Posted on Sun, Aug. 27, 2006

See them in September
Festivals give fans and filmgoers something to look forward to.

By ROBERT W. BUTLER
The Kansas City Star


One month. Three big film festivals.

Even if it doesn’t suggest lots of cooperative planning, at least film fans can’t complain that nothing interesting is going on in September.

Not only have our town’s two big-dog film fests (FilmFest Kansas City and the Kansas International Film Festival) stakeed out back-to-back weeks, but the new-on-the-block American Artist Film Festival has announced it will unreel only a week later.



FilmFest (Sept. 8-14)

This year local audiences will be among the first in the country to get advance peeks at releases from the “boutique studios” ThinkFilm and Focus Features. That’s because the granddaddy of local film festivals (it unreels its 13th year at the cozy Screenland Theatre, 17th and Washington) has struck up a partnership with the artsy distributors.

Already announced are “Tideland,” the latest from visionary filmmaker Terry Gilliam (“The Fisher King,” “Brazil”); the offbeat romance “Candy” with Heath Ledger; the Brit comedy “Keeping Mum” with Rowan Atkinson; “Looking for Kitty,” the latest from NYC auteur Ed Burns; and “Off the Black” with Nick Nolte as a dying high school baseball ump.

Featured are 35 movies from around the globe with an emphasis on the French (thanks to the cooperation of the local Alliance Française) and titles submitted by KC’s sister cities in Japan, Spain, Korea and elsewhere.

Check it out at www.film kc.org.



KIFF (Sept. 15-21)

The Kansas International Film Festival (formerly the Halfway 2 Hollywood Fest) will be screening more than 50 films this year, many of them in competition. Among the visiting filmmakers will be zombiemeister George Romero and his special effects guru, Tom Savini, who will oversee a retrospective of Romero cult classics such as “Night of the Living Dead” and “Creepshow.”

Other high-profile films slated for screenings are “Flock of Dodos,” Randy Olson’s tongue-in-cheek documentary about the creationist/intelligent design/evolution controversy in the Sunflower State; “This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated,” a devastating examination of the MPAA’s powerful ratings board; “American Stag,” local auteur Ben Meade’s sociological study of early porn reels; a documentary about climate change, “The Great Warming,” narrated by Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves; “Hand of God,” an incendiary documentary about a man seeking justice from the pedophile priest who abused him; and “The Empty Acre,” Lawrence filmmaker Patrick Rea’s evocative rural Gothic horror drama.

It all takes place at the Glenwood Arts Theatre in Overland Park.

For more info go to www.kansasfilm.com.



American Artist Film Festival (Sept. 25-30)

The AAFF is breaking new ground all over the place.

It’s the area’s first for-profit film festival. It has solicited filmmakers from around the globe to submit work with the promise of a $25,000 grand prize for the fest’s top film.

And it’s doing something else nobody has tried: It’ll make selected festival films available via podcast so that even those who can’t attend can still check out the flicks over the Internet.

To date, more than 60 films from the United States, Spain, India and Australia have been submitted. They’ll be shown on a dedicated screen at The Legends 14 in KCK’s West Village development.

(Initially the AAFF was to have taken place at the Oak Park Mall, but the difficulties of building a temporary theater in a mall forced the change to a genuine movie palace.)

Organizers are promising visiting filmmakers and exhibits, and fest founder Xavier De Jesus will be shooting a movie at The Legends 14 during the event, meaning that festivalgoers can eavesdrop on a film being made.

Get the full scoop at www .americanartistfilmfestival.com.