Arthouse Garage Podcast

Transcript for Bonus Episode – Made in Arkansas Festival 2023

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00:34.72
arthousegarage
Hello hello and welcome back to arthouse garage the snob free film podcast where we make arthouse indie classic and foreign cinema accessible to the masses I’m your host Andrew Sweatman and today we have a special bonus episode with a preview of the 2023 made in Arkansas film festival which takes place right here in little rock. It’s an event I look forward to every year and I’m glad it’s almost that time again. I’m joined today by festival runners Johnny Brandnon and Carrie Michael Johnny and Carrie welcome back to arthouse garage and how are you of course always a pleasure. Ah.

01:04.45
Johnnie
Hey Andrew thanks for having us again. Yes, thank you for having us.

01:10.76
arthousegarage
You know I have a lot of guests on the podcast that I don’t see that often in person but I feel like I see you guys around pretty often too. So that’s nice, nice just have a friend on on the show. Um well tell us about main Arcta Festival for people who don’t know what it is where it is when it is tell us those details.

01:28.92
Johnnie
So we the main ark saw film festival is a film festival. We started back in 2019 and our home is at the Ron Robinson Theater in downtown little rock and basically we just support the filmmakers here in the state and. Try to showcase as many Arkansas made films as we can and we really moment when we started. This is we try to make it more of a networking festival. So that filmmakers can can get together and you know be the community that that we are and just kind of you know, get together.

01:57.63
arthousegarage
Um.

02:07.61
Johnnie
You know celebrate each other’s films and all the hard work he goes into it and support each other and say oh hey when you want can work on my film and you know because it’s true like you know like you just said, you don’t really get to see you know people that you really enjoy being around with you know, hardly throughout the year but then you know you get in the same room. It’s like man.

02:22.30
arthousegarage
Um.

02:24.68
arthousegarage
Yeah, yeah, move.

02:27.16
Johnnie
You know wish we can more and you know things like that. So that’s what we’re trying to bring bring to central Arkansas to our area in little rock is to bring everybody from across the state so that they can actually get together and talk movies and talk shop. Fun stuff.

02:37.96
arthousegarage
Um, yeah, absolutely no.

02:42.58
Johnnie
It said like Arkansas is like a big small town. You know like we and um so kind of with our festival. We have an opportunity to bring together. You know if you made your film in in the state. Or if you’re you know if maybe you were educated in this state or you’re from here and maybe no longer working here. We do have you know, kind of some I guess arkansans abroad ah participating in the festival. Um god if your family still lives here like you know? yeah.

02:58.30
arthousegarage
5 minute

03:09.47
arthousegarage
Yeah, have those connections. Yeah.

03:16.47
Johnnie
I mean like Arkansas roots. You know it’s an opportunity to kind of demonstrate that our roots as arkansans spread far and wide and um, you know the film community is much broader even than some people realize so it’s an opportunity to bring all those folks together with a few um, a few regional.

03:28.40
arthousegarage
Yeah.

03:35.23
arthousegarage
Nice.

03:35.99
Johnnie
Ah, folks in the mix. Um, just to you know, just to kind of help you know as Johnny said to help filmmakers establish connections and hopefully that lead to more films right.

03:43.40
arthousegarage
Um, yeah, yeah, absolutely and it seems like a lot of filmmakers. Maybe it’s their first time seeing their work screened for an audience and like it’s a really powerful thing I think to to be kind of open in that way and and yeah, absolutely love being in the room with. And a lot of times. It’s just names that I’ve heard It’s like oh they’re here I can meet them now and and yeah definitely has been great in that way for me personally in the past. Well what can we expect from the festival this year looks like there are some panels as well as films this year. Yay.

04:15.68
Johnnie
We’re adding panels this year so um one of the panels that we are doing is called no film school. Um and it is an opportunity to.

04:30.10
Johnnie
Shine a spotlight on some of the folks who are helping um to kind of facilitate if you’ve ever been interested in making a film. But maybe you know you’re not connected to a film school or have no desire to go to film school or maybe you know you are long past the age where you would ever want to go back to school.

04:38.44
arthousegarage
Number. So.

04:45.88
arthousegarage
With my check.

04:49.51
Johnnie
Um, but you want to make a film there. You know there are you know programs and organizations in our state that are here to help you do that and so we’re going to hear a little bit from women in film Arkansas is going to be participating on that panel. We have um.

05:01.38
arthousegarage
Great.

05:07.50
Johnnie
Low-key arts out of hot springs their inception to projection program. We’re gonna have somebody from there and then of course the good old 48 hour film project is still rolling in little rock and you know and so we’re Goingnna have representatives from all those organizations to come and talk about how? um.

05:15.38
arthousegarage
Creates.

05:25.51
Johnnie
You know, kind of what they’re doing in the state to cultivate new filmmakers who want to get into it where do you go for training apart from Youtube like how do you? um you know how do you connect with other people doing it. You know these these programs are are.

05:33.36
arthousegarage
Um, yes.

05:43.98
Johnnie
Yeah, are important in that regard and so we’re Goingnna do a panel to shed some light on that and then Johnny we’ve got another one that Johnny I’ll tell you about and we’re gonna have blake elder from Rock Hill studios come out and he’s gonna hang out and.

05:53.30
arthousegarage
Um, oh yeah.

05:59.30
Johnnie
Just gonna talk about Rock Hill um a lot of people don’t realize that you know Rock Hill is doing some pretty amazing things and they’re probably the biggest well only production company here in our state that you know is making movies and producing movie. You know youre playing Sundance or getting distribution deals and.

06:09.67
arthousegarage
Um, yeah.

06:17.22
Johnnie
And it also Rock Hill supplied a lot of arcanans with work. You know so just to kind of you know talking with Blake we’re gonna put him on stage and just just you know, sit down like a couple of dudes that we are and talk ah ah that.

06:19.40
arthousegarage
O.

06:31.60
arthousegarage
Guys being dudes. No I love it. It’s yeah because rocket was so cool. It’s kind of a homegrown success story and and I think that’s absolutely perfect fit for an Arkansas themed festival. That’s great. Well I’m excited for both of those that’s really cool. Um. Well are there any films or short blocks that you’re most excited for this year all equally

06:50.86
Johnnie
Not really, ah, great. Lots so you know we we we had the pleasure of seeing ah several of these films screened in Fayetteville last fall and then um. You know Johnny went up to Rogers and saw a few of these so we’ve you know, but we’ve got a really strong program. Yeah, we got a lot of really good films. That’s that’s screening and we’ve wanted to celebrate more of of the filmmakers. So we’ve actually added. You know more awardds to what we have normally you know given out in the past and stuff like that. So we’re actually this year where we do where because we get so many documentaries every year. There’s so many good films that are being made as documentaries that we’re giving out a best documentary award and it’s it’s ah it’s a first and then we’re gonna ah.

07:39.25
arthousegarage
Nice.

07:45.14
Johnnie
Move into the the the creative side as far as individuals being actors actresses and the director. So we’re gonna be giving out awards and and they’ll well and hopefully this will will inspire you know like.

07:52.98
arthousegarage
Very exciting.

08:01.51
Johnnie
You know, actors out there. You know like oh wait, There’s a film festival here that you know will recognize my work now and so and directors and directors out there and and yeah, it’s It’s kind of part of that whole networking thing you see an actor that you know like oh hey I like what they’re doing you know and I want to work with that person.

08:05.18
arthousegarage
Yeah.

08:19.74
Johnnie
And I thought like that director hey maybe I can they’ll direct my short It’s all about just trying to make make our productions just up up the green um up the game raise it raise a bar and just keep making better films. Take the production quality up and and then with everybody that because we got so many talented folks here. Um, that you know we can. We can do some really great things here in States. So yeah.

08:43.47
arthousegarage
Absolutely that is great. Yeah, and I mean just looking over the the schedule Briefly. There’s a handful of things that are like people I know that I’ve haven’t been meaning to watch their new film I haven’t yet so I’m going to get the chance to see it on the big Screen. So I’m really excited for those? Ah yeah, this is going to be an exciting time. Where can we find more information and get tickets and all that.

09:03.86
Johnnie
So we got. We have an event on our Facebook page that will take you to the Ron Robinson website ronroinson.org and the tickets are are available there they’re they’re very affordable. Um, we’ve always that’s 1 thing that we’ve been really you know proud of is that the tickets are incredibly affordable, affordable for you know for being a film festival. That’s right here in the heart of of Arkansas. Um, so Thursday night and Friday night may fourth and fifth. Um. It’s $10 each $10 each night and with that the opening we got opening shorts and then we have an opening feature film on Thursday and then of course Friday is the popular one. It’s our comedy and then they go to our horror sci-fi thriller and then it goes into our. Wtf which fortunately we didn’t get a whole lot of shorts this year and luckily we got 2 feature films that fit in that category and so Jordan Mears is new is big wtf film going. It’s it. He’s doing so well at film festivals all over to play.

09:56.21
arthousegarage
You.

10:02.43
arthousegarage
Oh yes, absolutely and a Wtf film for sure.

10:13.69
arthousegarage
Um, no.

10:15.40
Johnnie
And of course 2 collaborators that I’ve worked with and are close friends of mine Eric white and Terll case are packed with a film called Jack Rollers and it’s a feature this time. So so and that plays on Saturday but going back into the into the schedule on Saturday we have.

10:19.61
arthousegarage
Little I don’t know him.

10:34.71
Johnnie
But I think Eight Eight or 9 blocks throughout the day plus the 2 panels and you can either hit each one of the blocks individually and that’s $10 per block or spend an extra $10 and pay twenty bucks and you get everything the whole day for free or not for free, but you know one price.

10:48.77
arthousegarage
Yeah, included. Yeah yeah, that’s great. Yeah, absolutely.

10:53.68
Johnnie
Yes, Yes, yeah, yeah, you know it’s about making the whole thing accessible. It’s like you know we’re really, we’re really, um, it’s about building community and so you know we we wanted to take that theme all the way through from you know, like.

10:59.41
arthousegarage
Normal. No.

11:13.70
Johnnie
Who who’s submitting and trying to cast as wide and net as possible there to you know, um, making it so that you can come and come and watch for not a lot of layout I would say yeah.

11:20.00
arthousegarage
Um, yeah.

11:24.56
arthousegarage
Yeah, yeah, absolutely I mean an incredible value like you go to the theater ones you’re going to pay more than 10 bucks and you’re getting Thursday Friday much more bang for your buck and it’s local. Yeah yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.

11:37.84
Johnnie
Um I cannot better vent either I mean just.

11:41.36
arthousegarage
Yeah, if if I were just just like rank the best screenings in town. Ron Robinson’s way up there. It’s like it’s one of the best screens in town. So yeah, I’m excited for any reason to be in that room watching anything so I’m excited for that as well. Well cool, any final thoughts before we wrap up.

11:59.49
Johnnie
Find fun. We got. We got some some surprises. Um, great fun. This year is that we well. Yeah we we’re gonna have ah 10 minute intermissions between each block and the intermissions are full with trailers and full with just a little bit of a.

11:59.63
arthousegarage
Global.

12:10.00
arthousegarage
Oh cool.

12:15.72
Johnnie
Support to the filmmakers. We got some actor profiles that we’re gonna show some demo reels in between so you can kind of get to know some of the actors. Yeah, it’s something I kind of incorporated whenever we were virtual and so this year we were gonna have you know several you know trailers throughout and then.

12:19.68
arthousegarage
Um, that’s amazing. Um.

12:33.38
Johnnie
Our ceremony award ceremony is going to be pretty fun. We think come have lots of video and and audio and we’re trying to make it. You know we’re trying to step this you know step it up a little bit. What’s the challenge because you know this I mean it’s basically 2 volunteers. Ah yeah, oh.

12:34.66
arthousegarage
Right? twaddle.

12:42.50
arthousegarage
Yeah.

12:50.56
arthousegarage
Um.

12:52.64
Johnnie
Putting this on with of course a lot. You know a lot of support and love from the community but you know we’re always asking. Um, how can we? How can we add value for filmmakers. It’s really, you know we don’t have um the ability necessarily to throw the fancy. You know the fancy after parties and you know all of that So you know we kind of are thinking um you know and it’s a small festival and we do what we do and we we love what we do and other people seem to love what we do, but you know, kind of in in making improvements just kind of asking ourselves. If. It doesn’t add value for filmmakers if it doesn’t make it more worth the filmmakers while to do it then it’s kind of like we need to do it? Um, so you know adding these little elements that let the filmmakers know that we’re here for Y’all you know.

13:35.86
arthousegarage
Um, yeah.

13:42.44
arthousegarage
Yeah that’s amazing. And yeah, just my outsider’s perspective having gone I think every year just about now. So you know started in person and then of course covered hit on year two and then it was virtual and all that and just back in person last year and now it it really seems like you’re growing and and adding. Exciting stuff and connecting with other organizations I am really excited for the direction of me in Arkansas and really excited for this week’s festival. Yeah well. Thanks! Well thank you as always for coming on the show and and I guess we can say bye bye for now and we will.

14:09.38
Johnnie
We appreciate your? yeah so much Andrew it means a lot it does it does.

14:20.75
arthousegarage
Talk to you next time come back for you know a film discussion soon? Yes, yes, all right bye-bye.

14:23.43
Johnnie
Thanks So much. See you this weekend? yes.

Picture of Andrew Sweatman

Andrew Sweatman

Andrew is a writer, podcaster, and film lover who wants to help people think critically about movies. He lives in central Arkansas with his wife Allison and two children, Rosie & Beau. Andrew is the Senior Editor at Arthouse Garage and a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA). Find him at ArthouseGarage.com and on Twitter and Instagram: @ArthouseGarage.

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