Tallgrass Film Festival releases early sneak peek at at this year’s lineup

The Tallgrass Film Association will host the 21st annual Tallgrass Film Festival in various venues around downtown Wichita Oct. 5-8.

Festival organizers this week announced a sneak peek at some of its line-up in specialty categories.

The festival will host more than 184 films for this 21st edition. Continued partnerships with the Orpheum Theatre, Temple Live (formerly Scottish Rite), Exploration Place, the Advanced Learning Library and Ulrich Museum (on the WSU campus) as host venues will be joined by WSU TECH: Niche (124 S. Broadway) as a new venue with a welcome return to the Wichita Art Museum (1400 Museum Blvd.).

The head programmers and screeners combed over submissions from across the world for the past seven months with a record number of films from 70 countries.

“I’m very proud of this year’s program. We have a near-record number of world-premiere feature films which is always a nice addition to what the festival offers,” program director Andre Seward said in a statement. “Another positive aspect is the number of films we have from new directors and artists from underrepresented communities.”

Here is the lineup for some of the festival’s showcase categories. (Times, titles and dates are subject to change.)

THE JAKE EUKER STUBBORLY INDEPENDENT COMPETITION

The Cotillion presents this year’s competition, open to domestic narrative feature films with a production budget of less than $750,000. The winner will receive $5,000 and a custom-made Stubbornly Independent beer tap handle.

“Free Time” (Director: Ryan Martin Brown) Approaching the end of his 20s and his relative youth, a man decides to quit his cushy desk job and embrace life, only to realize he has no idea what to do with this newfound freedom. (Kansas Premiere)

Plays with two short films at 2 p.m. Oct. 8 at WSU TECH: Niche.

“Lost Soulz” (Director: Katherine Propper) A young rapper leaves everything behind and embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery, music and friendship in the heart of Texas. (Regional premiere)

Plays with a short film at 3 p.m. Oct. 7. at Kemper (Exploration Place).

“Playland” (Director: Georden West) Artist-filmmaker West’s debut feature is an expressionist and very queer bricolage, focusing on an atemporal night in the renowned Playland Café. (Regional premiere)

Plays with two short films at noon Oct. 6. at the Kemper (Exploration Place).

“Stay at Conder Beach” (Director: Aaron Khandros) Conder Beach is a crumbling tourist town on the Gulf Coast, reliant on seasonal commerce and oil rigging. The film draws you into a world that vacillates between reality and metaphor, examining the intangible evils that threaten our society and have crystallized so many into a pattern of self-destruction. (World premiere)

Plays with a short film at noon Oct. 7 at Kemper (Exploration Place).

GORDON PARKS AWARD FOR BLACK EXCELLENCE

Cargill presents this third annual competition, which has a $5,000 cash prize and a $10,000 camera rental package from Panavision.

“Black Barbie: A Documentary” (Director: Lagueria Davis) Through intimate access to a charismatic Mattel insider, this delves into the cross-section of merchandise and representation as Black women strive to elevate their voices and stories, refusing to be invisible. (Kansas Premiere)

Plays with a short film at 1 p.m. Oct. 6 at Scottish Rite/Temple Live.

“Chocolate Milk” (Director/Producer: Elizabeth Gray Bayne) This explores racial inequities in birth and breastfeeding in the U.S. by following the stories of three Black mothers in South Los Angeles over multiple years. (Kansas Premiere)

Plays with a short film at 4 p.m. Oct. 7 at WSU TECH: Niche.

“Name of the Game” (Directors: William Forbes and Douglas Skinner) The untold story of black male exotic dancing in south Los Angeles and how it intersects with the origins of hip hop, gang culture, and kung fu assassins. (Regional premiere)

Showing at 10 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Tallgrass Film Center.

“Summer of Violence” (Director: Nicki Micheaux) Refusing law school to pursue poetry, a sheltered college grad, cut off from her father’s money, struggles to survive while living in Denver during the Summer of Violence in 1993. (Regional premiere).

Showing at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Tallgrass Film Center.

“The Unseen” (Director: J.S. Hampton) A witch from the 1850s is transported into the head of her descendant in modern Kansas City, and is tasked with helping get her ancestor’s body back.

Plays with a short film at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 6 at the Orpheum Theatre.

WOMAN FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

With a slight name change to celebrate our woman-representing filmmakers this year, the Woman Filmmaker Spotlight, presented by Fidelity Bank, will provide a $5,000 cash prize to the winner.

“The Face of the Jellyfish” (Director: Melisa Liebenthal) One day, a woman no longer recognizes herself. Is she ill, a different person, prettier? Those around her take it in stride, while her doctor is puzzled and the authorities block her ID card. (Regional premiere)

Plays with a short film at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Tallgrass Film Center.

“Three Birthdays” (Director: Jane Weinstock) In 1970, at the height of the sexual revolution, an idealistic academic couple and their 17-year-old daughter wrestle with revolutionary ideas around sex, race and class. (Regional premiere)

Plays with a short film at 7 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Orpheum Theatre.

“Valley of Exile” (Director: Anna Fahr) Two sisters arrive in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley at the onset of the Syrian war, embarking on a journey into exile that tests their loyalty to their country, their family and each other. (Regional premiere)

Showing at noon Oct. 5 at the Tallgrass Film Center.

“Wilder Than Her” (Director: Jessica Kozak) After the death of their best friend Bea, tight-knit friends attempt to reconnect on an annual camping trip. Still, things grow increasingly strange and uncomfortable in the isolated forest as their friendship unravels. (Kansas premiere)

Showing with a short film at 3 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Kemper (Exploration Place).

“Your Fat Friend” (Director: Jeanie Finlay) Made over 6 years, this charts the rise of writer and activist Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger to NYTimes best-selling author and beloved podcaster. (Regional premiere)

Plays with two short films at 10 a.m. October 6 at the Scottish Rite (Temple Live).

THE TIMOTHY GRUVER SPOTLIGHT ON KANSAS FILMMAKERS

This year’s program, sponsored by Moeder and Associates, showcases features and short films.

Features:

“Head Count” (Directors: The Burghart Brothers [Jacob and Ben]) After escaping prison a man finds his revolver pointed at his head by an unknown assailant. As the empty rounds click away, he tries to remember how he got here, one bullet at a time. (Kansas premiere)

Plays with short film “Kid Ugly” at 4 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Orpheum Theatre.

“Just Like You — Anxiety + Depression” (Director: Jennifer Greenstreet) A look at the fear and stigma plaguing the mental health community. (U.S.A. premiere)

Plays with a short film at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Advanced Learning Library.

“Penitentia” (Director/Producer: Chris Lawing) Young attorney Ale Villacaño takes a pro bono prison rights case and gets quickly drawn into criminal web and corporate negligence. (Kansas premiere)

Plays with a short film at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Orpheum Theatre as the Friday night gala.

“Stella” (Director: Tyler Doehring) A documentary about a humble pizzeria and a beloved cuisine’s quest for its first Michelin Star. (Kansas premiere)

Plays with a short film at 1 p.m. Oct. 7 at WSU TECH: Niche.

“The Woman of Stars and Mountains” (Director: Santiago Esteinou) A look at an indigenous woman from Mexico who was found by a human rights organization inside a Kansas psychiatric hospital, where she had been involuntarily confined for 12 years. (Regional premiere) Showing at 4 p.m. Oct. 8 at Kemper (Exploration Place).

THE TIMOTHY GRUVER SPOTLIGHT ON KANSAS SHORTS PROGRAM

Features all Kansas-made short film at 10 a.m. Oct. 7 at at the Orpheum Theatre.

An updated lineup, ticket and Tallpass info and more is available at https://tallgrassfilm.org/.

Reach Rod Pocowatchit at rodrick@rawdzilla.com.