The El Dorado Film Festival steering committee is pleased to announce the full slate of selections for the 2019 festival, which begins on Thursday, October 10, and runs through Saturday, October 12, at the South Arkansas Arts Center. Festival directors Alexander Jeffery and Paul Petersen have planned three exciting days of programming including feature-length films, shorts, Arkansas-made films, and prize-winners from festivals around the region.
The festival will include four full-length feature films, including the Arkansas premiere of “I Am Human,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019. The film is a sci-fi documentary chronicling humanity’s quiet march down a new evolutionary path, where man and machine merge as one. As the subjects each grapple with the unique opportunities and challenges of brain interface treatment, the audience is forced to reconcile with the larger societal implications.
The film “Lost Bayou” also premiered at Tribeca in 2019. It follows the story of a struggling addict who ventures into the Louisiana swamps to reconnect with her estranged faith healer father, only to discover he is hiding a troubling secret aboard his houseboat.
“Tommy Emmanual: The Endless Road” documents the musician’s journey from the Australian outback to Music City USA. The child guitar prodigy dedicates his life to become the world’s greatest acoustic guitarist, even as revelations of dark family secrets send him into a battle with addiction.
“El Cuarto Reino” is the story of a redemption center on the outskirts of New York, where undocumented illegal aliens and underdogs have a shared disappointment in the American Dream. Responding to this false promise, Ana, Walter, Eugene, Pierre and René, will find, in each other’s company, answers to cosmic mysteries and existential questions that make us all human.
Short films will be presented in a several blocks of programming, beginning with prize winning films from across the region. The block will include the top five films from the 2018 Louisiana Film Prize: “Funky Butt” by Jonnie Stapleton, “War Paint” by J.C. Doler and Taylor Doler, “Girl Steals Painting” by Alexander Jeffery, “Esmeralda” by Paul Petersen and Rachel Emerson, and “Lilac Ocean Pumpkin Pine” by Sarah Phillips. Additional films will be the 2019 Memphis Film Prize Winner, “A Night Out” by Kevin Brooks and Abby Meyers, and the as-yet-to-be-announced winner of the 2019 Louisiana Film Prize.
Additional shorts blocks will include programming from DUST Studios, which specializes in original, short-form, science-fiction programming. The masterminds behind DUST are programming a custom block of short films specifically for the audience at the El Dorado Film Festival.
Finally, the blocks of “In Competition” short films are all eligible to win El Dorado Film Festival awards in several categories, including Comedy, Drama, Mish Mash, and Arkansas Made. The in-competition blocks are made up of an eclectic and world class mix of 30 short films from all over the world, including 3 local films shot by El Dorado filmmakers.
Film Festival screenings begin on the evening of Thursday, October 10, at 6:00 p.m., and wrap up at about 10:30 p.m. Showings continue through the afternoon and evening of Friday, October 11, running noon through 10:00 p.m. The festival’s final day, Saturday, October 12, begins bright and early at 10 a.m., with the final films running through 10:30 p.m. Any patron who watches each film and completes a survey is eligible to win the $1,000 audience participation prize!
Tickets are available for $30 each at the SAAC box office. Call 870-862-5474 for more information on the El Dorado Film Festival. SAAC is located at 110 East Fifth Street, El Dorado, Arkansas.
