Lights, camera, action!
Every year, innovative filmmakers from all over the world celebrate their cinematic creations at the Oxford Film Festival. The event took place at various locations around Oxford, including the Gertrude C. Ford Center and the Powerhouse, but mostly at Malco Cinema Grill.
The festival, which was held from March 21-24 this year, is a melting pot of filmmakers, film connoisseurs and film critics. These four days of film open doors for filmmakers to better understand how their work is received and to interact with other creators.
According to Matt Wymer, executive director of the festival, the event got its start with the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and Ron Shaprio, Oxford’s late “cultural icon” and owner of the now-closed Hoka Theatre, “in order to recreate the unusual space that the Hoka occupied” to bring together people from different walks of life to “experience movies and other people’s stories from around the world that they would have never seen any other place but in that theater.”
To kick off the 21st annual Oxford Film Festival, The Yalobushwackers of Thacker Mountain Radio set the stage for high levels of energy, talent and passion with a performance. Following the Thacker Mountain Radio block, “Pinewood” and “Adam the First” were the first screened films of the event.
“Pinewood” director Martin Dean Lester Jr. said it was an honor to present the first film of the festival.
“This is the first one that I’d be pretty proud of, you know. We’ve done a lot of projects throughout school. This is the first serious thing I ever had to tackle, and I’m happy with how it worked,” Lester, an alum of the UM theater and film program, said.
After the excitement and energy of the first night, Ruth Leitman, filmmaker of “No One Asked You,” opened up about her expectations for the festival.
“It was really fun meeting other filmmakers and being here for opening night, the opening party and the red carpet. I’m excited for what’s happening the rest of the weekend. People are coming from all different places, bringing their work and sharing their work,” Leitman said.
“No One Asked You” follows Lizz Weinstead of “The Daily Show” and her organization Abortion Access Front as they travel to different states and push back on what they describe as the stigma surrounding abortion.
“We went to The Pink House (the Women’s Health Organization clinic) in Jackson, Miss. — one of the first places that we went to, and we returned month after month, year after year because we knew that things were really on the decline. They were really under attack, and we wanted to support what they were doing by documenting their strength and tenacity with everything that they did,” Weinstead said.
The second day of OFF began with a powerful, emotional film, “The Meaning of a Ritual,” created and directed by Natalie MacMahon. The film featured an all-female cast and themes of self-discovery, multi-generational understanding and magic.
“I’m thrilled to reach the amazing audience of the Oxford Film Festival and love how this story can resonate with people from different backgrounds,” MacMahon said. “The emotional core of the story is very human and can touch people from different ages and cultures in so many ways. It makes me happy to leave the audience with some inspiration on how to approach life and overcome difficult situations with the help of rituals and the power of nature.”
The visibility of disenfranchised communities was a prominent theme of the festival this year.
“When Unfettered,” a short film written and directed by Derek Franzese, presented scenes of disabled children accepting and playing with an ostracized AI humanoid. This meaningful scene displayed the openness that people with disabilities often possess but are not likely to be met with.
Franzese spoke of the importance of portraying groups who lack representation in mainstream media.
“That was one of the biggest things for me,” Franzese said. “We wrote this before COVID. There were very, very, very little roles for people who had any kind of disability. It’s gotten a little better. But that was a very important thing to do, to show people with any kind of disability.”
Franzese elaborated further on how he created a space for those he feels are not typically seen on the big screen.
“We tried to find anybody, whether it was autism, down syndrome or paraplegia. Every single person adds something to everything. It doesn’t matter. And so that was super important to me,” Franzese said.
Friday night culminated in an after-party at the Powerhouse for filmmakers and festival attendees. With a raffle to win prizes, live music performed by Steve Johnson and a bar serving cocktails featured in the locally produced film “(I’m Not) Your Negroni,” spirits were high.
Saturday came with more showings, the awards ceremony and a red carpet event where the awardees spoke about their works’ inspirations and processes.
“Lee Baby,” a film by Leah Raidt and Eli Sulkowski, is about the challenges that a transgender man and his wife face when deciding to start a family. Raidt explained the initiative behind the film and its trans-led set.
“The inspiration behind the film is an aspirational take on my creative partner’s wishes of how he and his wife would want to conceive, as well as needing a place to channel our energy when Roe v. Wade was overturned and seeing the lack of trans visibility and education about the trans experience in the film industry,” Raidt said.
Sunday rolled around, giving attendees a last chance to view films with encore screenings for the winners in each category and a rare showing of “Hello Dankness,” a satirical musical comedy film that can only be described as a masterclass in copyright infringement that was created by Australian creative duo Soda Jerk.
OFF jury member and Executive Director of Indie Memphis Kimel Fryer reflected on her time at the Oxford Film Festival.
“I’ve always had a great time in Oxford. The locals are here along with the filmmakers. And so for a few days, you have everyone kind of bonding together over films and networking and just talking with each other, so I really love that aspect. And I think that the Oxford Film Festival is amazing and does a great job of curating spaces so we can bond over film together,” Fryer said.
This article is part of a team-up week activity that the arts and culture section of The Daily Mississippian is hosting. Each arts and culture staff writer collaborated with another writer to complete an article for this week of content.
