriller featuring a possessed firearm, which was another multiple award-winner; Lisa Belcher’s comedy JAVELINA RUN, about two idiot ranch hands who pretend to be fugitive train robbers to get attention from the ladies at an old west saloon; and M.r. Fitzgerald’s THE WOLF, which focuses on a damaged woman whose efforts to rescue prisoners at the cult she escaped is short-circuited when she reunites with a long-lost childhood forcing her to confront their cult leader’s abuse once and for all.

Film festival passes and tickets are on-sale now. For more information on the Billy the Kid Film Festival go to https://www.billythekidfilmfestival.com.

The 2020 Billy the Kid Film Festival official selections:

Program #1

THE BALLAD OF BEAU BLANC
Director: Emma Oehlers
Country: United States, Running Time: 3:57 min
A masked outlaw by the name of Beau Blanc wreaks havoc on small western towns, but bounty man Kit will do anything in his power to catch this mysterious criminal.

CALAMITY JANE 1882
Director: Enrique Novials
Country: Spain, Running Time: 9:56 min
The famous holster Calamity Jane must face the local sheriff, “Rubio”, head of the gang of criminals known as “La Manada”.

EN LA NADA
Director: Luis Paulo de la Fuente
Country: Mexico, Running Time: 8:30 min
After being bitten by a snake “The Man” struggles to seek help in a place where no one can help him.

GHOST IN THE GUN
Director: Andrew Chen
Country: United States, Running Time: 19 min
A man left for dead encounters a possessed gun and transforms into a gunslinger bent on avenging his wife’s murder, but unbeknownst to him the gun has a vendetta of its own.

Program #2

BULLSEYE
Directors: Carmen Sims, Bailee Wilson
Country: United States, Running Time: 1 min
A minotaur sits alone in his castle enjoying breakfast when he gets an unexpected visitor.

THE END
Director: Wiebe Bonnema
Country: United States, Running Time: 4:37 min
We continue to follow a cowboy on his path into the empty nothingness of the desert after he rides out of the town he just saved.

JITTERBUGS
Directors: Maria McDonnell, Michael Verastegui
Country: United States, Running Time: 5:36 min
In a lonely retirement home where the retired folks have resorted to keeping spiders for company, one man meets a spider who is determined to not let the neglected elderly miss out on the Christmas party that they all deserve.

THE WOLF
Director: M.r. Fitzgerald
Country: United States, Running Time: 23 min
A damaged vigilante returns to her old cult to rescue other prisoners and end the nightmares of her traumatic upbringing, but upon reuniting with a long-lost childhood friend she must confront the aftermath of their cult leader’s abuse once and for all.

Program #3

IN THE HIDING
Director: Jason J. Angco-Barrera
Country: United States, Running Time: 12:00 min
In 1910, during the Mexican Revolutionary War, hundreds of Mexicans are fleeing from their war-torn villages north into Texas. However, the Texas government views these refugees as a threat so the Texas Rangers are given full power to become the judge, jury, and executioner of hundreds of Mexican refugees and Mexican Americans. This is only one story of Texas’ dark history.

PARALYSIS
Director: Caitlin Cooke
Country: United States, Running Time: 19:04 min
A young woman represses her grief after hearing the news of her friend’s death. However, a manifestation of her guilt and regret begin to haunt her each night.

SHERIFF GUNN: THE DNA MURDERS
Director: Glenn Franklin
Country: United States, Running Time: 10 min
Sheriff Gunn is an “old school” small town sheriff in Texas. Recently his town has been hit by three random murders that appear to be the work of a serial killer. Though DNA links two suspects to two of the murders something doesn’t add up.

Program #4

AGE OF BRYCE
Director: David Feagan, Brian Elliott
Country: United States, Running Time: 9:50 min
Smothered by an adoring, over-protective mom, 12-year-old Bryce Yancy Paul (Bip) is pushed to the brink of pubescent revolution. It’s time to ripen. Bloom. Break the shackles of parental paranoia. It’s the Age of Bryce. Sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

JAVELINA RUN
Director: Lisa Belcher
Country: United States, Running Time: 18:48 min
Two idiot ranch hands pretend to be fugitive train robbers to get attention from the ladies at an old west saloon.

MILK TOAST
Director: Will Berry
Country: United States, Running Time: 6:11 min
A man faces an existential crisis over toast.

Program #5

EBB & FLOW
Director: Georgia Krause
Country: United States, Running Time: 5:21 min
Amidst a heated immigration debate, a South Texas community fights to protect the hundreds of species of butterflies that live in duality between the US/Mexico border.

LOTUS
Director: Beibei Xu
Country: United States, Running Time: 13:22 min
Lili wants to hang out with her cool friends, but the family Buddhist bracelet that she wears keeps reminding her that she is watched by superior divinity. In order to fully enjoy herself at a party, she decides to take the bracelet off, but loses it. Now she needs to do something to cover it, otherwise there will be some real world consequences.

THE PAINT WIZZARD
Directors: Jessica Wolfson, Jessie Auritt
Country: United States, Running Time: 17:22 min
Millie the Paint Wizzard is a transgender housepainter who lives and works out of her bright yellow RV in Austin TX. Just a few years ago at the age of 58, Millie finally gained the courage to come out into the world as her true self.

WHEN YOU CLEAN A STRANGER’S HOME
Director: Sharon Arteaga
Country: United States, Running Time: 6 min
A cinematic essay where Abby, a first-generation high school student describes what her and her mom learn about people when cleaning their homes. House decor and items left around convey a privilege that unveils Abby’s imagination, jealousy, and frustrations.

ABOUT THE BILLY THE KID FILM FESTIVAL
The Billy the Kid Film Festival is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting film, filmmakers and film education through our annual event. In November, 2019, the first edition of the film festival will debut in Hico, Texas, the Hometown of “Brushy Bill” Robert, alias “Billy the Kid”. It is the film festival’s mission to celebrate film makers from all over the world, while giving our local film makers and residents a place to come together and appreciate the art of making movies.


Continue Reading
0
435 Views




Film
Women Texas Film Festival Announces Selections for 5th Edition of the Film Festival (August 13-16)
John Wildman Posted On July 22, 2020


Olivia Peace’s TAHARA is the Opening Night Selection and WTxFF favorite Lisa Donato takes the Closing Night spot with her film, GOSSAMER FOLDS


Women Texas Film Festival announced the official selections for the fifth year of the critically-acclaimed Dallas-based film festival which focuses solely on the work of visionary female filmmakers (August 13-16). Pivoting to an all-virtual presentation, Olivia Peace’s teenage comedy TAHARA opens the film festival and Lisa Donato’s GOSSAMER FOLDS is the Closing Night Selection for WTxFF, which will again feature LGBTQIA+ stories, provocative documentaries, and Texas-based female filmmakers throughout its lineup.

WTxFF Founder and Artistic Director Justina Walford said, “We feel going all-virtual this year makes us emphasize the work we are curating even more so since there are no physical events or parties to distract us even for a moment. Therefore, we are reminded at every moment of what sets our film festival apart from other film festivals and what sets film festivals (in general) apart from simply seeing a movie at a multiplex: Curating. Discovering, introducing, and presenting dynamic female filmmakers and giving them an enthusiastic platform to show their work, discuss it, and celebrate their audacity to put those thoughts, ideas, and visions onscreen for us all to share is what is behind the work we do – whether we see that film on a big screen or in our living rooms or our laptops.”

Walford added, “We love being part of the international movement to showcase female filmmakers and we know we must continue our efforts with even more force so that we change the filmmaking industry in hiring an equitable gender ratio. Our goal has always been to show the range of the female storyteller, and the depths to which women can take us via their work in film- whether it be emotional, visual, introspective, startling, shocking, and horrific. From our gripping documentaries like NEVER GOING BACK and A WHORE LIKE ME to our endearing films like GOSSAMER FOLDS and TAHARA, there are tremendous layers in each project that engage and thrill us.”

Olivia Peace’s TAHARA delighted audiences during its debut earlier in the year at Slamdance, and also made a splash at Frameline, the celebrated LGBTQIA+ film festival, last month. The film follows two best friends who comically deal with the emotional stress resulting from the suicide of their Hebrew school classmate in very different ways. The school’s attempts to help the students understand grief through their faith immediately leads to awkward places, but after an innocent kissing exercise changes everything for one of them, the best friends find themselves distracted by the teenage complications neither of them even remotely anticipated.

Walford has said that it wouldn’t seem like WTxFF without a Lisa Donato film, having screened a number of her short films prior to this year. Therefore, it seems entirely right and appropriate that her new film, GOSSAMER FOLDS would be selected to close out this year’s fest. Set in 1986, the film follows a ten-year-old boy who has been uprooted and unwillingly moved to the suburbs of Kansas City. Already on unsure footing due to the move, his world is further shaken thanks to his parent’s marriage troubles. However, he finds solace thanks to the friendship he begins to find with his next-door neighbors: a retired college professor and his transgender daughter, Gossamer. Among the impressive list of familiar faces and names in the film include Alexandra Gray, Sprague Greyden, Shane West, Ethan Suplee, Jen Richards, and Yeardley Smith. While details have not been finalized Donato will be joined by some of the cast members for a special virtual Q&A following the screening.

In addition to being a prime showcase in Dallas and North Texas for LGBTQIA+ films, as demonstrated yet again by the Opening and Closing Night selections, as well as films like Ksenia Ratushnaya’s outrageous and mind blowing film, OUTLAW, and Jessica Wolfson and Jessie Auritt’s documentary short THE PAINT WIZZARD about a transgender painter, Women Texas Film Festival has also built a reputation for finding hard-hitting documentaries that often line up with current hot political topics.

This year is no different, with Sharon Yaish and Yael Shachar’s A WHORE LIKE ME taking a look at sex trafficking via one woman’s harrowing journey back into the world she had escaped. Larissa Lam’s FAR EAST DEEP SOUTH opens a different door into the subject of race and American history through her film about Chinese immigrants in Mississippi. Janette A. López’s NEVER GOING BACK gives needed insight into the humanity behind the immigration issue with its focus on one family’s journey from Honduras to the States. Marie Skovgaard’s THE REFORMIST – A FEMALE IMAM, takes a hard look at the struggles within the Islamic faith as it follows the efforts of a woman to open one of the first mosques in Europe headed by a female imam.

Highlights among the curated shorts selections include: Britt Lower’s CIRCUS PERSON, about a woman’s self-realization journey following a breakup and her subsequent crush on the other woman, which screened as part of the worldwide WE ARE ONE fest; the return of former WTxFF award-winner Tracie Laymon, with her latest film, GHOSTED about a woman’s new relationship being thwarted by the deceased ex; Comedy writer and Executive Producer on HBO’s Insecure, Amy Aniobi’s HONEYMOON, follows a newlywed couple’s first night after their first meeting; Award-winning screenwriter Stacey Davis’ CHERRY about a woman’s hopes for a final Easter with her dying father; and celebrated Kenyan-American filmmaker Wanjiru Njenendu’s BOXED about the remarkable story of a slave who mailed himself to freedom. Texas shorts selections include another returning WTxFF alum, Paloma Hernandez’s PASTICHE, about a struggling artist who accidentally becomes entangled in art forgery, and the directorial debut of indie film producer Lisa Normand (THE OLD MAN & THE GUN) with her comic horror film NO REALLY, I’M FINE, PANDEMIC NOTWITHSTANDING.

All films can be viewed for free with an option to donate. Seating is limited. Also, all films except exclusive screenings can be viewed at any time starting August 13th at 5pm until midnight August 16th. Q&As and panels will be announced and viewable here:  https://wtxff.eventive.org/. Stay tuned for details at womentxff.org.

The 2020 Women Texas Film Festival official selections:

Opening Night Selection
TAHARA
Director: Olivia Peace
Country: USA; Running Time: 82 min
Carrie Lowstein and Hannah Rosen have been inseparable for as long as they can remember. When their former Hebrew school classmate, Samantha Goldstein, commits suicide, the two girls go to her funeral as well as the “Teen Talk-back” session designed to be an opportunity for them to understand grief through their faith. But, after an innocent kissing exercise turns Carrie’s world inside out, the best friends find themselves distracted by the teenage complications of lust, social status, and wavering faith.

Closing Night Selection
GOSSAMER FOLDS
Director: Lisa Donato
Country: United States; Running Time: 96:13 min
In 1986, ten-year-old Tate is uprooted and unwillingly moved to the suburbs of Kansas City. As his parent’s marriage unravels, Tate finds solace in the unlikely friendships of his next-door neighbors: a retired college professor and his transgender daughter, Gossamer.

ADDITIONAL FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS

A WHORE LIKE ME
Directors: Sharon Yaish, Yael Shachar
Country: Israel; Running Time: 62 min
When Chilla was 22, she was kidnapped from a pub in Hungary and sold to a group of Israelis dealing with human trafficking for prostitution. Today, twenty years later, Chilla is a different woman, who has managed to get out of the drug abuse cycle, celebrating 10 years of sobriety, and volunteering at a clinic helping women on the street. But the Ministry of Interior in Israel refuses to give Chilla a resident certificate and would not accept her claim of being a women trafficking victim. She then goes searching for her kidnappers to obtain proof. The journey into the past forces Chilla to return to prostitution hell, only this time a strong woman and a camera in hand. She struggles through her trauma, but can you go back to your most painful place and stay alive?

DOBERMAN
Director: Azul Lombardia
Country: Argentina; Running Time: 72 min
A nap afternoon in the outskirts of town. The worlds of two women intertwine, going from a casual conversation to a battle field, without being able to avoid the inevitable: a domestic tragedy.

FAR EAST DEEP SOUTH
Director: Larissa Lam
Country: USA; Running Time: 76 min
FAR EAST DEEP SOUTH explores the seldom-told history of early Chinese immigrants living in the American South during the late 1800s to mid-1900s through the eyes of Charles Chiu and his family as they travel to Mississippi to find answers about his father, KC Lou. In the span of just several hours, a simple trip turns into an unexpected and emotional journey uncovering lost family history and the legacy of the early Chinese immigrants in the Deep South. The film provides a window into the lives of the Chinese in the South and the discrimination they faced in the midst of segregation. The film will not only highlight the struggles and perseverance of the Chinese, but explore the racial dynamics between the white, black and Chinese communities and the added challenge of exclusionary immigration policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that impacted families for generations.

FATED HEARTS
Directors: Elif Akarsu Polat, Cigdem Bozali
Country: Turkey; Running Time: 103 minutes
Zeynep is a girl who lives in a small Anatolian town. Her childhood passes as carefree as a festival with her best friend,Yusuf. But many things change while she reaches adolescence. Yusuf is her best friend and becomes her first love, too. While Zeynep can’t name the emotional change yet, Yusuf disappears from her life completely. This is her first big loss. This loss and her disharmony with the customary life style in her small town turns her into a lonely woman. She tries hard with all the methods she knows, to get rid of this fusty town and its pressure which affects her each and every cell painfully. She looks for the communication that she can’t establish with anyone around her and the love she lost with Yusuf, by being a pen friend with prisoners via a newspaper column. This is her adulthood game and a way to breath. Eventually, this game leads Zeynep to a lifer out of town. And this correspondence brings her to a point she can never expect. ‘…Then life plays a game. But the game never remains unfinished. The failings always getting fixed…’

HONEY BEE
Director: Rama Ra
Country: Canada; Running Time: 90 min
The journey of quick-witted Natalie “Honey Bee” Sorensen, an underage truck stop prostitute trapped in a human trafficking ring and controlled by her pimp-boyfriend until she is transplanted into foster care in remote Northern Ontario and forced to confront her identity.

NEVER GOING BACK
Director: Janette A. López
Country: Mexico; Running Time: 66 min
When Explorer left Honduras, she left everything behind. In the middle of the night, she didn’t have the chance to ask where she was going, but she’s never afraid, her father is always there taking care of her. This Honduran family travelled to Mexico looking for a safe place. A place where their two daughters could grow and their lives weren’t on the line. This is a brief chapter of this family’s journey to protect their daughters’ lives and their innocence.

OUTLAW
Director: Ksenia Ratushnaya
Country: Russia; Running Time: 95 min
OUTLAW tells the story of gay teen Nikita who is in love with the most popular boy in his school. Rebellious Outlaw, to whom anything appears to be permissible, watches on as their relationship develops. Simultaneously, we follow the tragic love story of a transgender dancer Nina and a Soviet general, set in 1985.

SEND ME TO THE CLOUDS
Director: Teng Congcong
Country: China; Running Time: 96 min
Diagnosed with ovarian cancer, iron-willed journalist Sheng Nan is pressured to make a quick fortune and find mind-blowing sex before the costly surgery numbs her senses. Taking on a businessman’s biography writing job, she hikes into the misty mountains, where a chain of outbursts with her dysfunctional family, grumpy client, misogynistic co-worker and dreamlike romantic interest hilariously unfold. As deeply moving as it is luminously witty, writer-director Teng Congcong’s debut waltzes across the bitterness swallowed by her generation of women born under China’s One Child Policy, unprecedentedly burdened to “surpass men” while trying not to be “leftover women” at the same time.

THE REFORMIST – A FEMALE IMAM
Director: Marie Skovgaard
Country: Denmark; Running Time: 90 min
Together with a number of like-minded Muslim activists, Sherin Khankan wants to open one of the first mosques in Europe led by female imams. The members of the mosque are united in one vital mission: They are fighting for a re-reading of the Qur’an build on tolerance, gender equality and Islamic feminism – an approach that is at odds with the typical patriarchal interpretation and the widespread Islamophobia. The mosque is fighting for the women’s right to be able to get a divorce and to marry across religions. But the women in the mosque are divided. Should they keep their fights hidden or go public – should they take small steps towards the goal or man the barricades? Sherin’s wish is to speed things up. But when she starts to talk publicly about interreligious marriages between Muslim women and non-Muslim men, a division threatening the future of the mosque takes its it tolls on the organization.

SHORTS PROGRAMS

COMEDY SHORTS
TRT: 85 min

CHERRY
Director: Stacey Davis
Country: United States; Running Time: 12:00 min
With her father dying of cancer, Helen has high hopes for the family’s last Easter together.

EXPIRY DATE
Director: Karolina Kraus
Country: Ireland; Running Time: 03:27 min
Seán and Aoife’s plan for a scheduled online date unravels before it even begins with Aoife’s co-worker caught in the middle.

OUT OF STOCK
Director: Bryan Taira
Country: United States; Running Time: 17:48 min
In 1973, the host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, made a joke that toilet paper was going out of stock. By the next day, stores across the country were completely sold out. This is the story of the first day of the toilet paper crisis.

THE NIGHT EXPRESS
Directors: Maryna Artemenko, Oksana Artemenko
Country: Ukraine; Running Time: 26:00 min
On New Year’s Eve, journalist Tanya is put on a full train by her friend. The friend claims Tanya is a surgeon to bump her up in priority for the compartment, which she must share with a drunk lawyer. Train brakes, a fallen suitcase and a severed finger now makes Tanya’s doctor claim a challenge.

THE SESSION
Director: Morgane Sarah Becerril
Country: United States; Running Time: 13:08 min
In the underground recesses of an S&M dungeon we join Daphne – a beautiful dominatrix. Her client obediently waits wearing only a gas mask and underwear. Entering the room with grace and power, Daphne seems ready to embody the dominant sexuality her submissive client might need. But is she ready?

WIDOWS
Director: María Guerra
Country: Spain; Running Time: 12:30 min
After the sudden death of Alvaro, Julia “his widow”, watches the body in the conjugal home. She is surprised by an unpleasant visit. Susana “his widow” comes with the legitimate intention of saying goodbye to him.

HORROR SHORTS
TRT: 61 min

REPLICA
Director: Álvaro de la Hoz
Country: Spain; Running Time: 12:25 min
Olivia is willing not to fail. She goes out and tests herself, going further and further. Until she executes her plan.

STAY QUIET
Director: Chloe Carroll
Country: United States; Running Time: 06:11 min
When an Intruder who seems very distressed by loud noises walks into Lynn’s home, screaming for help is not an option.

SYNCHRONIZATION
Director: Anna Kasińska
Country: Poland; Running Time: 19:54 min
In 2084, when the male sex is near extinction, four women wait for their menstrual cycles to synchronize. They all want to become mothers and there can only be one donor. When the day comes, Donor finally appears at their doorstep. During a dinner he suffers an accident and seems to be dead.

TICKS
Director: Chloe Carroll
Country: United States; Running Time: 03:18 min
When three young adults venture into the woods, a Tick bite could be more deadly than they ever imagined.

VICTIM
Director: Larry Brand
Country: United States; Running Time: 6:00 min
The uninvited find a way.

YOUR MONSTER
Director: Caroline Lindy
Country: United States; Running Time: 14:39 min
Nothing is going right for Laura. Sick and brokenhearted, she moves back home and finds that the terrifying monster who inhabited her closet as a kid is still alive and well — and wants to talk about life.

ISOLATION SHORTS
TRT: 98 min

BOXED
Director: Wanjiru Njendu
Country: United States; Running Time: 06:09 min
A fictionalized short film based on the true story of the terrifying daring escape of Henry “Box” Brown, who used creativity to escape from slavery in 1849 by mailing himself to freedom.

EUCHARIST
Director: María Cuenca
Country: Spain; Running Time: 15:00 min
A strange and lonely man spruce himself up and carefully prepares the ritual more important of his life, his last Eucharist. Letting go is an act that requires much courage and a huge dose of love.

GENEKASHLU
Director: Natalia Trzcina
Country: Peru; Running Time: 09:55 min
Many children in the jungle are abandoned by their parents, who leave their homes to work at the gold mines or to the cities and they never come back. Mapowa, an eight-year-old girl who lives in the Amazon jungle, with her mother and younger brother, decides to go to the city in search of her father to sing him a song on his birthday.

HONEYMOON
Director: Amy Aniobi
Country: Mexico; Running Time: 14:40 min
Honeymoon tells the story of a newlywed couple on their first night together, made all the more awkward, romantic and honest, because they only just met.

I’LL BE HERE
Director: Tiffany Murray
Country: United States; Running Time: 11:38 min
As the rest of the world fades away, a reclusive gardener maintains a routine of precision and detail. When signs arise that he may not be alone, an overwhelming obsession for companionship may get the best of him.

NOTHING IMPORTANT
Director: Yael Elbee
Country: Israel; Running Time: 18:06 min
A young woman’s search for quiet might be coming to an end after she finds a hotel room key on the sidewalk.

PIZZA PARTY
Director: Tessa Hope Slovis
Country: United States; Running Time: 12:20 min
“We are not broken, we are a million shattered pieces glued into something strong and solid” Based on a true event preceding the Larry Nassar trials, an unlikely pair come together at a dystopian pizza party for sexual assault survivors.

SQUARE ONE
Director: Emily Jo Sargent
Country: United Kingdom; Running Time: 12:00 min
A semi-autobiographical film about the writer/director’s experiences of being in a closeted relationship. And of using fishing as a way to avoid sex.

MAGICAL REALISM SHORTS
TRT: 91 min

BUTTERFLY BIRTH BED
Director: Virginia Lee Montgomery
Country: United States; Running Time: 05:45 min
A metaphysical art film about regeneration, hope, and recovery. Inspired by ‘The Butterfly Effect’—the philosophical theorem that any small change in our environment, even the gentle flapping of a butterfly’s wings may manifest big climatic change.

CIRCUS PERSON
Director: Britt Lower
Country: United States; Running Time: 17:15 min
Left by her fiancé for another woman, Ava joins the circus to reclaim her forgotten wildness.

GHOSTED
Director: Tracie Laymon
Country: United States; Running Time: 18:38 min
A woman with a lot of baggage falls in love with a man haunted by his past. Literally.

HEXATIC PHASE
Director: Ariel McCleese
Country: United States; Running Time: 07:00 min
In the aftermath of a sexual trauma, a woman begins to melt away.

M1DAS
Director: Razan Takash
Country: United Arab Emirates; Running Time: 12:42 min
Cybele, one of the many salespeople working for Ex Nihilo Robotics, is preparing the latest items for display at the Home Robotics Expo. The prototype, M1DAS, is an android child designed to adapt perfectly to a parent’s preferences.

NO MORE THAN THIS
Director: Hai Di Nguyen
Country: United Kingdom; Running Time: 19:41 min
“No More Than This” is a surrealist film about Nam Nguyen, a 57-year-old Vietnamese man who lives alone and works as a museum guard. One day his worst nightmare appears to come true, that in some sense, he no longer exists.

ROYAL CO HOTEL
Directors: Paula Villegas, Rakesh B. Narwani
Country: Spain; Running Time: 10:38 min
After a long flight, Almar Takahashi lands on the Costa del Sol, not the first time he has stayed in decadent hotels. There he meets a Norman Bates-style receptionist and a vampire who has been hiding in Torremolinos hotels for years.

TEXAS SHORTS
TRT: 77 min

BITTER
Director: Brittaney Bandoh
Country: United States; Running Time: 05:38 min
A suspicious, intolerant neighbor wants to take down a little girl’s lemonade stand

DREAMER
Director: Vergi Rodriguez, Diana Zollicofer
Country: United States; Running Time: 08:00 min
After returning from a volunteer medical trip Lily Cruz is held at immigration because of a glitch in her DACA status.

EBB & FLOW
Director: Georgia Krause
Country: United States; Running Time: 05:21 min
Amidst a heated immigration debate, a South Texas community fights to protect the hundreds of species of butterflies that live in duality between the US/Mexico border.

NO REALLY, I’M FINE PANDEMIC NOTWITHSTANDING
Director: Lisa Normand
Country: United States; Running Time: 04:35 min
A woman’s mental health deteriorates as she quarantines alone (or so she thinks) in this comedy horror.

FOR MY MONOLIDDED GIRLS
Director: Anna Tran
Country: United States, Running Time: 04:55 min
Set in the early 00’s, a young girl follows misleading tips from a magazine.

LOTUS
Director: Beibei Xu
Country: United States; Running Time: 13:22 min
Lili wants to hang out with her cool friends, but the family Buddhist bracelet that she wears keeps reminding her that she is watched by superior divinity. Although she tries very hard to blend in the new environment, she is always too self-conscious about it. In order to fully enjoy herself at a party, she decides to take the bracelet off, but eventually she loses it. Now she needs to do something to cover it, otherwise there will be some consequences.

PASTICHE
Director: Paloma Hernández
Country: United States; Running Time: 15:00 min
A struggling artist becomes entangled in art forgery by mistake.

THE PAINT WIZZARD
Directors: Jessica Wolfson, Jessie Auritt
Country: United States; Running Time: 17:22 min
Millie The Paint Wizzard, is a transgender housepainter who lives and works out of her bright yellow RV in Austin TX. Just a few years ago at the age of 58, Millie finally gained the courage to come out into the world as her true self.

WHEN YOU CLEAN A STRANGER’S HOME
Director: Sharon Arteaga
Country: United States; Running Time: 06:00 min
A cinematic essay where Abby, a first-generation high school student describes what her and her mom learn about people when cleaning their homes. House decor and items left around convey a privilege that unveils Abby’s imagination, jealousy, and frustrations.

ABOUT WOMEN TEXAS FILM FESTIVAL
Women Texas Film Festival (WTxFF) promotes established and emerging female storytellers in film and TV, celebrating the range and power of women’s voices. WTxFF screens qualified films that have women in at least one key creative role: Writer, Producer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor. WTxFF also organizes a host of activities, focused on the craft and artistry of filmmaking, including moderated Q&As with filmmakers, panel discussions, networking events, and a gala night with filmmakers featured on the red carpet. WTxFF is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. For more information about Women Texas Film Festival, visit www.WomenTxFF.org.


Continue Reading
0
496 Views




EARTHxFilm
EarthxFilm 2020 announces Filmmaker Awards
John Wildman Posted On April 30, 2020



EarthxFilm, presented by EarthX, wrapped an ambitiously mounted virtual presentation of the environmentally-focused film festival on Tuesday. The event included the virtual announcement of this year’s filmmaker award winners and grant recipients, during which $20,000 in cash prizes were given to filmmakers, on Sunday, April 26.

The award-winning films were led by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed’s ’s MY OCTOPUS TEACHER, which took home the EarthxFilm Best Feature Film Jury Prize and $5000, and Allison Otto and Maria Clinton’s THE LOVE BUGS, which received EarthxFilm’s Best Short Film Jury Prize and received $3000.

EarthxFilm Impact Awards and $2000 each went to Maria Wilhelm’s AKASINGA: THE BRAVE ONES, Christopher Smith’s CURRENT SEA, Jared P. Scott’s THE GREAT GREEN WALL, and Alexander John Glustrom’s MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL.

David Freid’s FERRYMAN AT THE WALL received the Creative Storytelling Award and $1000. Environmentally-focused organizations received grants of $1500 thanks to Earth Catalyst Awards bestowed upon Alizé Carrère’s ADAPTATION and Melissa Leah’s RAISING KHAN. A Special Mention for Best Cinematography was noted for Dereck Joubert and Bevery Joubert’s OKAVANGO: RIVER OF DREAMS, lauding the work of Dereck Joubert and Taylor Turner on the film.

In addition, $4500 was awarded to youth ages 11-22 in the Planet911 Challenge given out at the virtual awards ceremony on Earth Day.

Michael Cain, Co-Founder and President of EarthxFilm, said, “EarthxFilm is proud to be a part of these films journey. Co-founder Trammell S. Crow and EarthX believe that by supporting storytellers and their subjects we have an opportunity to create real change. Our very reason to exist is to support their vision and their missions! This ‘pivot’ allowed us expand beyond Texas and affect global change as well as launching a year round environmental channel EarthxTV.”

EarthxFilm’s Artistic Director, David Holbrooke, added, “It was odd but exciting to see all the award winners gather for this year’s EarthxFilm Awards ceremony on our computer screens. We had winners join us from Mossville, Louisiana to Zimbabwe, all of whom are doing critical work on the environment. It wasn’t easy to pivot from our terrestrial festival to a virtual one but it worked and while we look forward to being able to gather again and meet these wonderful filmmakers and their remarkable characters in person, we are really heartened by what we pulled off with EarthxFilm 2020.”

Like many film festivals, due to the pandemic, EarthxFilm was forced to pivot to a virtual version of what has become a major yearly event for environmentally-focused documentary filmmakers, as well as the scientists, activists, and citizens on the front lines of eco-stories all over the globe. However, if anything, the film festival utilized the ability to access those storytellers, and environmental leaders to a greater extent than ever before by having them tune in virtually.

Notable virtual attendees for the festival participating in panels, intros, Q/As and musical performances include Jane Fonda, EarthxFilm alumni Louie Psihoyos (RACING EXTINCTION, THE GAME CHANGERS), Danni Washington, Jeff Orlowski (CHASING CORAL), Leilani Münter (RACING EXTINCTION), Slater Jewell-Kenker (YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE), Judith Helfand (COOKED), and Danni Washington. They joined filmmakers, music artists, and film subjects from this year’s film presentations, including Matthew Modine (RIPPLE EFFECT), Dereck and Beverly Joubert (OKAVANGO: RIVER OF DREAMS), N’Dambi and Classic Roots (TURNING TABLES).

The virtual EarthxFilm festival presentation also emphasized the EarthXR programming which has become not simply an integral part of the film festival, but in many ways one of the anticipated highlights each year. In addition, music and dance were added (including an Opening Night presentation of EARTHXDANCE, a live-streamed DJ set featuring Classic Roots, a Toronto-based music producer and performer), joining the films, panels, and post-screening conversations to truly duplicate the “festival” experience that EarthxFilm has become known for.

2020 EarthxFilm Award Winners

MY OCTOPUS TEACHER – Best Feature Award
Directors: Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed

THE LOVE BUGS – Best Short Film
Directors: Alison Otto, Maria Clinton

MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL – Impact Award
Director: Alexander John Glustrom

CURRENT SEA – Impact Award
Director: Christopher Smith

THE GREAT GREEN WALL – Impact Award
Director: Jared P. Scott

AKASHINGA: THE BRAVE ONES – Impact Award
Director: Maria Wilhelm

FERRYMAN AT THE WALL – Creative Storytelling Award
Director: David Freid

RAISING KHAN – Earth Catalyst Award
Director: Melissa Lesh

ADAPTATION – Earth Catalyst Award
Director: Alizé Carrère

OKAVANGO: RIVER OF DREAMS – Feature Jury Special Mention: Best Cinematography
Directors: Dereck Joubert, Beverly Joubert
Cinematographers: Dereck Joubert, Taylor Turner

ABOUT EarthxFilm
EarthxFilm showcases films and emerging media that explore conservation, climate change, and the environment while honoring the heroes working to protect our planet. Our mission is to turn awareness into action through art and media. We achieve our goals by partnering with top environmental, film, and entertainment organizations across the globe. EarthxFilm presents year-round programs culminating in a 6-day festival, April 22 – 27, 2020. www.EarthXfilm.org

ABOUT EarthX
EarthX convenes the world’s largest environmental expo, conference and film festival, and is a member of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. Founded in 2011 by environmentalist and businessman Trammell S. Crow, the Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promotes environmental awareness and impact through conscious business, nonpartisan collaboration and community-driven sustainable solutions. In 2019, the event drew over 177,000 attendees, 2,000 environmental business leaders, 700 exhibitors and 450 speakers. Earthx2020 will be held April 22 – 26, 2020 in Dallas. Visit www.EarthX.org.


Continue Reading
0
380 Views




EARTHxFilm
EarthxFilm Unveils Virtual Programming Launching on 50th Anniversary of Earth Day | Sign-Up for Virtual Screenings
John Wildman Posted On April 19, 2020


Environmentally-focused film festival announces lineup of Films


EarthxFilm has unveiled its lineup of virtual programming celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, including 36 features and shorts; virtual options for XR experiences; various filmmaker, youth leader live-streams, Q&A’s, panels, live music and EarthxFilmYouth programming. Kicking off with Music on April 17 at 6:00PM EST, EarthxFilm will present the bulk of its programming, including Brett Falentine’s FIRE ON THE HILL: THE COWBOYS OF SOUTH CENTRAL L.A., Alexander John Glustrom’s MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL, David Byars’ PUBLIC TRUST, and Deia Schlosberg’s THE STORY OF PLASTIC on April 22-27.

The 2020 EarthxFilm festival is proud to support its filmmakers financially during this uncertain time, with screening fees and online donations collected for the films and filmmakers participating in the virtual film festival presentation. Cash prizes totaling $20,000 will be awarded to filmmakers and the environmental organizations and efforts that the winning films explore at a live-streamed awards ceremony on Sunday, April 27. Additionally, the 2020 Youth Film Competition, a Planet911 Challenge developed in collaboration with Instagram and Creative Visions, will award up to $5,000 in cash and prizes.

“It has been a labor of love to curate the offerings we have the privilege of presenting at this year’s EarthxFilm film festival as we mark a half century of Earth Day,” said Michael Cain, Co-Founder and President of EarthxFilm. “So many of the stories we share about conservation, climate change, and the heroes working to protect our planet are a testament to the triumph of the spirit, and our collective hope for the future.” David Holbrooke, EarthxFilm Artistic Director adds “We can’t think of a better time than now to gather (at a distance) and experience those stories, highlighting the difference we can play.”

Notable virtual attendees for the festival participating in panels, intros, Q/As and musical performances will include EarthxFilm alumni Louie Psihoyos (RACING EXTINCTION, THE GAME CHANGERS), Danni Washington, Jeff Orlowski (CHASING CORAL), Leilani Münter (RACING EXTINCTION), Slater Jewell-Kenker (YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE), Judith Helfand (COOKED), and Danni Washington. They will join filmmakers, music artists, and film subjects from this year’s film presentations, including Matthew Modine (RIPPLE EFFECT), N’Dambi and Classic Roots (TURNING TABLES), and other notables including Dereck and Beverly Joubert (OKAVANGO: RIVER OF DREAMS).

This year’s festival will kick-off with EARTHXDANCE, a live-streamed DJ set featuring Classic Roots, a Toronto-based music producer and performer. Classic Roots developed his renowned original sound through the integration of traditional Anishinaabe drumming and singing with the unique sound of techno/house, highlighting the intersection of urban and indigenous cultures. His performance will begin with a screening of Chrisann Hessing’s documentary short TURNING TABLES about his music and influence.

Highlights of this year’s documentary features include; Brett Falentine’s FIRE ON THE HILL: THE COWBOYS OF SOUTH CENTRAL L.A., a multiple award winner on the film festival circuit about South Central L.A.’s urban cowboy culture and how a mysterious fire in 2012 nearly wrecked it all; Alexander John Glustrom’s MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL, about a small town in Louisiana where a giant chemical plant displaced its long-time African-American residents; David Byars’ PUBLIC TRUST, narrated by Robert Redford, which weaves together an assortment of stories connected by the indefatigable journalist, Hal Herring, who works tirelessly to shine a light on the chicanery involved with America’s public lands; and Deia Schlosberg’s THE STORY OF PLASTIC, which looks at the scope and scale of the single-use plastic scourge and how plastic has taken over the world, to a very harmful effect.

In addition to the documentary feature and short screenings, EarthxFilm will also present various XR experiences through EarthXR. “The magic of EarthxFilm and EarthXR has always been in how we can leverage art, music, stories, and media to help audiences holistically connect with the world around us,” added Tiffany Kieran, Director of Interactive Programming for EarthXR. “Our 2020 festival will still deliver this same multi-sensory experience despite our current physical restrictions, potentially bringing together an even broader audience to learn and be inspired toward climate action.”

Highlights of this year’s EarthXR program include Adrien Moisson’s WILD IMMERSION endorsed by Jane Goodall – 60 Years of Gombe, with Jane Goodall; GORILLAPALOOZA $5 MILLION VR FUNDRAISER SUCCESS STORY with Ulrico Grech-Cumbo, founder and director of Habitat XR; CLIMATE SOLUTIONS + SDGS with Mary Matheson of Climate Changers/Step into a Brighter Future, Kristin Gutekunst of the Overview Collective, and Lisa Jobson of Digital Promise Global; VIRTUAL DIVING FOR CONSERVATION with Google Earth/Underwater Earth with Christophe Bailhache, Sophie Ansel, and Lorna Perry, all of Underwater Earth; A PREDICAMENT OF PANDEMICS with Ulrico Grech-Cumbo and Damien Mander, founder and CEO of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation and GHOST FLEET + THE OUTLAW OCEAN documenting the intersection of environmental justice and human rights with Ian Urbina, bestselling author of The Outlaw Ocean, Lucas Gath, co-director of GHOST FLEET VR, and Niki Joo, trafficking specialist of Mosaic Family Services.

Throughout the festival, EarthxFilm will have youth friendly offerings showing films appropriate for youth and educator audiences that can be incorporated into distance learning curriculum for Earth Month. EarthxFilm will also announce the winners and showcase the top 25 films from the Planet911 Challenge, which in collaboration with Creative Visions and Instagram, asked youth from around the world to show how or why they will protect the planet.

Adding more programming for youth engagement, produced by EarthxFilm, a newly created video series, EarthxFilmYouth Reports, will showcase youth climate activists, environmental experts and young planet heroes. Anchors age 10-22 will interview guests, moderate panels and hold town hall discussions with other environmentally aware young people. A few of the confirmed panels include youth from March For Science, Earth Guardians and One Up Action. Films will also be complemented by work from EarthxFilmYouth’s team of Planet911 reporters, including interviews with directors and PSAs.

In addition to Classic Roots, N’Dambi and other artists will be presenting live musical performances.

Information to for free registration for EarthxFilm, EarthXR and EarthxFilmYouth is available online at www.earthxfilm.org.

EarthxFilm 2020 Virtual Presentation Film Lineup

FEATURE FILMS

CURRENT SEA

Director: Christopher Smith
Country: Cambodia/Malaysia/USA, Running Time: 90 min
Overfishing of the ocean’s waters is happening all over the world, having a horrendous impact not only on marine ecosystems but also on the local fishermen who depend on these habitats for their livelihood. That is undoubtedly the case in Cambodia, where illegal fishing is devastating this once robust seascape. CURRENT SEA explores the situation in a tense and riveting way by following a couple of deeply committed expats who are determined to end this scourge and bring justice to the perpetrators, but of course, put themselves into great peril along the way.

FIRE ON THE HILL: THE COWBOYS OF SOUTH CENTRAL L.A.
Director: Brett Fallentine
Country: USA, Running Time: 79 min
South Central Los Angeles is known for a lot of things, but being home to an urban cowboy culture is not top of the list. FIRE ON THE HILL: THE COWBOYS OF SOUTH CENTRAL L.A. tells the story of this little-known community, and how a mysterious fire in 2012 nearly wrecked it all, but ultimately, this film celebrates how resilience is the key to navigating life. They may have different paths, but being on a horse keeps these three cowboys moving forward against all the odds.

LAST WILD PLACES
Directors: Vanessa Serrao, Sarah Joseph
Country: USA, Running Time: 60 min
The famed biologist E.O. Wilson has worked to start a campaign called Half Earth, which posits that we need to put aside fifty percent of the planet’s surface and dedicate it to animal species. It is a big, bold idea, and the National Geographic Society is making its own ambitious efforts on this with its own Campaign for Nature, which aims to protect thirty percent of the planet by 2030. LAST WILD PLACES is a film that looks at different areas around the world where this effort is already underway, and it has to be given how quickly 2030 is coming up.

MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL
Director: Alexander John Glustrom
Country: USA, Running Time: 75 min
MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL is haunting, disturbing and essential viewing. It tells the story of Mossville, a small town in Louisiana where a giant chemical plant has landed, displacing its long-time African-American residents. One of them says in a home video: “I am human just like you. I breathe. I think. Just like you.” She died from cancer not long after, and her son Stacey says, “That is why we fight.” In the long-time, uphill battle for environmental justice, “disposable people,” as another character says, are left behind. It is tragic and heartbreaking, but there are people – and you meet them in this forcible documentary – who are not going to go without a fight, which is deeply inspiring. “I want them to know that we existed.”

PUBLIC TRUST
Director: David Byars
Country: USA, Running Time: 96 min
Our public lands are a complicated mix of good intentions and shady deals, which this documentary does its damndest to explain. What we learn is that very little is straightforward in this murky world as various entities, including politicians, ranchers, extractionists, and outdoor enthusiasts, all jockey for some part of what rightly belongs to every American. Narrated by Robert Redford and executive produced by Yvon Chouinard with Patagonia, PUBLIC TRUST weaves together an assortment of stories, connected by the indefatigable journalist, Hal Herring. Working tirelessly to shine a light on the chicanery involved with public lands, Herring also shows us why they matter – or should matter so much to each of us.

THE GREAT GREEN WALL
Director: Jared P. Scott
Country: USA, Running Time: 91 min
This documentary pulses with energy and purpose as it follows the Malian singer, Inna Modja, on her ambitious and inspiring journey across Africa. Her mission is to help build a green wall of trees that will start to offset the desertification happening in the Sahel region that is particularly feeling the effects of climate change. It is not an easy journey. There are multiple challenges from skeptics and other oppositions, but Modja is formidable and will not be defeated. Ultimately, this will be an 8000-kilometer edifice, the largest natural structure in the world, three times the size of the Great Barrier Reef. It is well on its way, so far, having built fifteen percent, proving determination can conquer the seemingly impossible.

THE STORY OF PLASTIC
Director: Deia Schlosberg
Country: USA, Running Time: 89 min
In the 1967 film, THE GRADUATE, Dustin Hoffman’s character, Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate, is told by a family friend, that the future is plastics. How right he was. And how unfortunate that he was so right because single-use plastics have such a pernicious effect on our lives, it is often hard to comprehend. THE STORY OF PLASTIC works to help us understand the scope and scale of this global scourge. Produced with the same folks who made the widely-seen STORY OF STUFF, this documentary takes us around the globe to see how plastic has taken over our world, having a deleterious impact that is far beyond anything imagined by screenwriters more than 50 years ago.


SHORT FILMS

A FISTFUL OF RUBBISH
Director: David Regos
Country: Spain, Running Time: 14 min
This film feels funnily familiar because it takes some of the famous tropes of spaghetti westerns from a time gone by, and gives it a clever twist. What is significantly less clever is the real-world message that this doc conveys. It appears the iconic sets for these famous films have now been trashed with, well, trash. Luckily, there is an effort afoot to right this wrong and clean up the mess left behind.

AKASHINGA
Director: Maria Wilhelm
Country: USA, Zimbabwe, Running Time: 14 min
The illegal hunting and killing of elephants has been an enormous challenge for Zimbabwe. In an effort to combat this scourge, the country has established an elite troop of rangers, all of whom are women, and called Akashinga. The film, executive produced by James Cameron, shows how the women’s training is brutal and rigorous, but their commitment unwavering, motivated by a steadfast belief in their mission.

CHASING GHOSTS
Director: Eric Bendick
Country: USA, Running Time: 16 min
This all-too-true film is the stuff of myth and legend where obsessive people have strange yet intriguing quests that take them to alluring landscapes. The people in this story are scientists and photographers. The setting is a murky, muddy, alligator, and snake-filled swamp in a remote part of Florida, a character in itself. What consumes them is the Ghost Orchid, a rare and enigmatic flower. Their mission: to identify the pollinator – which remains unknown.

COUNTER MAPPING
Directors: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Adam Loften
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 min
Jim Enote, a traditional Zuni farmer and Director:ector of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, is working with Zuni artists to create maps that bring an indigenous voice and perspective back to the land. The goal, to counter Western notions of place and geography while challenging the arbitrary borders imposed on the Zuni world.

EPOCH
Director: Kevin McGloughlin
Country: USA, Running Time: 2 min
This short is a visual poem about our land told through the aerial eye of Google Earth. We are challenged through this lens to understand how both resilient and fragile this planet truly is.

FERRYMAN AT THE WALL
Director: David Freid
Country: USA, Running Time: 16 min
Nature knows no borders we learn in this short documentary spanning all three countries in North America. We begin down south, where we meet the Ferryman of the title and other compelling local characters with a smart take on what is actually happening in this controversial landscape. A hop north reveals that what is happening south of the border is wildly similar to what’s mirrored on the Canadian side, proving nature does not take sides.

GOLDEN
Director: Charles Post
Country: USA, Running Time: 8 min
Eagles are an iconic raptor in this country but not an easy species to study. It requires long travels to remote landscapes and feats of derring-do, like rappelling into eagle’s nests. Perhaps, in part, it is those extra degrees of difficulty that drew Caitlin Davis to this challenging work, but it is, in fact, something that she actually dreamed about as a child. Once you meet Caitlin Davis in GOLDEN, it will all make sense.

LOST WORLD
Director: Kalyanee Mam
Country: USA, Running Time: 16 min
National interests can end up creating some unusual unforeseen situations. LOST WORLD tells a surprising story of how the small but financially ambitious city-state of Singapore dredges sand from under Cambodia’s mangrove forests to create an artificial “natural” landscape. Seen through the eyes of a Cambodian woman who knows how important mangroves are to ecosystems, we witness how much she and her country is losing in this unfortunate exchange.

LOWLAND KIDS
Director: Sandra Winther
Country: USA, Running Time: 22 min
Of course, it is hard to know, but it is estimated that there will be 150 million people across the world who will become refugees because of the climate crisis and the attendant rising seas. LOWLAND KIDS looks at the first Americans who will be forced from their homes. These people reside on the Isle de Jean Charles along the Louisiana coast, including a pair of teenagers who are desperately hoping to stay on the island where their family has lived for generations.

MATTHEW MODINE’S RIPPLE EFFECT
Directors: Matthew Modine and Andrew Klein
Country: USA, Running Time: 8 min
For almost four decades, Matthew Modine has been making movies, leaving a real imprint on audiences. His own deeply thought-provoking Director:ectorial efforts are less known. With RIPPLE EFFECT, Modine, a long-time activist and environmentalist, seeks to find what famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau called “wavemakers,” the remarkable people making extraordinary efforts to save our seas. Modine will be in attendance in Dallas at the second screening if his shooting schedule allows it.

MELTED
Director: Sierra Quitiquit
Country: USA, Running Time: 5 min
Melted imagines the future of the world if nothing is done to address the global climate crisis. The year is 2098, the ice caps have melted and all the snow is gone. The world we live in is barren, dry, dystopian and inhospitable to human life. The pursuit of adventure remains as the protagonists seeks the thrill of skiing. Budding filmmaker and professional skier, Sierra Quitiquit makes her Director:ectorial debut with this beautiful and emotionally provocative plea to protect what is dearest to her – snow, the natural world and this beautiful planet.

NOBODY DIES IN LONYEARBYEN
Director: David Freid
Country: USA, Running Time: 9 min
Longyearbyen, Norway, the world’s northernmost city, creates a challenge for people who live there: you are not allowed to be buried there. The permafrost preserves bodies in its icy embrace. Of course, it is tragically melting, creating new disturbing challenges, like the recent flooding of the famous Seed Bank in Svalbard. What the smartly Directored film really wants to know is what zombie viruses – or people – could emerge from this arctic underground?

ODE TO DESOLATION
Director: Lindsey Hagen
Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min
Fire lookouts used to abound across the wilderness in North America, but like so much in the woods, they have become diminished. There are a variety of reasons, including less wild places and advanced technology, but there are some folks still out there looking for smoke amidst the trees. ODE TO DESOLATION introduces us to Jim Henterly, a naturalist and illustrator who continues to do this unusual yet valuable work.

ON A WING AND A PRAYER
Director: Dominic Gill
Country: USA, Running Time: 11 min
The Louisiana Wetlands are a national treasure that few folks really know about. Filmmakers Nadia and Dominic Gill set out into this untold region to tell us more about a low-flying, high-risk happy pilot and the curious people who inhabit this incredible place in ON A WING AND A PRAYER, a section of the overall film LAST CALL FOR THE BAYOU.

SACRED STRIDES
Directors: Forest Woodward, Anna Callaghan, Marie Sullivan
Country: USA, Running Time: 13 min
For many, running heals, but the runners in this film are looking to do more than to feel good – they want their moving feet to have an impact on a critical issue: the Bears Ear National Monument. Since President Obama proclaimed the monument, entities who wish to extract from the mineral-rich region have contested it. On the other side are environmental activists and indigenous people running 800 miles to protect their sacred land.

SAVING SALMA
Director: James Robinson
Country: Indonesia/USA, Running Time: 7 min
This clever short doc tells the story of a young Indonesian elephant named Salma. She had fallen into a hole and was near death when a local conservation group led by a Goldman-prize winning activist banded together with some other noble folks to rescue the gentle giant. The film is both gripping and strangely fun to watch as Salma finds her way back to health.

SHOULDERS DEEP
Director: John Fiege
Country: USA, Running Time: 7 min
Aniya Wingate was 17 years old when Hurricane Harvey viciously swept into her hometown of Houston, Texas, and displaced her from her grandmother’s home. She tragically became a climate refugee, which will become an all-too-common story with millions more expected to follow this bleak path in the future. However, Wingate was determined not to let this derail her life and decided to process this extremely challenging experience through a beautifully compelling dance performance.

STEP OUTSIDE
Director: Quinn Costello
Country: USA, Running Time: 9 min
The environmental movement has been working towards positive change for at least half a century, yet this remains hard to come by. That is why many in the movement believe that peaceful civil disobedience is the best tactic for change. Step Outside tells the story of a one-day protest walk in the Bay area in an activist effort to shut down the Wells Fargo global headquarters.

THE CHURCH FORESTS OF ETHIOPIA
Director: Jeremy Seifert
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 min
Allies in the environmental movement can be surprising sometimes. Cue Ethiopia, where the Orthodox Churches have stepped up in the effort to save the country’s forests. The Churches are often surrounded by pockets of primary forest, their faithful making it their duty to help preserve these native landscapes struggling and clear cut from farming and grazing. It is not easy work but perhaps made easier because the church people believe they are doing God’s work.

THE LONG HAUL
Directors: Scott Yorko, Zach Doleac
Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min
Keeping expeditions supplied is hard work out there on the northside of Alaska’s Denali mountain. Motorized support is not permitted, and the conditions are brutal, with efforts considered to be more perilous than the world-famous Iditarod. Of course, the people who do this work are not famous, but this short doc shows just how challenging their task is and why they are the right ones to do the job.

THE LOVE BUGS
Directors: Allison Otto, Maria Clinton
Country: USA, Running Time: 34 min
“Our love for each other is just beyond me to analyze … we’re scientists, not behaviorists,” says Charles O’Brien, lifelong entomologist, and dedicated husband. While he is reluctant to talk about their relationship, he is voluble about the work that he and his wife, Lois, did over their career, which has led to the collection and identification of more than a million insect species — the world’s most extensive private collection. This joyful, and yes, loving film recognizes and appreciates their pure passion for each other and the marvelous yet peculiar field of entomology while highlighting their efforts to protect the future of their invaluable insect collection in their old age.

THE RIVER IS ME
Director: David Freid
Country: USA, New Zealand, Running Time: 17 min
This river is now legally a person, but what constitutes a river is up for debate.

THE WILD INSIDE
Director: Andrew Michael Ellis
Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min
Horses can be healing for people and in the short documentary Wild Inside, those people are prisoners and the horses they are learning to train are wild. It’s hard and dangerous work but it gives these men purpose and a real skill that could be helpful on the outside. It also can help them process their problems through that unique bond between man and horse.

THIS LAND
Directors: Chelsea Jolly, Whit Hassett
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 min
Conservationists used to be primarily white men – sometimes bearded, usually cranky – but today’s activists are often people of color. They are also young, passionate, and willing to put themselves in peril for their cause. Faith E. Briggs, advocate and owner of public lands, makes an impact by running 150 miles through three imperiled National Monuments. Arduous but worthwhile, her act inspires each of her fellow landowners to do more to preserve this land.

TURNING TABLES
Director: Chrisann Hessing
Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min
Joshua DePerry, also known as Classic Roots, is a Toronto-based music producer and performer pioneering “PowWow techno.” Deftly navigating the two worlds that inspire his music, he puts his own spin on what it means to be urban and Indigenous.

VENTURE OUT
Directors: Palmer Morse, Jamie DiNicola, Matt Mikkelsen
Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min
For some people, coming out as LGBTQ is intimidating enough, but what about queer folks that also want to get out – as in outdoors? To lead the inexperienced, Perry Cohen started a non-profit called Venture Out that works to encourage and inspire the LGBTQ community to take trips into the wilderness and see what a life-improving – if not life-saving – experience this can be.

WHEN THE EARTH MOVES
Director: Julio Palacio
Country: USA, Running Time: 7 min
In 1970, Earth Day was a smart new idea that has since turned – fifty years later – into a global phenomenon. This short documentary shares the origin story of how this all came about by using old footage and new interviews with people who carry on the critical work of saving our planet today.

WILD SPACE
Director: Jordan Manley
Country: Canada, Running Time: 9 min
This high-energy, fast-paced short documentary follows Natalie Panek who is an actual rocket scientist who focuses on space junk. She also loves getting into the backcountry and its wide open spaces, which is perhaps why she is so committed to also making sure that we clean up those outer orbits.

ABOUT EarthxFilm
EarthxFilm showcases films and emerging media that explore conservation, climate change, and the environment while honoring the heroes working to protect our planet. Our mission is to turn awareness into action through art and media. We achieve our goals by partnering with top environmental, film, and entertainment organizations across the globe. EarthxFilm presents year-round programs culminating in a 6-day festival, April 22 – 27, 2020. www.EarthXfilm.org

ABOUT EarthX
EarthX convenes the world’s largest environmental expo, conference and film festival, and is a member of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. Founded in 2011 by environmentalist and businessman Trammell S. Crow, the Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promotes environmental awareness and impact through conscious business, nonpartisan collaboration and community-driven sustainable solutions. In 2019, the event drew over 177,000 attendees, 2,000 environmental business leaders, 700 exhibitors and 450 speakers. Earthx2020 will be held April 22 – 26, 2020 in Dallas. Visit www.EarthX.org.

 


Continue Reading
0
363 Views




Women Texas Film Festival
Women Texas Film Festival Announces Selections for 4th Edition of Film Festival |
John Wildman Posted On July 29, 2019


A Perfect 14 – plus size models fighting to reshape the fashion industry 

Women Texas Film Festival presented by Methodist Dallas Medical Center today announced the official selections for the fourth year of the critically-acclaimed Dallas-based film festival which focuses solely on the work of female filmmakers (August 15-18). Returning to the historic Texas Theatre (231 W. Jefferson Blvd.), WTxFF has expanded its reach across Dallas with screenings at Methodist Dallas’ David H. Hitt Auditorium (1441 North Beckley Avenue), and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Cedars (1005 S. Lamar St.), as well. Emily Cohn’s CRSHD opens the film festival, and Bridget Stokes’ EMMETT (BOY GENIUS) is the Closing Night Selection. WTxFF has also continued to grow in terms of the number of films programmed, with this year’s edition nearly doubling the number of features that were offered last year, as it showcases 17 feature-length films, and 29 short films.

WTxFF Founder and Artistic Director Justina Walford said WTxFF Founder and Artistic Director Justina Walford said, “It is getting harder and harder to contain within four days all of the amazing films I find. Women Texas Film Festival has grown every year and we have nearly doubled in content. Three locations. 17 features. So many short films that we selected out of an ocean of compelling short film submissions. And since our goal is to show the range of the female storyteller, you will see every genre, every style. The notion of gender behind the camera takes a backseat to the grit, emotion, and vision projected on the screen. As it should.”

Following a tradition began last year, WTxFF will celebrate its alumni and the top female filmmakers in Dallas, Fort Worth, and North Texas on the film festival’s red carpet, prior to the Opening Night Gala featuring Emily Cohn’s stylish debut, CRSHD, Thursday, August 15 at the Texas Theatre. CRSHD follows three online-addled best friends at college on a mission to lose their virginities before their freshman year ends. That is when a prime opportunity presents itself when a Crush Party springs up. The rules are: you can submit your crush to have them invited to the party, but you can only get in yourself if somebody else crushes you. Naturally, our trio get the idea to try and circumvent those rues in order to get in and take aim at their boy-targets.  

Bridget Stokes’ EMMETT (BOY GENIUS), an Audience Award and Best Actor (Blackish star Miles Brown) winner at the Newport Beach Film Festival will serve as the Closing Night selection on Sunday, August 18, at the Texas Theatre. In the film, Emmett is a popular junior who also happens to be a highly imaginative twelve-year-old genius. After his brother is accused of being involved in a rash of thefts at school, Emmett must prove his innocence before his brother is sent off to a boarding school. As part of his plan, he recruits an SAT tutor and crime novelist to help him find the real culprit.

Known for its thematic parties that tie into the production style of its Opening Night Gala film selections, this year WTxFF will add to the Thursday presentation celebrating CRSHD, by hosting a special event on Friday, August 16 inspired by and featuring Emily Esperanza’s film MAKE OUT PARTY. The film is an outlandish, throw everything funny at the wall to see what sticks comedy about a trio of lively characters as they make their way through the city to attend a pin-up queen’s infamous make out party. Along with the screening of the film, a live band, DJ set will add to the entertainment that will include a feminist spin on a kissing booth among other things to dovetail in a wild and wacky way with Esperanza’s film.

Every year, Women Texas Film Festival programs a selection of films that explore psychological, medical, and/or sociological issues. WTxFF has built a reputation of programming documentaries and narrative films that take tough, uncompromising looks at subjects in this realm and then expanding on the conversations those films inspire in the post-screening Q&As/panels. 

This year is no different, with Methodist Dallas and Hitt Auditorium hosting selected films that fall under that umbrella, with a more dedicated and focused conversation to the topics addressed. The idea is to give these films and filmmakers a forum with which to immerse audience members in the topics and prompt frank and enlightening dialogue with the people that have just viewed their films. Many of the panels will be co-moderated by a representative from Methodist Dallas.

Films screening at Methodist Dallas will include Giovanna Morales Vargas’s A PERFECT 14, which explores the world of plus-size models fighting to reshape the fashion industry and beauty standards of society. Mindy Bledsoe returns to WTxFF with THE IN-BETWEEN, a road trip movie teaming two women with medical issues on different missions: Mads (Jennifer Stone, Wizards of Waverly Place) needs to renew her driver’s license in South Dakota, while Junior needs to visit Portland, Oregon on a quest for her dead sister. Ron Vignone’s TWO WAYS HOME (produced by Kimberly Busbee, Tanna Frederick, Tricia Linklater, and Vignone) focuses on a young woman living with bipolar disorder who struggles to win over the daughter she left behind as she works to honor her grandfather’s last wish by holding on to his farm. Also screening at the Hitt Auditorium will be Gabrielle Zilkha’s QUEERING THE SCRIPT, a documentary celebrating and exploring the television and streamed shows beloved by queer fangirls. Following the screening, Women Texas Film Festival will present a special panel discussion to delve further into the entertaining topic.

As always, WTxFF will give the horror/thriller genre its due with Carolina Hellsgård’s German zombie film, EVER AFTER (ENDGEIST), about two young women trying to make their way through a treacherous zombie-filled countryside to one of the few remaining safe havens. Grace Glowicki’s TITO stars the director as the title character, a cisgendered male who befriends an obnoxious geek John (Ben Petrie), an intruder from next door who arrives in Tito’s life and refuses to leave. Amy Taylor’s HUNTER’S WEEKEND adds some comedy to that scary mix, in its story about two park rangers, who try to survive their elite, invitation-only hunter’s weekend event that apparently included a killer among the invites. This year’s documentaries are highlighted by Chuck Smith’s BARBARA RUBIN & THE EXPLODING NY UNDERGROUND (produced by Elizabeth Stanton), which profiles the enigmatic and innovative filmmaker who became a powerful new voice in the city’s underground film scene at the age of 18, before making a completely unexpected conversion to Orthodox Judaism before her mysterious death at the age of 35.

Film festival passes and tickets are on-sale now. VIP passes are $75 and allow access to all films, parties, and events, and Student passes (including access to all WTxFF parties and events) are $35. Individual tickets are $11. For more information on the Women Texas Film Festival go to WomenTxFF.org. To purchase passes or tickets to individual screenings go to: https://prekindle.com/events/womentexasfilmfestival.

WTxFF Sponsors include: Methodist Dallas Medical Center, Peterson Ray, Civitas Capital Management, Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, Selig Poliscope Company, Texas Theatre, and Betsy and Dan Healy. Sponsors and supporters also include: Alamo Drafthouse, AMS Pictures, Jennifer McCann, Lisa Simmons, McDavid Lincoln, and Serena Simmon Connelly.

Additional support comes from: Dallas Audio Post, Delia Jasso, Eno’s, Jackson Walker, Kendall, MPS Studios, Oak Cliff Print, Paperlyte, Prekindle, Rafael Anchia, and Vincent Serafino. Special Thanks to: Bayer Brothers, Dallas Film Commission, Dallas Producers Association, Epicenter Productions, FANGORIA, Jennifer Byrd, Margin Walker, Oak Cliff Brewing, RedID, RGD+B, Small Brewpub, Texas Film Commission, Wax Space, and Wild Detectives.

The 2019 Women Texas Film Festival official selections:

Opening Night Selection
CRSHD
Director: Emily Cohn
Country: USA, Running Time: 82 minutes
On the last night of her college freshman year, Izzy tries to lose her virginity with the help of her two best friends, but their only hope is getting into an exclusive, invite-only “Crush Party.”

Closing Night Selection
EMMETT (BOY GENIUS)
Director: Bridget Stokes
Country: USA, Running Time: 90 min
Emmett, a 12-year-old black child prodigy, teams up with his eccentric SAT tutor to solve a crime and keep his family from splitting up.
Preceded by
EARTH MOTHER     
Director: Kelly Riot     
Country: USA, Running Time: 3 minutes       
EARTH MOTHER is a musical short that portrays Rosa Parks, Frida Kahlo, Ameila Earhart and Joan of Arc taking a stand against the societal norms and restrictions of their time. Each of these women is a pioneering force in history and the struggles they overcame cemented their places as feminist icons.

Special Make Out Party Presentation
MAKE OUT PARTY
Director: Emily Esperanza
Country: USA, Running Time: 25 minutes
MAKE OUT PARTY is a no-budget, high-style comedy of errors that follows three vibrant characters though a day of misadventure as they set out to attend hostess Mary Woah’s Make Out Party. Meet Madame X, a leather-clad Venus with too many lovers; Band-Aid Box, a dapper-femme do-gooder just trying to make it through their day; and Bambi, a peppy Satanist-witch with no time for catcalls. Will they make it to gap-toothed-pin-up-queen Mary Woah’s Make Out Party? From meanie alien greaser gangs, to a pair of tough roller-skaters, a conniving librarian and a disgruntled waitress, our heroes sure have their work cut out for them. In the end, Make Out Party reminds us that we are all wild wonderful wackos who deserve a French kiss.

ADDITIONAL FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS

A PERFECT 14         
Director: Giovanna Morales Vargas  
Country: Canada, Running Time:       105 minutes   
A PERFECT 14 explores the world of plus size models fighting to reshape the fashion industry and the beauty standards of society. The film follows the journeys of models Elly Mayday (Canada), Kerosene Deluxe (Netherlands) and Laura Wells (Australia) as they struggle against our culture’s distorted perception of body image. The film also questions the fashion industry leaders and pioneers in the world’s meccas and holds them accountable for their responsibility in size-based segregation.

A SCIENTIST’S GUIDE TO LIVING AND DYING   
Director: Nitzan Mager          
Country: USA, Running Time: 75 minutes     
This film presents a hybrid of fiction and real life. A real pregnancy is followed on film over nine months and explored within a fictional story: A young scientist in the midst of groundbreaking research is thrown into free-fall when she becomes pregnant with her dead husband’s child and is suddenly confronted by the unknowable — absorbed into a realm of mystical female consciousness both terrifying and transcendent.

BARBARA RUBIN & THE EXPLODING NY UNDERGROUND
Director: Chuck Smith
Producers: Elizabeth Stanton
Country: USA, Running Time: 78 minutes
Barbara Rubin’s twenty-nine-minute experimental film CHRISTMAS ON EARTH caused a sensation when it first screened in New York City in 1963. Its orgy scenes, double projections and overlapping images shattered artistic conventions and announced a powerful new voice in the city’s underground film scene. All the more remarkable that the vision belonged to an 18-year-old girl. A virtual Zelig of the ’60s, Barbara Rubin introduced Andy Warhol to the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan to Kabbalah and bewitched Allen Ginsberg. The same unbridled creativity that inspired her to make films when women simply didn’t, saw her breach yet another male domain, Orthodox Judaism, before her mysterious death at thirty-five years old.

EVER AFTER (ENDGEIST)
Director: Carolina Hellsgård
Country: Germany, Running Time: 90 minutes
It has been two years since a zombie virus epidemic infected all but two German cities. Vivi and Eva flee the struggling community in Weimar for the one other safe-haven: Jena.

HOLY TRINITY
Director: Molly Hewitt
Country: USA, Running Time: 91 minutes
Trinity is an independent, sex-positive millennial working as a Dominatrix in Chicago. After an incident huffing her drug of choice—a mysterious aerosol can from the ubiquitous Glamhag brand—she finds herself with a newfound gift for speaking to the dead. Confused and more than a little curious about this strange turn of events, Trinity seeks the counsel of a colorful cast of characters, from priests and drag queens to a witch and more, all of whom teach her their unique spiritual practices.

HUNTER’S WEEKEND         
Director: Amy Taylor 
Country: USA, Running Time: 72 minutes     
Park rangers, Lyle and Victor, just want their elite, invitation-only hunter’s weekend event to go well, but when hunters start turning up dead, they must race to find the killer before they become the next victims. This micro-budget mockumentary style, dark comedy was shot in the woods of Virginia, in six days, with a crew of five people.

THE IN-BETWEEN    
Director: Mindy Bledsoe        
Country: USA, Running Time: 77 minutes     
Two women set out on a road trip with different missions. Mads (Jennifer Stone, Wizards of Waverly Place) needs to renew her driver’s license in South Dakota, while Junior needs to visit Portland, Oregon on a quest for her dead sister. Both women have medical issues that cause friction along the way, but they never let those problems define their identities. Of course, Mads is also keeping a secret from Junior, that could explode at any moment and ruin their journey…

THE LOWER PLATEAU
Director: Liz Singh
Country: Canada, Running Time: 82 minutes
A burnt out pot dealer slash musician struggles through a Montreal winter with the help of her friends.

MICKEY AND THE BEAR    
Director: Annabelle Attanasio
Country: USA, Running Time: 88 minutes     
Faced with the responsibility to take care of her addict, veteran father, headstrong teen Mickey Peck keeps her household afloat.

QUEERING THE SCRIPT                                         
Director: Gabrielle Zilkha
Country: Canada, Running Time: 90 minutes
A sparkling celebration of queer fangirls and the shows they love. Queerness on television has moved from subtext in series such as “Xena: Warrior Princess” to all-out multi-season relationships between women, as seen on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Lost Girl,” and “Carmilla.” Stars such as Ilene Chaiken, Stephanie Beatriz, Lucy Lawless and Angelica Ross join with the voices of numerous kickass fangirls in this fast-paced history of queer women’s representation of contemporary television.

STUCK
Director: Jenni Tooley
Country: USA, Running Time: 84 minutes
A woman struggles to remember a number of her “lives” through the veil of her fading memories as she deals with the onset of Alzheimer’s.

TITO  
Director: Grace Glowicki       
Country: Canada, Running Time: 106 minutes         
A desperate man seeks refuge from the predators hunting him by befriending a cheerful intruder.

TWO WAYS HOME   
Director: Ron Vignone
Producers: Kimberly Busbee, Tanna Frederick, Tricia Linklater, Ron Vignone
Country: USA, Running Time: 97 minutes     
A young woman living with bipolar disorder struggles to honor her grandfather’s last wish while attempting to reunite with her estranged 12-year-old daughter.

THE WALL OF MEXICO
Directors: Magdalena Zyzak, Zachary Cotler
Countries: USA, Running Time: 105 minutes
A wealthy Mexican family decides to build a wall around their ranch to stop townspeople from stealing their well water.

WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS
Directors: Sean Bloomfield, Cimela Kidonakis
Country: USA, Running time: 103 minutes
WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS follows the nationwide search for Fr. Rene, which resulted in a series of shocking revelations and the discovery of a 20-year-old letter in which Fr. Rene seemed to foretell his own fate.

SHORTS PROGRAMS

SHORTS PROGRAM #1
(TRT: 85 min)

BLUE SUNDAY
Director: Allison Webster
Country: United States, Running Time: 9 minutes
A high school senior begins to question her church’s teachings after a youth group celibacy talk.

DOG BITE
Director: Luvia Petersen
Country: Canada, Running Time: 12 minutes
A scared dog attacks Jen, a hyper-ambitious career woman, leaving her with an unsightly gash across her face. Jen hides away in a child-like fort, determined to start a “new life”. But in the process, she pushes everyone away. Her dysfunctional family and anxious boyfriend try to coax her back out into the world. But the only person who can get Jen to go outside is Jen.

THE OBLITERATION OF THE CHICKENS
Director: Izzy Lee
Country: USA, Running Time: 3 minutes
The universe does not care. The abyss is stupid. Narrated by author Bracken MacLeod, this Herzog-inspired fever dream uses 100% stock footage to reflect on the banality of existence.

POZOLE
Director: Jessica Mendez Siqueiros
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 minutes
La gringa killed her Nana.

SAC DE MERDE
Director: Greg Chwerchak
Screenwriters: Gabrielle Berberich, Greg Chwerchak
Country: USA, Running Time: 13 minutes
Based on a true story, SAC DE MERDE tells the tale of Mazel Mankewicz, an unlucky-in-love yet irrationally optimistic New Yorker who thinks her luck has changed when she spends the night with the man of her dreams. As it turns out, he might just be full of shit. Literally.

SIX WORDS
Director: Christine Chen
Country: USA, Running Time: 12 minutes
Betty has carefully planned her best friend’s bachelorette party, only to have it crashed by some unexpected guests.

TEXAS ANNIE: THE LEGEND OF THE MOAN RANGER
Director: Jennifer Howd
Country: USA, Running Time: 2 minutes
TEXAS ANNIE: THE LEGEND OF THE MOAN RANGER tells the musical tale of a renegade dildo runner in Texas when sex toys are declared illegal.

WE ARE TOTALLY FINE
Director: Stefanie Abel Horowitz
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 minutes
Three Basic Bettys get together for a wellness retreat to cleanse and connect. But what they connect to is surprising, dark, and a little out of their control.

WHITE ROCK SKATE
Director: Mary Dauterman
Country: USA, Running Time: 8 minutes
A delusional woman desperately clings to an abandoned skating rink and her memories of it.

WHORE: TABLE #6
Director: Nino Mancuso
Screenwriter: Helen Kennedy
Country: USA, Running Time: 6 minutes
Eternally optimistic British actress Harriet has yet to find her feet in LA, despite a handful of minor TV roles usually involving baring her breasts, playing a vast array of dead prostitutes, and various combinations of both. But today, her agent has a special project, one which she hopes will buck the trend. Who knows, maybe she’ll find a better balance of nudity on set this time, and perhaps even enjoy the luxury of staying alive for the entire scene?

SHORT’S PROGRAM #2
(TRT: 92 min)

THE CUNNING MAN
Director: Zoë Dobson
Country: UK, Running Time: 13 minutes
THE CUNNING MAN is inspired by a real Cunning Man, John Harries (c.1785 – 1839). It’s an enchanted tale of compassion in the face of callous greed.

GLORIA
Directors: Camille Schmoutz, Christine Chen
Country: USA, Running Time: 15 minutes
In 1966, a gender questioning teen from a conservative southern home accepts a secret invitation from a beautiful drag queen and resolves, despite the threat of arrest and familial rejection, to publicly cross-dress for the first time at an underground gay dance party.

I’D NEVER BOTHER ANOTHER CHICKEN AGAIN
Director: Helen Cho Anthos
Country: USA, Running Time: 4 minutes
A remorseful man relives an intense childhood memory illuminating his greatest regret.

LITTLE BIRD
Director: Nieves Perchin Garcia
Country: USA, Running Time: 11 minutes
Rupert and his daughter Lily decide to move to a new neighborhood after the passing of his wife. Rupert, being a new single parent, has to deal with Lily’s breathing problems and anxiety, which makes her extremely vulnerable in social situations. Rupert has found ways to calm her attacks. However, the neighbors see this and start to suspect that he might be abusing her, causing more trouble for the father and daughter.

PLANE PRETEND
Director: Sharon Arteaga
Country: USA, Running Time: 18 minutes
Pilar and her brothers are ecstatic to take their first flight, but they must hide their excitement or risk revealing their undocumented status and being deported.

SECOND SKIN
Director: Farah White
Country: USA, Running Time: 6 minutes
An introverted young girl discovers that she had more in common with her recently deceased grandmother than she ever could have imagined.

SEEPING BLUE
Director: Deja Gordon
Country: USA, Running Time: 13 minutes
A suicide prevention hotline worker ends up receiving help from the other end of the line.

STREET FLAME
Director: Katherine Propper
Country: USA, Running Time: 12 min
A crew of street teens and skaters commemorates their friend Jinx on their own terms.

SHORTS PROGRAM #3
(TRT: 88 min)

3 DAYS
Director: Julie Sharbutt
Country: USA, Running Time: 12 minutes
When three female friends sense danger on a camping trip, they keep each other laughing until a horrible twist makes them feel more alone than ever.

BULL MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT
Director: Vanessa Newell
Country: USA, Running Time: 16 minutes
A horror comedy about a Girl Scout troop leader who discovers the terrifying truth about the legend of Bull Mountain.

EPIGENETICS
Director: Diahnna Nicole Baxter
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 minutes
A daughter, prone to depression, learns a family secret and struggles to survive its trauma. When she turns to her mother for consolation, she realizes how this poisonous pattern has been carried down through generations.

FLICKER
Director: Julia Barnett
Country: USA, Running Time: 6 minutes
A young girl and her puritanical parents are wary of the evils outside their door, but it’s what’s inside that is truly terrifying.

HELLO MY NAME IS
Director: Iyin Landre
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 minutes
A kooky woman breaks into a stranger’s apartment and plays Goldilocks.

HOPE
Directors: Cynthia Cano, Anna Cano
Country: USA, Running Time: 9 minutes
Following an overnight, global mass-extinction of the human female species, a man struggles to figure out how to care for what seems to be the sole survivor of this unexplained catastrophe: his 5-year-old daughter, Hope. Nobody knows she’s alive and her dad and grandpa plan on keeping it that way.

LISTEN
Director: Jessica Graham
Country: USA, Running Time: 7 minutes
The deterioration of a relationship due to the horror and heartbreak of domestic violence.

PENTECOST
Director: Katherine Propper
Country: USA, Running Time: 6 minutes
Delilah, a snake handler’s daughter, seeks a spiritual gift of her own in her father’s rattlesnake.

RING OF FIRE
Director: Tracy Kleeman
Country: USA, Running Time: 12 minutes
Callie puts on her best poker face while she goes on the run from Los Angeles through the desert, with nothing but her Toyota Solara and a pack of cigarettes. Seeking refuge from the open road, Callie finds herself in a small, local dive bar. Though only a few townie drunks populate the joint, a young woman named Mac mans the bar. Callie recognizes the signs of an abused woman, and the interaction they share forces her to ultimately come to terms with what or whom she is running from.

ABOUT METHODIST HEALTH SYSTEM
Guided by the founding principles of life, learning, and compassion, Dallas-based Methodist Health System (Methodist) provides quality, integrated health care to improve and save the lives of individuals and families throughout North Texas. Ten hospitals and more than two dozen Methodist Family Health Centers and Medical Groups are among the facilities served by the nonprofit Methodist Health System, which is affiliated by covenant with the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the fastest-growing health systems in America, Methodist continues to add facilities and services to enhance patient care along the entire continuum. Additional information is available at MethodistHealthSystem.org. Connect through Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

ABOUT PETERSON AND RAY
Peterson Ray & Company is a Dallas-based visual communications design firm providing strategy-driven creative solutions to help clients tackle their most challenging print and digital marketing initiatives. 

ABOUT WOMEN TEXAS FILM FESTIVAL
Women Texas Film Festival (WTxFF) promotes established and emerging female storytellers in film and TV, celebrating the range and power of women’s voices. WTxFF screens qualified films that have women in at least one key creative role: Writer, Producer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor. WTxFF also organizes a host of activities, focused on the craft and artistry of filmmaking, including moderated Q&As with filmmakers, panel discussions, networking events, and a gala night with filmmakers featured on the red carpet. WTxFF is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. For more information about Women Texas Film Festival, visit www.WomenTxFF.org.


Continue Reading
0
404 Views




1
Older Posts

  • Events Calendar

    June 2022
    Jun 09 2022

    Dallas Shining Stars

    Jun 16 2022

    AMA DFW Marketer of the Year

    Venue Forty50
    Jun 23 - 26 2022

    11th Annual Oak Cliff Film Festival

    No event found!

2022 AdChat™ trademark and content property of AdChat LLC with all rights reserved. All other trademarks and content belong to their respective owners.
Press enter/return to begin your search