HOT SPRINGS — From its humble beginnings in 1992, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival has grown dramatically, with a cumulative total of more than 400,000 movie lovers having participated in the activities that surround the screenings each autumn. This year, 110 films - whittled down from 700 entries - will be shown over 10 days.
The huge volume of films that competed for the relatively small number of screenings is testimonial enough to the festival’s following. Only Amsterdam has had a documentary festival that has been around longer than the one in the Spa City, making Arkansas’ event the oldest in the United States.
Just this year, the Malco Theatre, which over the course of the past two decades has been coming back to life as the glorious old movie palace of yore, was entered into the National Register ofHistoric Places.
Festival Director Dan Anderson says, “New this year is a special event room, where we can do workshops and some sidebar screenings. We also put in a larger screen in one of our two theaters.”
Several of the films have Arkansas themes or connections:
Friday night, Disfarmer: A Portrait of America will be shown on both of the Malco’s screens, at 7 and 7:30 p.m. (and again at 10 a.m. Oct. 24). The 52-minute film, directed by Martin Lavut and Dennis Mohr, examines the life of the once obscure Heber Springs portrait photographer, Mike “Disfarmer” Meyers, and the influence he had on the art world of modern Manhattan.
The Crisis Mr. Faubus Made: The Role of the Arkansas Gazette in the Central High Crisis, a 30-minute film by Donna Lampkin Stephens, Kevin Clark and Joseph Anderson, will be shown at 10 a.m. Sunday and at 10:05 a.m.Oct. 21.
Bombs in Our Backyard, a 26-minute film, will be shown at 11:50 a.m. Sunday and at 12:55 p.m. Oct. 23. Filmmakers Jacob Bain and Devan Ohl tell the story of 50 years ago, when areas of rural Arkansas, Kansas and Arizonawere home to the largest nuclear missiles in the world. The Titan IIs, though never launched for war purposes, affected, sometimes due to accidents, the lives of those who lived around them. The missile silos today are filled with dirt, but the Titan program is still alive to veterans, experts, neighbors and museums.
Dirty Work: Arkansas’ Knife Heritage From Bowie to Rambo, will be shown at 4:15 p.m. Sunday and at 10 a.m. Oct. 23. Chris Cranford’s 29-minute film chronicles the prominent role played by Arkansas in the history of knifemaking. The film “illuminates this role from the origins of the Bowie knife and Arkansas toothpick in the 1830s to the modern custom knife-makingrevival.”
Dogpatch USA will be shown at 4:15 p.m. Sunday and at 10 a.m. Oct. 23. Filmmakers Dixie Kline and Matthew Rowe’s 30-minute film tells of the rural theme park that was inspired by Al Capp’s comicstrip, Lil Abner. The park, which operated from 1968 until 1993, was on Arkansas 7 between Russellville and Harrison.
I Am the Homeless, a 10-minute film by Austin Franke, is a student-made film on the homeless in Conway. The film will be screened at 11:50 a.m. Sunday and at 12:55 p.m. Oct. 23.
Silent Storytellers, a 79-minute AETN documentary, will be shown at 10:05 p.m. Monday. Hop Litzwire’s film focuses on the art, history and secrets of Arkansas cemeteries.
Voices for Justice, a 15-minute film about the “West Memphis Three,” will be shown at 10 p.m. Saturday (at Low Key Arts, 118 Arbor St.) and at 12:55 p.m. Oct. 23. Mike Poe’s film tells the story of Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, who were convicted of the murders of three young boys.
Woodruff - A Lesson of Non-Violence is a 30-minute film by Anncha Briggs and will be shown at 10 a.m.
Sunday and at 10:05 a.m. Oct. 21. The film tells of an elementary school in Little Rock that “took a stand against gang rivalries and school-house fighting by promoting conflict resolution while pushing up academic performance.”
Keep Dancing, a 21-minute film by Hendrix College graduate Greg Vander Veer, will be shown at 11:45 a.m. Saturday and 11:59 a.m. Oct. 22. The film “blends nine decades of archival film and photographs with present-day footage to tell a story through dance of the passing of time and the process of aging.”
On opening night, there will be an after-party with music at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the renovated Ozark Bathhouse, 425 Central Ave., a few blocksnorth of the Malco.
“Artist Thomas Petillo, from Nashville, Tenn., will have a photo booth set up there,” Anderson says, “and he will take up to 100 photos of people, done in the style of Disfarmer.”Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday through Oct.
24, Malco Theatre, 819 Central Ave., Hot Springs Opening night: $5, includes champagne and popcorn, screenings of Disfarmer: A Portrait of America at 7 and 7:30 p.m.
Admission: $5 per film; $25 one-day pass; $50 three-day pass; $150 10-day festival pass; student prices: $2 per film; $5 one-day pass; $10 three-day pass; $50 10-day festival pass (501) 321-4747, www.hsdfi.org
Weekend, Pages 37 on 10/14/2010