Oxford Film Festival – An Eye Opening Experience

I recently had an opportunity to accept an invitation to the Oxford Film Festival to be on a panel and to do a workshop. This was my first journey to one of the smaller festivals on the circuit. I must say going to this festival was definitely an eye-opening experience for me.

See for many years I only saw festivals such as Sundance, Cannes, Toronto as festivals filmmakers such as myself would want to go to. Why? Because that's where the buyers were. Not only were they great festivals but distribution and sales reps were there. To be quite honest I always thought the smaller festivals were a bit of a waste of time. Boy was I wrong.

Lucky for me on the van ride from Memphis to Oxford I was joined by a charming fellow named Chris Holland. Not only is Chris a cool guy but he is all knowing in the realm of film festivals. He even wrote a book about it: Film Festival Secrets. During my stay there we had a lot of time to hang out together at events and he really drilled in my head the importance of small festivals for filmmakers.

Not only are these festivals of ultra-importance for new filmmakers who can't get into the bigger more mainstream and media frenzied festivals but they can really build a foundation of fans for their films. Many of the films I went to were sold out and the theaters weren't that small either.

Much to my surprise I actually found three films but I hope to become involved in the distribution process with. These three films really showed me great storytelling, awesome camera work, fantastic editing, and solid people behind them. Mark my word whether or not I'm involved with them they will see the light of day in places such as Blockbuster, Netflix, etc.

The first film, "Carried Away", was made by an old friend of mine Tom Huckabee. Tom and I have been long friends since the days of his partnership with actor Bill Paxton's American Entertainment. Tom had always been amazing stories so I knew this film would be something to check out.

Carried Away Trailer from Carried Away Movie on Vimeo.

"Carried Away" is about a young man pursuing his dreams of Hollywood. He returns home to Fort Worth Texas at Christmas time and finds his family in turmoil. His parents marriage is crumbling his relationship with his brothers are often rocky. He discovers that his beloved grandmother has been placed in a nursing home and this pushes them over the edge. He decides to go to his grandmother's rescue.

The film is filled with unknown actors who showed breakout performances under the tutelage of Tom's direction. Shot on the red camera the film is absolutely beautiful. The locations were picked to really bring us into the performances. "Carried Away" was the winner of the narrative feature competition at the Oxford film Festival.

Being a lover of documentary films, I knew I had to see what the festival had to serve up. I was not disappointed in the least. Two docs that really stood out and made me want to get involved with were The Last Survivor, directed by Michael Pertnoy, and "Mississippi Queen", directed by Paige Williams.

The Last Survivor tells the story of four genocide survivors and their struggle to make sense of the tragedies they lived through. The film was beautifully told and shot which really made the horrors of the film sink into my skin. It made me really want to get involved in their cause.

Would really drove a nail in my head about the film was that this was director Michael Pertnoy's first movie. He really delivered his first time out. This is a must-see film, with important messages.

Paige Williams' "Mississippi Queen" is a powerful story that follows Paige growing up a good Southern Baptist girl and Clinton, Mississippi who learned to love God and family. But years later she attempts to find balance in her marriage and commitment to a woman, their newborn and the fact that her parents run Mississippi's only ex-gay ministry.

Pages documentary really hit home with me personally as I have friends who grew up in the Midwest and the South who have told me stories of the struggle to be gay. Seen this firsthand from Paige's point of view really opened my eyes in the subject. This is a very powerful documentary in my opinion, definitely worth seeing.

This being my first real visit to the South, I have to say, I loved it. The people were so genuinely nice, the food so amazing, and the backdrop of one of the oldest towns in Mississippi, really turned out to be a great spot for a film festival. If you are a film festival lover, enjoyed good movies and good food, definitely put the Oxford film Festival on your radar. I hope to be invited back year after year as I really enjoyed my time there.