Lone Star International Film Festival Begins
by Steve Smith
Today begins the second annual Fort Worth International Film Festival and with that in mind, I have one thing to say to you, Fort Worth
Go, or I will send this Swedish vampire to your house to bite you.
How’s that for a sales pitch?
Admittedly, we at West and Clear are homers about this. We love us some Fort Worth and this is another great opportunity to show the out-of-towners that we have more to offer the world than Cowtown. The best thing you can do in that regard is to actually get up and go to a screening. Do it out of civic pride if you must, but you’ll probably find out that you will have some fun.
There will be some star power — Dustin Hoffman and Amy Adams will be in town. There will even be some local film going on — Teen-A-Go-Go — and a film about Fort Worth, They Came To Play.
There’s also another local film, Karma Police, which I might even possibly forgive for ripping off the concept from a Radiohead song. Directed and written by John Venable and starring Chamblee Ferguson, David Sullivan, John Wesley Shipp and Nicole Leigh Verdin, it’s about the world’s largest secret organization, the Karma Police, that ensure that good people are rewarded and not-so-good people are punished. Karma Police was shot and produced locally in Dallas/Fort Worth as a co-production by Red Productions, Film Cynix, and Film Frog. With the exception of two key actors from L.A., all of the the actors and crew were homegrown right here in DFW.
Some movies I am going to try and catch:
Hope to see you there.
For West and Clear podcast previews, click here and here.
Tags: Lone Star International Film Festival, LSIFF
13 Comments, Comments or Pings
Kim
Thanks for posting some of the special guests. I’ve been tearing through their website trying to find out who will be in town. I bought my tickets to tonight’s screening whenever they became available. I’m so excited! I definitely encourage everyone to attend at least one screening and/or panel (or party). It’s going to be a blast!
Nov 12th, 2008
John MacFarlane
I am checking out Sunshine Cleaning tonight before I leave for the weekend. I hate to miss it, but you gotta get outta town sometimes. I was looking forward to seeing Let the Right One In, but will have to wait til it gets picked up and distributed.
I was a volunteer last year, and I encourage everyone to volunteer for this great organization and event. Thanks W&C for doing the podcasts, very informative.
Nov 12th, 2008
Bo Parker
I’m going to throw in one more great event that I have heard about. Local filmmaker, Andrew Disney, who’s short film “Frank’s Last Shot” played here last year (and sold out) and at Charlotte and won at Ft. Lauderdale, etc. etc.) has an online shorts series called “Good Ideas” that has been picking up some steam online. There are currently 5 episodes online with 5 in the can ready to go. He’s showing all 10, back to back in their entirety (about 35 minutes worth of content) with a party (food and drinks) to follow at the Norris Conference Center Downtown (old sundance 11), friday at 8:00. It’s free but you must register to attend. The link to register is below. It promises to be a great time and another way to support an up and coming local filmmaker.
http://goodideas.eventbrite.com
Nov 12th, 2008
Mike
I’m getting a little frustrated at the Lone Star Film Society about this festival. Both years they’ve shot themselves in the foot by the late hiring of staff and little attention to promotion.
Love the festival and I’ll be at every event I can possibly get to, but I would like to see somebody care a little more about doing this right.
Nov 12th, 2008
James M. Johnston
@Mike: Trust me there ARE people who care about doing the festival right. Any event of this magnitude is an uphill battle when you have limited resources (i.e. money and staff.) I’ve been to a ton of festivals and I can promise you that this crew is doing an amazing job.
BTW- They can still use some volunteers to help out at the fest!
Nov 12th, 2008
sarah
Last year I did the PR for the festival and afterward there were complaints of not enough coverage but the clipbook I put together at the end was pretty thick. People are going to complain that it isn’t promoted enough until they can complain about it being promoted too much. Trust me when I say that they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.
Nov 12th, 2008
Pete Asplund
Bo, thanks for the update on Good Ideas, and I wish I could be there for the screening… http://vimeo.com/goodideas
everyone, please attend the screening of “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Bug Sur”… Curt Worden has done a great job, and you’ll recognize Donal Logue as one of last year’s festival attendees. Great film.
Last Chance Harvey had a great reception here at AFI last week, and you won’t want to miss that one either.
best of luck to you Fort Worth, enjoy some great films for me…
Nov 12th, 2008
Paul
I’ve heard “Let the Right One In” is full of awesome. Please let me know if you watch it …
Nov 12th, 2008
Chuck
I went to the showing of “Sunshine Cleaning” tonight and it was phenominal. Everything was impressive – writing, casting, directing, etc. The only thing unfortunate was that the writer was not on hand for Q&A like last years opening flick.
Great movie though. Thank god it was dark cause I think I shed a tear.
Definately try to get out there and support this great event!
Nov 12th, 2008
Tom Huckabee
Hi, Sarah, long time, no see!
You did a wonderful job last year.
Nov 13th, 2008
sarah
Thanks, Tom! I didn’t mean to sound complainey in my last comment…I just meant that I was surprised when I heard of comments made after the fact about not having enough pr. I enjoyed working on the project and think that it came out pretty well!
Nov 14th, 2008
Tom Huckabee
Sarah
Perhaps what Mike is lamenting, rather than the lack of pr, is the lack of advertizing,
which has been a problem, mostly due to lack of funding.
Nov 14th, 2008
Chris
Seems like they have banners Downtown, a magazine Guide and ads in the Weekly. What kind of extra advertising were you hoping for? Just curious.
Nov 14th, 2008
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