LITTLE ROCK — The north side of the Arkansas River was home to a big announcement for the Little Rock Film Festival during the grand opening Feb. 17 of the Argenta Community Theater in North Little Rock.
The “surprise” film screening at the event was up and coming Canadian director Ed Gass-Donnelly’s Canadian noir film Small Town Murder Songs starring Peter Stormare (Fargo, The Big Lebowski).
Jack Lofton, executive director of the Little Rock Film Festival, says the success of theevent marks the first of many screenings that will be held at the theater.
“The screening of Small Town Murder Songs was sold out and it was a sample of the monthly film screenings/events that we will start hosting in the spring with the Arkansas Film Society, a statewide initiative of the LRFF,” Lofton says.
In addition to the screening, the bigger surprise was the announcement of the fifth annual festival’s opening night film. The festival selected The Last Ride, Harry Thomason’s film chronicling the last three days in the singer Hank Williams’ life.The film stars Henry Thomas (E.T., Gangs of New York), Jesse James and Kaley Cuoco with appearances by Ray McKinnon (The Blind Side, That Evening Sun) and Stephen Tobolowski (Groundhog Day).
Little Rock Film Festival founder and creative director Brent Renaud made the announcement onstage alongside actress/director Joey Lauren Adams, Vince Insalaco and Thomason.
“This weekend we announced a partnership with the new ACT theater in Argenta,” Renaud says. “As we continue to expand the LRFF in our fifthyear we are increasing the number of venues we screen in. Our home will still be the Riverdale Theater in Little Rock, where we will have eight screens this year, but in addition to the Clinton school we now add the ACT theater as a venue.”
Renaud says the partnership with the new community theater will aid in the expansion of the festival’s community outreach as well as add another venue to screen films during the five-day festival.
“ACT will host our youth programs during the festival,” Renaud says, adding that the festival now serves more than200 children from around the state with workshops, screenings and special events.
“This spring we will open a satellite office at ACT to manage our expanded youth and educational programs,” he continues. More information is available at littlerockfilmfestival.org and argenta communitytheater.com.
David Bogard, former circuit judge turned filmmaker, is ready to start production on his newest film project since his short film Irene had its debut on the festival circuit last year.
Bogard says CaliforniaDreaming is an 18-page script about a “pretty, young, conservative housewife who feels her six-year, childless marriage has gone stale” when all the sudden a carefree biker comes into her life.
The film will star Stephanie Gunderman, Jeremy Day, Laurie Pascall and Dan Sokoloski and is to be shot mostly on nights and weekends in Maumelle and North Little Rock over a one-month-period.
Levi Agee is a programmer for the Little Rock Film Festival and the founder and host of Cameras on the Radio. E-mail him at:
MovieStyle, Pages 35 on 02/25/2011