SPECIAL EVENT: El Dorado Film Festival sets six flicks by Arkansans

The El Dorado Film Festival at the South Arkansas Arts Center, 110 E. Fifth St., El Dorado, kicks off at 6:30 p.m. today with two blocks of short films, one dedicated to films entered into the Louisiana Film Prize competition and one dedicated to science-fiction films from DUST studios.

The festival continues, noon-10:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Saturday. Highlights include:

• The Arkansas premiere, 7:30 p.m. Friday, of the feature film I Am Human, which premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival; it chronicles humanity's march down a new evolutionary path where man and machine merge as one.

• A two-hour block of Arkansas-made films, screening at 2:30 p.m. on Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday, includes Avaline by University of Central Arkansas graduate Hannah Roebuck; Before My Eyes by Mason Bowen; Father by UCA student Sophie Barnes; and three by El Dorado natives: AMELIA (A Victim's Revenge), directed by Michael Young; Letters for Anniston by Clayton Henderson; and Brooklyn Alexander's Losing You.

• Additional blocks of 30 short films from around the world are competing for prizes in the categories of Comedy, Drama and Mish Mash.

• Closing the festival, 8:30 p.m. Saturday, is the Arkansas premiere of Tommy Emmanuel: The Endless Road, producer Jaime Lewis' documentary following the life and career of guitarist Tommy Emmanuel from child guitar prodigy in the Australian outback to success in Nashville, Tenn. Lewis, a guest at the 2017 festival, will take part in a post-screening talk-back.

"One of my favorite things about our film festival is the way it brings artists together," says festival director Alexander Jeffery. "It's so cool that Jaime is coming back to El Dorado with her film, and I hope we have many more stories like this in the future."

Find a complete schedule and film descriptions and synopses at eldofilmfest.com. Full-festival tickets are $30. Every patron who completes a survey is eligible to win a $1,000 audience participation prize.

Call (870) 862-5474 or visit saac-arts.org.

Weekend on 10/10/2019

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