Oxford Film Festival Take 5 With...

See the schedule!

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:19:00 +0000

Good news! Our schedule is up on B-Side!
Bad news! I cannot adjust the "Festival Films" link on our front page, and will have to wait until He-Who-Can gets my email. And because it's New Year's Day (when all is quiet...nothing changes...I will begin again), this make take a while to resolve.

However! Since I spent most of today inputting the screening times, OBVIOUSLY I want to share with all of you....

Information about ticketing (how much they are, how to get them, etc.) will be posted by or before JANUARY 15.

In the meantime, check out our listings, and get to know our 2010 filmmakers by reading our Take 5 series.

Happy New Year!

Online schedule coming soon....(next year!)

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:25:00 +0000

We'll be posting the schedule on B-Side.com on New Year's Day throughout the day. Stay tuned....

In the meantime, have a safe and Happy New Year, and see you in just over a month!

37 days and counting...

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:53:00 +0000

Just as Dennis, the "old woman" who was actually a man in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, would point out, 37 is "not old", and is not much time until our opening night on Thursday, February 4.

We are proofing the printed program, and getting files ready to load to the online schedule which SHOULD be ready before the New Year starts. So stay tuned!

In the meantime, we hope you are enjoying the Take 5 series. A glitch beyond my understanding means that when Melanie's postings show up on our website's front page, the text is black on a black background, whereas mine turn out "normal". But I can tell you that it has been reported. Until then, if you highlight the text, you can read it. Or click on the Blogger "B" icon. Sorry about that.

Happy New Year, y'all!

Festival opens in 39 days!

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Thirty-nine days until we open. Oddly, I can't help think but another use of the number 39....

Too bad I didn't notice in time for forty days -- that number has biblical import!

We hope to post the schedule online via our continued partnership with the wonderful folks at B-Side.com, shortly after the holidays.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more Take 5's!

Notification Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:13:00 +0000

Notifications -- both acceptances and rejections (or non-acceptances, if you prefer) -- for the 2010 Oxford Film Festival went out tonight.

We will post a list of our competition films in the coming days, and hope to have our showcase/non-competition lineup firmed up before the holidays.

To those whose films were accepted: congratulations, and we hope you can join us in February. One of the highlights for those of us who work the festival is to put a face with the name. And to play beer pong with you.

To those whose films were not accepted this time: please know that your film was carefully considered, and that it was not right for us this year. We have fewer screens and fewer venues than many festivals, which means we accept fewer films. Please do not be discouraged.

For insight into the independent film festival circuit, I cannot recommend Film Festival Secrets highly enough. It is a must read for aspiring filmmakers.

And I'm not just saying that because I'm quoted in the book version.

To educate and entertain....

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:15:00 +0000

A video reminder of who we are, and what we do.

Oxford Film Festival Promotional from UM Media Documentary Projects on Vimeo.

The Oxford Film Festival is less than 90 days away. We are screening our entries, following up with potential sponsors, and applying for grants.

All donations to the Oxford Film Festival are tax deductible. Contact us today to learn more about our Sponsorship Packages, or check out our Sponsorship Page.

R.E.M.: This is not a show (ONE NIGHT ONLY @ The Lyric)

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Friday, October 30
8:pm
$5 at the door
60 min.
ONE TIME ONLY

The Oxford Film Festival is pleased to partner with The Lyric Oxford to bring the brand-new (dairy-fresh!) concert film, R.E.M.: THIS IS NOT A SHOW, for a one-time screening.

The film chronicles the band's “working rehearsals” at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in 2007, where they played classics (These Days, Cuyahoga, So. Central Rain) and tested then-new material (from ACCELERATE) over five nights before sold-out crowds.

"R.E.M.'s music is ... the soundtrack to your life" -- actually, this is true, at least for me.

Hope you can join us....

See our photos from the Intruder in the Dust anniversary!

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Vintage cloth banner from original 1949 premiere at the Lyric Theater courtesy of Jo Ann Vick

Thanks to our photographers Brooke White and Katherine Rhodes Fields for taking such beautiful (and flattering!) photographs during our anniversary screening of Intruder in the Dust, which also served as our fall fundraiser.

Please refer to our Gallery Page for a slideshow (remember to click "start"!)....

These photos have also been posted to our Facebook page.

In praise of: The Center for Media and Documentary Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Matthew, Micah and Karen from MDP hard at work.

Inadvertently left off of our extensive thank-you letter following Friday's fundraiser, as published in Monday's Oxford Eagle, was the Center for Media and Documentary Projects at the University of Mississippi. This was a colossal failure to recognize on our part, so we want to show them some love.

Without MDP, we would not have the technical support necessary to put anything visual on the screen. Not only do they help us with the actual equipment, but they also put together the trailers and promos that we play before films. And as the home base for both our co-director Micah Ginn and filmmakers Joe York and Matthew Graves, they make it look so easy that we often forget how much work they actually do. Reigning them in is Andy Harper, who is always the voice of calm and reason during our stressful storms.

They are a big piece of the Festival's puzzle, and without them we would not be where we are today. We could not do this without them.

Intruder in the Dust: 60th Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:37:00 +0000

Photo by Bruce Newman for the Oxford Eagle

Thanks to all who attended and/or supported our 60th anniversary screening of Intruder in the Dust. We are anxiously awaiting the photos from our intrepid photographers, and hope to post them by/before the end of the week.

Highlights included: hearing stories from Lee Caplin (agent of the Faulkner literary estate), watching Claude Jarman, Jr. meet and greet those who had met him 60 years ago, laughing with the crowd about x-ray glasses during Joe York's documentary, When We Were Extras, and again during the Q&A, and eating mini salmon cakes and other delights from City Grocery.

This was our big fall fundraiser, and attendance was estimated to be between 350 and 400 people. We won't know the final numbers until we clear our expenses, but in the most general of terms, it was a successful evening on all levels. We still need your help, however -- we have a long way to go to make our budget -- but this is a great start.

Missed the Deadline? Extended Deadline still available on Withoutabox

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:56:00 +0000

There's still time to send in your entry for the 2010 Oxford Film Festival.

An extended deadline is available until OCTOBER 1 for those who submit via Withoutabox.com.

Click here to link to our WAB profile.

Tickets Now On-Sale: Faulkner Anniversary Screening

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Tickets are now on sale through the Lyric's website for what will surely be an unforgettable evening of food, film, and good times.

Friday, October 2
60th Anniversary Screening of William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust
The Lyric Oxford, 1006 Van Buren Avenue.

7:00-7:30 pm Reception for sponsors and ticket holders, catered by John Currence
7:30pm Premiere of Joe York's documentary about the making of Intruder in the Dust
8:00pm Watch the film, Intruder in the Dust, with Q&A following with Claude Jarman, Jr.
9:45pm Musical performances, TBD

For more information, check out the Film Festival's events page -- to purchase tickets, stop by the Lyric or purchase online.

Summer Series, Final Week: The Night of the Loup Garou

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:10:00 +0000

Oh, Summer 2009...how quickly you've passed! It is hard to believe that this Monday (August 3rd) will be our final installment of our Summer Series at the Lyric. But what better way to end our series than with a film from our very own Micah Ginn?

The Night of the Loup Garou, which premiered at the Amp in June and enjoyed a multi-week local run, will screen with many of the local cast members in attendance. Q&A will follow.

Show starts at 7:00pm -- $5.00 at the door (except for cast members, who get in for free!).

Join us!

Summer Series, Week 6: Lightbulb

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Join us at the Lyric on Monday, July 6 for the next installment in our summer series: LIGHTBULB. Show starts at 7:00pm -- $5 at the door.

LIGHTBULB is a story of hope and persistence in the face of hard times. Matt is a small-time inventor looking for his big break. He and his slick-talking salesman partner Sam keep plugging away after that one idea that will become a phenomenon and bring them riches. After years of failure, Matt's long-suffering wife Gina, who has always been supportive, is beginning to succumb to the reality of the growing debt and demanding that Matt look for steady employment. It doesn't help that Matt, with Sam's prodding, has a tendency to gamble away the money she has invested in the business. Will Matt be able to hold on for that burst of inspiration that makes his dreams come true and keep his wife by his side? Based on a true story (written by Mike Cram, based on his life); directed by Jeffrey Balsmeyer.

How not to enter a Film Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:32:00 +0000

It's submission season, and as our July 15th Early-Bird Deadline approaches, Austin's Decider publishes an interview with Kelly Williams, programming director for the Austin Film Festival.

Its title says it all: How not to enter the Austin Film Festival.

And while the AFF is a more seasoned festival with three times the entries we receive (as they are an Academy-qualifying festival, among other attributes), almost any Film Festival programmer I've ever met will tell you exactly the same advice.

Sample advice:
Tip #2: If you’re making a 10-minute short, don’t make your credit sequence five minutes.

Read more tips at the Decider's posting of the article. (Thanks, Kelly!)

Summer Series, Week 5: RIP, Remix Manifesto

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:51:00 +0000

Our Summer Series at the Lyric continues with RIP: Remix Manifesto, a documentary we are pleased to present in partnership with B-Side.com.

Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers. The film's central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. Is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? You decide. Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil's Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow are also along for the ride.

Is it art? Or is it copyright infringement? You decide...join us on Monday, June 29 at 7:00pm. $5 at the door.

Summer Series, Week 4: Splinterheads

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Splinterheads Trailer from Atlantic Pictures on Vimeo.

Splinterheads comes to Oxford! After a premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March, Oxford is next on the film's brief list of pre-distribution screenings. Producer Darren Goldberg will be in attendance. Don't miss it!

Show starts at 7:00pm, $5.00 at the door. Bring your own snacks! The bar is open!

For Justin Frost, a typical day is rolling out of bed at one, practicing improvised karate, and mowing grass for his best friend's landscaping business. But when a traveling carnival lands in his small town, Justin falls for a sexy con-artist and wakes up to the life he has yet to begin living. Directed by Brant Sersen (Blackballed: the Bobby Dukes Story; Best Narrative Feature, OFF 2004), and featuring several familiar faces, including Lea Thompson and Frankie Faison.

Summer Series, Week 3: Motherland

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:31:00 +0000

A return to documentaries for our next Movie Monday at the Lyric with Motherland.

Show starts at 7:00pm, $5.00 at the door. Bring your own snacks! The bar is open!

See this powerful film which debuted in March at the South by Southwest Film Festival.

Six diverse and remarkable women, each grieving the loss of a child, travel to rural South Africa to work as volunteers in an effort to find some positive meaning in the wake of their tragedies. The group, strangers to each other before the trip began but bound by the painful experience they share, contribute to and learn from a culture that deals with mourning in a way very different from what they're accustomed to in America. For 17 days on the other side of the world, these women cry and laugh, grieve and celebrate, and talk more openly than ever before about the kids they adored. And for the first time since their children's deaths, together in the Motherland, each woman finds hope and healing in the company of others who truly understand her experience. Directed by Jennifer Steinman.

Summer Series, Week 2: Adventures of Power

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:33:00 +0000

Our Summer Series at the Lyric continues with Ari Gold's ADVENTURES OF POWER. Show starts at 7:00pm; tickets are $5.00 at the door.

A poor, misfit mineworker named Power sets out to change the world through his love of drums. The only problem is, he’s never learned to play – so has instead become an expert air-drummer, a skill which has yet to earn him the respect of his union-leader father or working-class town. Power soon discovers an underground network of people who play air drums competitively and his life changes forever. Directed by Ari Gold, who stars along with Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, and Adrian Grenier.

The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and screened at over 20 film festivals across North America, including some of our favorites: Indie Memphis, Sidewalk, Austin, and Toofy.

Unleash your inner (air) drummer, and join us at the Lyric!

SIDE NOTE: we will rescreen WE FUN for those who missed it on Monday night due to the baseball game. (Go Rebels!) Stay tuned for details....

Summer Series begins with WE FUN

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:28:00 +0000

Our expanded Summer Series -- this year at The Lyric Oxford -- kicks off on Monday, June 1 at 7:00pm with WE FUN, directed by Matthew Robison. We first met Matthew in 2008 when he brought the film Silver Jew, which he co-produced, to our 5th Annual Festival. We have been anxiously awaiting his new project, and here it is!

WE FUN is an insider's look at a small group of bands that have come to international prominence in the last year. Atlanta area bands like the Black Lips, Mastodon and Deerhunter that started playing at house parties and offbeat local venues are now playing festivals around the world. It is the story of the Peter Pan syndrome reaching critical mass and the creativity that follows. It is also a portrait of how a scene develops, in this case the Atlanta indie rock scene. It starts as simply with talented musicians who just want to play their music with no compromises, followed by venues that make themselves accessible to new and rising acts, and fans who take ownership and pride in helping to nurture a burgeoning community. Eventually, the rest of the world notices. There is fire, fireworks and still more fire, odd stories from the road, the how and why of performance, and all variety of what these artists call "fun."

Fittingly enough, the bar at the Lyric will be open during this film.

See the full series schedule here.

Admission = $5.00
Festival merchandise will also be on sale.

Get Your Own (Finally!): The Rough South of Larry Brown

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:03:00 +0000

Gary Hawkins' film, The Rough South of Larry Brown -- which screened in the inaugural Oxford Film Festival in 2003, and again at the 2005 festival after Brown's untimely death -- is FINALLY AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE on DVD.

So please get your own copy....

Named one of the 13 Essential Southern Documentaries by Oxford American Magazine, The Rough South of Larry Brown weaves interviews of Brown and his wife, Mary Annie, with narrative adaptations of three of his short stories, “Boy & Dog,” “Wild Thing,” and “Samaritans,” brought vividly to the screen with performances by Will Patton (Remember the Titans), Paul Schneider (All the Real Girls), and Natalie Canerday (Sling Blade). The result is a unique and compelling examination of the life and works of the late Oxford, Mississippi, fireman-turned-writer.

Newly re-edited and re-mastered to encompass the aftermath of Brown’s death in 2004, and featuring an original score by Vic Chesnutt, The Rough South of Larry Brown is a rich exploration of the writer behind the words and the woman behind the writer.

Click here to go to the distributor's website.

Summer Series Schedule -- now posted!

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:42:00 +0000

The Oxford Film Festival is working with the newly reopened Lyric Theater, to create a new summer film series. Films will screen on Mondays, one time only, as a way to bring independent films to the community outside of the festival experience.

The limited 2008 summer series showcased three well attended movies last May, June and July and showed that the local community is thirsty for good films year round.

Building upon last summer’s success, and in order to highlight films that may not be available on the festival circuit in time for next year’s festival the Oxford Film Festival is introducing the 10-week “Movie Mondays” beginning on June 1. The first film to appear is We Fun by Matthew Robison (producer, Silver Jew; OFF 2008).

The summer calendar is as follows:
June 1 = We Fun *
June 8 = Adventures of Power
June 15 = Motherland *
June 22 = Splinterheads
June 29 = R.I.P.: a Remix Manifesto *
July 6 = Lightbulb
July 13 = Mine *
July 20 = HottieBoombaLottie
July 27 = Documentary films by Joe York and Mary Warner, including Saving Willie Mae’s Scotch House and a NEW documentary about Thacker Mountain Radio *
August 3 = The Night of the Loup Garou

* = Documentary films

Tickets will be $5.00 at the door. Click here for film descriptions.

Call for Entries: 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:29:00 +0000

The 7th Annual Oxford Film Festival (February 4-7, 2010) is accepting entries in the following categories:

Animation
Documentary Feature
Documentary Short
Experimental
Narrative Feature
Narrative Short

Entries may be submitted online via withoutabox.com, or with a paper form (contact us).

Chasing Gus’ Ghost documentary screening in Oxford, Miss.

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:11:00 +0000

CHASING GUS' GHOST, a film reflecting the life of Clarksdale, Miss. native, Gus Cannon and the influences of jug music will be showing at The Powerhouse in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, Apr. 14 at 7 pm.

Gus Cannon of Clarksdale, Miss. is recognized as one of the most renowned jug band musicians. Cannon moved to Memphis, Tenn. and began his career that span from playing the juke joints of Beale Street during the 1920’s to recording for Stax in the 1960’s. The strength of jug music was found in his hit song “Walk Right In” which has been covered by several famous artists from the The Rooftop Singers to Janis Joplin and was even included in the movie Forrest Gump.

Filmmaker Todd K. Wait has made a movie tracing the roots of jug band music and how it evolved into folk and rock music. The film include interviews and live performances by John Sebastian from the Lovin’ Spoonful, Maria Muldaur, Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead, and Charlie Musselwhite.

A free screening is being presented by Living Blues Magazine, The Oxford Film Festival and Yoknapatawpha Arts Council at The Powerhouse on Tuesday, Apr. 14 2009 at 7 p.m.

For more information on the Oxford Film Festival, call (877) 560-FILM or email Melanie Addington at melanie [at] oxfordfilmfest.com.

The Cake Eaters: Pre-Order Now!

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:53:00 +0000

As seen in the 5th Oxford Film Festival (2008) -- soon to be available on DVD!

Before she was in TWILIGHT, Kristin Stewart was in another star-studded indie film called THE CAKE EATERS, directed by Mary Stuart Masterson.

Easy, the Kimbrough family patriarch, is grieving over the recent loss of his wife. His youngest son, Beagle, who was left to care for his ailing mother, falls in love with Georgia, a terminally ill, fifteen-year-old girl. His older brother, Guy, missing from the family for years while pursuing his rock star dream, returns home after missing the funeral. The Cake Eaters, the first feature from writer Jayce Bartok, is a sensitive and sweet story of losing and finding your family.

Click here to order your copy!