The Oxford Film Festival will host a showing of the Sundance Film Festival favorite “Walking Out” at 7 p.m. tonight at the Malco Oxford Commons Cinema Grill. The showing will be followed by a Q&A session with film producer Brunson Green.
“Walking Out” received critical acclaim at Sundance for its brutal and awe-inspiring portrayal of the Montana wilderness. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan ranked the film in his top picks of the year so far. The film explores the strained relationship of a distant father and his son as they face the wilderness of Montana after a devastating hunting accident.
“(‘Walking Out’) is a thriller,” Brunson Green, president of Harbinger Pictures and producer of “Walking Out,” said. “It’s an intense emotional experience, but in the end, it’s very satisfying. After leaving the theater, the film sticks with you — it’s not a disposable film.”
After the screening of “Walking Out,” Green and executive director of Oxford Film Festival Melanie Addington will answer questions from the audience regarding the film’s production.
“I will help lead the questions in asking Brunson about the making of the movie and then open it up to the audience to ask him anything related to the making of the film,” Addington said. “It is one of the great benefits to festival screenings that you get to interact with the filmmaker.”
Green said the Q&A session serves as a great opportunity for a moviegoer to gain insight into what the movie making process is really like.
“What’s on the screen is a completely different situation than the chaos and the drama and the hard work that is behind the scenes. Case and point for ‘Walking Out’ — even though the film takes place over four days, we had to film over three months,” Green said. “There are fun tidbits and trivia about the film that the audience will enjoy hearing about after they have seen the film.”
The Oxford Film Festival’s description says the film serves “to bring exciting, new and unusual films (and the people who create them) to north Mississippi.” Tonight’s screening of “Walking Out” is one of the opportunities the film festival brings to Oxford.
“Many studios don’t release independent films on their theatrical schedule, so this is a special opportunity to see something that has a national release along with the rest of the country and not just at the February festival,” Addington said.
A Jackson native, Green has a deep connection to Mississippi. Green said his love for the Magnolia State only grew after he earned an Academy Award nomination for his production of “The Help,” which was filmed in both Jackson and Greenville. Because of his Mississippi roots, Green is keen on bringing films that he is involved in back to his home state.
“I love the Oxford Film Festival and have been able to attend in the past, so I have always wanted to do some sort of programming with the film festival, ” Green said.
The screening will begin at 7 p.m. Monday at Malco Oxford Commons Cinema Grill, but if an interested moviegoer cannot attend tonight’s screening, there will be another screening of “Walking Out” in Jackson at the Crossroads Film Festival on Wednesday. Tickets for tonight’s showing are $7 in advance online and $12 at the door. Half of the proceeds will go toward the Oxford Film Festival to help prepare for its festival in February.
