HOT SPRINGS — In the 24 years since its founding, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival has seen the world of documentary film evolve. Film festivals, independent films and filmmaking in general have made great strides. The culture now values an artisan touch in lieu of homogenization, and companies with mass appeal have begun to use documentaries to market to that trend. From broadcasters such as HBO and NPR to streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, everyone seems to want the next big true-to-life story.
When the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival started, it was the first all-documentary festival in North America. James Earl Jones saw “a great future for documentaries,” even then, said Courtney Pledger, executive director of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Earlier this year, MovieMaker Magazine named the festival to its worldwide list of Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee. Pledger has overseen what she calls an overhaul of the festival since she was named director in 2012.
“It’s great for MovieMaker to acknowledge us,” Pledger said. “[The list] is more of an acknowledgement of the festivals they feel are rising to the top. There are probably 6,000 festivals worldwide that are taking submissions. It’s a challenge because most filmmakers have limited budgets. There’s a fee to submit, and [the fees] are usually pretty reasonable, but if you multiply that times say 20 festivals, or if you would try to submit to more than that, it would break the filmmaker’s bank.”
The festival circuit is how many filmmakers hope to find a distributor, especially for smaller niche movies. Festivals like the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival allow moviegoers to see films that may never gain widespread distribution in theaters. The movies that do receive distribution can be seen at festivals months before their release dates.
“For some of these films — it doesn’t mean they aren’t really good films — it just means they aren’t broad enough in subject for the larger streaming platforms or distributors to pick up,” Pledger said. “But some of them are really terrific films, and the festival circuit might be the only kind of widespread release that they get.”
The Hot Springs festival also allows filmmakers to have direct interaction with the audience and fans. There are catered areas where festivalgoers with all-access passes can mingle with filmmakers and the subjects of the films. Each year, there is a festival speaker, and there are Q&A sessions after most screenings.
“The Arlington, the setting that it gives — what’s wonderful about it is the two main venues are upstairs on the mezzanine level,” Pledger said. “There are places to hang out on the mezzanine, and then you come down those sweeping stairs, and you’ve got this huge beautiful period lobby. Everybody’s hanging out. They’re out on the veranda. Tess Harper, when she was here, said that was her favorite spot. She’d just go sit out there, hang out and talk to whoever sat down with her.”
Harper is an Oscar-nominated actress for her role in the 1986 film Crimes of the Heart. She continues to appear in prominent roles, as evidenced by her recurring role on AMC’s Breaking Bad and an appearance in HBO’s True Detective.
The aim of festival organizers in Hot Springs is for the event to remain the intimate festival it was when it started. The screenings and other events of the festival are concentrated so they’re all within walking distance. Although the festival feels low-key, the implications of winning are staggering. The Spa City Best Documentary Short Award winner qualifies for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Academy Awards.
Gordon Quinn received a lifetime achievement award at the festival last year. Quinn co-founded Kartemquin Films and has been making documentaries for nearly 50 years.
“We invited him to accept a lifetime achievement award,” Pledger said. “His immediate response was, ‘I’d love to. All my Chicago guys came back raving about Hot Springs.’”
The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, which will be held Oct. 9-18, has so far received many more entrants than last year. Pledger believes some of that is the result of the MovieMaker article, but also that the festival is just becoming more popular.
Staff writer Morgan Acuff can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or macuff@arkansasonline.com.