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.
