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START YOUR ENGINES!
Ozark Foothills FilmFest March 22-April 1, 2007 Batesville and Little Rock, Arkansas
Welcome to the 6th annual Ozark Foothills FilmFest. Locust Grove, Arkansas, where the festival office is located, is home to the legendary Batesville Speedway. Racing giant Mark Martin got his start there and legions of aspiring young drivers still follow two basic rules: Go Fast. Turn Left. About a year ago, the impressive Mark Martin Museum opened in Batesville, cementing the town’s reputation as a destination for racing fans.
As a tribute to the racing community, we are proud to present Start Your Engines: Movies about the Racing Life. This group of four award-winning documentaries looks at race tracks, drivers, and fans in other parts of the country. DIRT, the festival Opening Night film, follows a season inside the soul of American racing—World Class Street Stocks—at the Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas. Producer/director Jeff Bowden will attend the screening. Also included in Start Your Engines are 4-CYLINDER 400; DEMOLITION 7; and GO FAST, TURN LEFT: VOICES FROM ORANGE COUNTY SPEEDWAY. DIRT and GO FAST, TURN LEFT: VOICES FROM ORANGE COUNTY SPEEDWAY will be screened in Little Rock, as well as Batesville. A number of other films are also being screened in both cities, so be sure to check the complete festival schedule, as well as the event listings for Batesville and Little Rock.
One of the most striking developments in the American cinema since the inaugural Ozark Foothills FilmFest in 2002 has been the growing number of outstanding independent narrative feature films being produced each year. We are happy to include four such features that attest to the originality and determination of filmmakers working with small budgets but enormous talent and passion: SWEDISH AUTO, YOU DID WHAT?, THE GARAGE, and JUST THE TWO OF US. Lacking multi-million dollar promotional budgets, these films are not likely to make it to a theater near you, but they are far more compelling and rewarding than most standard Hollywood fare.
The festival's commitment to showcasing work by emerging and established filmmakers from Arkansas and neighboring states remains strong. We’re especially proud to be presenting two new films of special interest to Arkansans, Lenore Shoults’ FAIRY GODMOTHERS OF THE OZARKS: THE COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED FOR THE OZARK FOLK CENTER and Kevin Clark’s THE OLD GRAY LADY: ARKANSAS' FIRST NEWSPAPER. We’ll also be hosting the first Arkansas retrospective of films by Phil Chambliss, an original talent whose work combines the fury of Samuel Fuller and Sergio Leone with the wit of Monty Python.
We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Little Rock artist Barry Lindley to the promotion of the 2007 festival. Lindley's oil painting Canoe on the Grass, depicted on the entry page of this site, was selected from scores of submissions to serve as this year's branding image. The painting also appears on the Official Poster and Official Print Program of the 2007 Ozark Foothills FilmFest. We thank Mr. Lindley for the use of his work, as well as the considerable assistance he provided in getting the image off the canvas and onto our hard drive!
We would also like to express our appreciation to the two primary screening venues of the festival. The University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville, our central Batesville venue since our inception, has provided a state-of-the-art screening venue and a devoted and dedicated staff that has made an enormous difference in our early growth and development. In Little Rock, Matt Smith's Market Street Cinema has opened its doors (and its wallet) to the festival to a degree that can only be described as astounding. We thank Market Street, not only for its support of the Ozark Foothills FilmFest, but also for almost single-handedly keeping independent film alive in Arkansas!
And to everyone, past and present, who has embraced what for many was considered an "unlikely" proposition, THANK YOU and we'll see you at the festival!
Contact Ozark Foothills FilmFest at (870) 251-1189 or filmfest@direcway.com or mail correspondence to ~ Ozark Foothills FilmFest 195 Peel Road Locust Grove, AR 72550
Ozark Foothills FilmFest, Inc. © 2007 |
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