Monthly Archives: May 2013

LR Film Fest: OXFORD AMERICAN Best Southern Film

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bayou_maharajah_the_tragic_genius_of_james_bookerThe OXFORD AMERICAN magazine has been a part of the Little Rock Film Festival since the first year.  A couple of years ago, they established an award for Best Southern Film.

The winner this year was Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker directed by Lily Keber. The documentary explores the life, times and music of piano legend James Booker, who Dr. John described as ‘the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.’

The award was chosen by OA editor Roger Hodges and presented by publisher Warwick Sabin.

LR Film Fest: Made in Arkansas Awards

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IMG_5408There are four awards presented to films in the “Made in Arkansas” track.   This year there were fifteen shorts and five feature films in contention for these awards.

Liza Burns won the Best Actor award for her performance in the feature 45 RPM.  (Note that actor is used as a gender non-specific term.)  The other nominees were Jeff Bailey for “The Discontentment of Ed Telfair,” Jeffrey Fuell for “Blood Brothers” and Graham Gordy for “Mary.”

The Charles B. Pierce Award for Best Short went to “The Discontentment of Ed Telfair” which was directed by Daniel Campbell.  The other nominees were “Diamond John” (directed by Travis Mosler), “Last Shot Love” (directed by Nolan Dean) and “Mary” (directed by Zach Turner).  Interestingly, the latter two and Campbell’s winning film were all grouped together in the “Heartbeats” block.

The award for Best Feature went to 45 RPM directed by Juli Jackson.  The other nominees were Last Summer by Mark Thiedeman and The Identity Theft of Mitch Mustain by Matthew Wolfe.

Mark Thiedeman won Best Director for Last Summer.  This is the third consecutive year Thiedeman has had a film at the Little Rock Film Festival.  The other nominees were Amman Abbasi for “Bad Water,” Zach Turner for “Mary” and Juli Jackson for 45 RPM.

LR Film Fest: Youth Filmmaker Awards

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lrff_mp_hdr_logoThe Little Rock Film Festival values promotion of the next generation of filmmakers.  Partnering with AETN and the THEA Foundation, LRFFYOUTH! features workshops, screenings and awards.

The Best Youth Film award went to Robert Crisp for his film “Saturday.”

The THEA Foundation presented four scholarships to youth filmmakers.  A scholarship for cinematography went to Zak Heald, Crisp earned a scholarship for his editing, Joseph Largent won a scholarship for screenwriting, and the scholarship for directing went to Anna Thompson.

LR Film Fest: Heifer Social Impact and World Shorts Awards

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TheseBirdsWalkA new award was presented at the 2013 Little Rock Film Festival Arkansas Times Awards Gala.  The Heifer Social Impact Award recognized a film that best promotes awareness and advocacy of global problems and solutions.  The funding for the award came from the National Park Service through the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

The award was actually presented first on Saturday night at an event sponsored by Heifer and presented again at the Sunday evening gala.  The award went to These Birds Walk which was directed by Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq.

The World Shorts Award went to Amy Seimetz’s “When We Lived in Miami.” It was shown in the “Sore Times” block of films.

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LR Film Fest Awards: Arkansas Times Audience Choice

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bridegroomThe Little Rock Film Festival concluded on Sunday evening with the Arkansas Times Awards Gala.  There were thirteen awards presented that evening. A fourteenth award – the Diamond Award for Excellence in filmmaking – was presented earlier in the festival to Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

The Arkansas Times Audience Award went to Bloodworth-Thomason’s Bridegroom.  This documentary had previously won an audience award at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival where the film was introduced by President Bill Clinton.

Because the filmmakers were unavailable to attend on Sunday and accept the award, Shane Bitney Crone, one of the subjects of the documentary, accepted the award.

May 21 Architeaser

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Today’s architeaser looks at the unique water spouts on the Museum Center building.  Built as a railroad terminal in 1927, it later served as the press building for the Arkansas Democrat. In 1998, a $12 million adaptive reuse was completed. The building is now home to restaurants, offices and the namesake Museum of Discovery.

One of the other occupants of the building is Riverfest.  The staff and volunteers are busy at this time getting ready for the three day festival this weekend.

“One Mind for Research” at Clinton School tonight

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clinton-school-logoTonight at the Clinton School Speaker Series, General Peter Chiarelli will give a presentation entitled “One Mind for Research” at 6pm at Sturgis Hall.

The former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, retired General Peter Chiarelli has 40 years of experience designing and implementing American defense policy for the army and Department of Defense in peace and during combat operations. After retiring from the army in 2012, he was named CEO of One Mind for Research, a non-profit organization dedicated to curing the diseases of the brain and eliminating the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness and brain injuries.

At the Clinton School, Chiarelli discusses his advocacy for eliminating the stigma associated with service members and Veterans seeking and receiving assistance for the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury.