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The Bakery District and Fort Smith International Film Festival will host “Movie Night at the Bakery,” a collaborative Thursday night screening of independent and foreign films from the 2021 & 2022 film festivals. Rham Cunningham, Bakery District Director of Fun, exclaimed, “We’re excited to welcome the Fort Smith International Film Festival to the Bakery District, offering to us yet another opportunity to give YOU something cool, something fun, something different to do when you’re coming to Downtown Fort Smith!”
The series started on March 23 with an impromptu Hog basketball watch party, but starting on March 30th, the Thursday night film series, will show some of the 271 movies screened at the first two years of the Fort Smith International Film Festival beginning with Jacks & Jills, a documentary following a male and female athlete on their journey to the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, WI. Jacks & Jills won Best Documentary Series at Vermont’s ITV Fest in 2018. In the same year, it was selected into the Sports Documentary Category at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Director Adam Harbottle is an Arkansas filmmaker/cinematographer.
Executive Director Brandon Chase Goldsmith said, “If you missed the festival or didn’t catch a movie you wanted to see, then Movie Night at the Bakery is your chance. The opportunity to see incredible independent films should not be limited to two festival days. Bring your friends, family, or a date, grab some popcorn, a drink and enjoy a 5-dollar movie!”
Food and beverages will be available. Selections include food trucks, bar beverages and Fort Smith Coffee Co.'s offerings. Pickleball and cornhole games are also set up, Cunningham said. A $5 donation to the non-profit film festival is suggested. The Bakery District is at 70 South 7th Street in Fort Smith. Show starts at 6:30 p.m.
The Fort Smith International Film Festival’s year-long programming is aimed at building an independent and foreign movie audience in our region. “Encouraging young filmmakers is one of our primary focuses,” explained Goldsmith. “We work with area high schools and organizations to increase youth involvement. Secondary education programs represent a reservoir of talent from which the pipeline feeding our region’s creative economy flows through high school to college to careers.” High school students (9-12) can enter their short movies into the festival for free until May 5 with the chance of winning cash prizes and scholarships. The University of Arkansas Fort Smith is generously offering a $2000 scholarship for first place and $1500 for second place. Filmmakers can enter their movies at FortSmithFilm.com.
At ACS, we believe that if we provide filmmakers an arena to exhibit their talents, and film enthusiasts a healthy diet of quality programming, we can inspire more Arkansans to make and watch more films. By supporting filmmakers, festivals, theaters and young people interested in filmmaking throughout the state, we hope to create statewide network, pool Arkansas’s resources and be an umbrella organization that feeds all things film. We believe a rising tide lifts all boats.
To be a filmmaker, we have to connect to create. A painter needs a brush, paint and a canvas. A director needs a writer, a cinematographer, a sound mixer, production designer, editor, actors, distributors, and an audience. We cannot do it alone. This art form forces one to collaborate and thus, creates jobs. Filmmaking is unique in the arts in this way. It takes an army.
