The Fantastic Cinema and Craft Beer Festival kicked off Thursday night with a screening of the unclassifiable The Alchemist Cookbook by Michigan-based auteur Joel Potrykus. If you were lucky enough to be there, you saw a deeply interesting horror comedy about a punk rock kid — check out his Minor Threat T-shirt — who holes up in the wilds of Michigan with only his cat Kaspar for companionship and attempts to summon the Dark Lord to help him achieve his dream of turning base material into gold.
If you didn’t see it, well, there’s still plenty of other weird and original movies — including Anna Rose Holmer’s debut feature The Fits, a psychological mystery that drew raves at this year’s Sundance Film Festival — on offer. I asked Tony Taylor, the executive director of the festival, and the prime reason it exists, to answer a few questions about the festival, which runs through Sunday.
Q. What exactly is this festival about? And why should we care about it?
A. Fantastic Cinema & Craft Beer Festival is a celebration of genre films and craft beer. One reason you should care is because this festival is about enjoying movies and, if you are so inclined, craft beer. We do take our movies seriously, but the great thing about these films is they are often an escape. And I know the beer brewers take their craft very seriously, so you can enjoy a wide variety of great-tasting beer.
Q. Who are you again?
A. I’m the executive director of Film Society of Little Rock, which hosts two film festivals, Fantastic Cinema and Kaleidoscope, as well as a variety of film screenings throughout the year. Our ultimate goal is to provide innovative and unique programming and events throughout the entire year that will engage the hearts and minds of our audience. That last line sounds like a pitch, but it is true.
Q. Where does this festival fit in with the local filmgoing/filmmaking scene?
A. That is a great question. First, with the filmgoing scene we offer unique programming that you would rarely find locally. We want to offer a mix of genre films that appeal to the art-house scene and films that true hardcore genre fans would enjoy. Genre film fans are some of the best fans you will ever find because they love a wide variety of films. At the same time, we want to offer some films that people would enjoy even if they don’t consider themselves a genre film fan.
We put a lot of thought into creating a film festival that offers something for the filmmaking scene. We want to bring people to the festival that filmmakers can interact [with] and feel like they walk away from the festival having learned something and made some connections with people who are very passionate about filmmaking.
Here are a few of those people. Justin Beahm (Fangoria, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Horrorhound) is one of the truly great genre film lovers in the world and a great writer. I’ve been reading his articles for years. Chris Alexander (managing editor of Shock Till You Drop) is probably the foremost genre film magazine editor/writer in the world. He has a deep love for film, an incredible depth of knowledge, and he is one heck of a filmmaker and musician. Luchagore Productions (Gigi Guerrero, Raynor Shima, Luke Bramley) are winners of the Fantastic Cinema Emerging Filmmakers Award. Never heard of them? You will soon.
If local filmmakers want to discuss filmmaking and maybe pick up a trick or two, they need to come meet Luchagore. They are great at making high-quality short films fast and with no money, not that you would guess that by watching their movies. Seriously, come meet Gigi, Raynor, and Luke while they are in town. I have a lot of respect for their passion and skills.
In only a year’s time Crypt TV has become the leading online genre film studio. It now has over 1 million Facebook fans and the videos it posts receive tens of thousands and often hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of views. Josh Millican, director of community at Crypt TV, will be at the festival all weekend. Come meet him. And, honestly, every filmmaker attending this festival is talented with a lot to offer. This definitely includes Arkansas native Eric England (Roadside, Contracted). It is always great to have him back in the state. So many great things are happening with his career.
Q. What’s the venue and how much does it cost?
A. We are very happy to be at Riverdale 10 VIP Cinema. Matt Smith is doing great things at Riverdale 10. Cost? We offer a variety of options: $10 for an individual ticket; $20 for a day pass (Saturday and Sunday only); $50 for a Film Fanatic Pass, which will give you a chance to get into every movie screening. And finally for $135 there is a VIP Pass offering you access to every film screening, party, panel, filmmaker lounge, and priority seating.
Q. What do you expect the highlights to be?
A. Too many to name! Here is a very short list: The Alchemist Cookbook, The Fits, Female Werewolf/The Eyes of My Mother (for arthouse genre lovers), Somnio, Bunny the Killer Thing (for those who enjoy horror comedies with a naughty taste in humor), the Luchagore Productions spotlight screening, and don’t miss lots of excellent short films including the world premiere of Cured starring Michael Berryman, who will be at the festival!
Q. Why do you refer to Fantastic Cinema as a “genre” festival?
A. Because that is what it truly is. People hear “genre” festival and they think “horror.” I’m a huge horror film lover. It is probably my favorite genre of film and horror is a big part of this festival. The key word is “part.” We also offer some great independent sci-fi, some fantasy, and other films that are genre-defying. The Alchemist Cookbook is genre-defying. The Fits is hard to drop into one genre. And The Eyes of My Mother is a horror movie, but there is so much more going on. Female Werewolf is unlike any horror movie you will watch in the theater. It has a very David Lynch feel to it.
So this is a genre festival; not a horror film festival or a sci-fi film festival. Like we say, “Fantastic Cinema screens imaginative and innovative genre films from bold visionaries who are not afraid to take risks in order to create films that inspire, challenge, and thrill audiences.”
This is all about film; however, remember we will be featuring some amazing craft beer!
For more information on the festival go to fantasticcinema.com.
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MovieStyle on 04/08/2016