The Dixie Picture Show

Film Festival Relocates To Athens For Its Fourth Annual Showcase

originally published October 10, 2007

In Murphy Gilson’s cleverly constructed short film Partially True Tales of High Adventure, Indiana-born Charlie McDonough (Johnny Sneed) struggles to transport his storytelling skills to Hollywood, where his agent looks down on his script for not conforming to the formula of big-budget blockbusters. His script is impossible to sell in Los Angeles, his agent tells him - in a misguidedly fervent attachment to Jean-Luc Godard’s famed maxim - because it lacks the requisite “gun and a girl.”

Happenstance leads Charlie, on the brink of being forced to retreat to Muncie, to a zany (though too desperate-for-laughs to be funny) meeting with Shannon Elizabeth (playing herself). Because of this auspicious meeting, Charlie is able to creatively wed his original script with his agent’s demands for “the it girl,” “lots of guns,” and a climactic “shootout at the end.” Gilson’s short is a largely successful meta-narrative on the difficulty of getting a script produced - one of a series of hurdles aspiring filmmakers must surmount. And getting a film made is only a partial success. A film doesn’t truly live until it is seen by an audience.

In December 2004, Randy McDowell, faced with the challenge of getting two of his films screened in Atlanta, responded by creating his own venue - The Dixie Film Festival - to showcase his work and give other filmmakers the chance to share in his self-made platform.

"I started the festival on a lark," McDowell says by telephone. That first incarnation unexpectedly received 120 submissions. Buoyed by the early success, McDowell and festival producer Justin Carter opted to continue the festival in Atlanta the following two years. Unsatisfied with the Atlanta location and on the behest of several of the participating filmmakers, McDowell and Carter, hoping for a more conducive environment, decided to move the festival to Athens for its fourth run.

A total of 50 films - representing 16 states, eight countries and four provinces - will be screened over two days (Friday, Oct. 12 and Saturday, Oct. 13) at Lyndon House Arts Center (LHAC) and Carmike 12. This year’s headliner is the premiere of the pony-themed family film Moondance Alexander (Carmike, Saturday, 3 p.m.) that will be followed by a Q&A with last year’s recipient of the festival’s Magnolia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Filmmaking, castmember James Best, AKA "The Dukes of Hazzard’s" Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane.

The other full-length films featured at this year’s festival are: Her Best Move (LHAC, Friday, 1 p.m. and Carmike, Saturday, 11:30 a.m.), about a high school soccer player struggling to balance her athletic aspirations with her other interests; Fierce Friend (Carmike, Friday, 3 p.m.), a Single White Female-esque thriller about an overly-devoted friend’s creepy attachment that gradually elevates to murderous jealousy; The Metrosexual (Carmike, Friday, 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, 1:30 p.m.), a comedy with dreams of Swingers-style grandeur that follows the exploits of a mismatched pair of friends, one compulsively styled and organized, the other carefree and spontaneous; and Greetings from the Shore (Carmike, Friday, 1 p.m. and LHAC, Saturday, 12 p.m.), a coming-of-age story about a girl’s summer at the Jersey shore after losing her father and before departing for college.

"The documentaries are very good. This is the best year for documentaries," McDowell says. The eclectic non-fiction offerings include: The Clinton 12 (LHAC, Saturday. 5 p.m.), which features the booming, gravitas-laden narration of James Earl Jones and chronicles a Tennessee town’s violent opposition to a court mandate to desegregate Clinton High School in 1956; Beyond the Call (LHAC, Friday, 5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 p.m.), Adrian Belic’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Genghis Blues, which tracks three friends’ humanitarian efforts in war-ravaged nations; and Finding Kraftland (LHAC, Friday, 7 p.m.), which explores the idiosyncratic relationship that Hollywood agent Richard Kraft shares with his son and includes appearances from several of Kraft’s clients, including composers Alan Menken, Marc Shaiman and Danny Elfman.

In addition, four short Georgia documentaries (G8 is Coming, about the 2004 G8 Summit on Sea Island; Bethesda Home For Boys, about a home for boys in Savannah; Il Kito Karto Lithuania, a man’s attempt to connect with his Lithuanian heritage and God's Tackle Box, a look at Northeast Georgia’s Ultimate Christian Wrestling League by Athens filmmaker Christopher Childs) will be screened at Lyndon House on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The best of this year’s shorts, including the aforementioned Partially True Tales of High Adventure, can be seen together at Carmike on Friday at 7 p.m. The festival concludes with a showcase of Georgia films. Carmike will screen a selection of films from Whitestone Motion Pictures, a local production company, on Saturday at 5 p.m. Following the Whitestone offerings will be the Mason-Dixon screenings of work by Georgia filmmakers, beginning at 7 p.m.

"It gives local filmmakers the opportunity to see their work on the big screen," McDowell says.

This year, the festival includes a total of 18 films by Georgia filmmakers, and during the award festivities, Georgia filmmaking will be highlighted with the presentation of the Mason-Dixon Award for Outstanding Georgia Filmmaker.

Tickets are $10 for individual shows and $45 for an all-screenings pass and can be purchased in advance online at www.dixiefilmfest.com or in person at the box office. Discounted $8 tickets and $35 passes are available for UGA students. The complete festival schedule is also available at www.dixiefilmfest.com.

Jennifer Bryant