Documentary film fest opens Friday
Hot Springs event offers virtual, drive-in viewing options
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — For nearly three decades, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival has brought an acclaimed lineup of movies to Arkansas, and that will continue this Friday through Oct. 17.
This year, the 29th annual event will adopt a virtual and drive-in approach to the screenings. According to a news release about the festival, HSDFF will showcase 110 movies, both feature-length and shorts. Thirty countries are represented.
Movies, panels, question-and-answer sessions and workshops will be available via the HSDFF virtual platform at the website hsdfi.org. The virtual platform is touted as both a safer way for the audience to see these films and a means to provide greater access.
Screenings include drive-in showings of Mary Wharton’s “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” Laura Gabbert’s “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles” and Julia Reichart and Steven Bognar’s
“9to5: The Story of a Movement.”
Those three gala showings will take place at Hot Springs Mall. Pop-up drivein screenings are organized via a partnership between the mall, Visit Hot Springs, Low Key Arts and KUHS. They happen this Friday, Tuesday next week and then again on Friday, Oct. 16.
Shorts programs are arranged according to theme, such as “Southern Lens,” “Sports!” and “Larger Than Life.”
“Now more than ever it is important that HSDFF is a place where everyone feels welcome, where we honor our tradition of gathering around documentaries, and where storytellers take center stage,” said Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival’s Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks in a statement about the festival. “We are thrilled to present some of the strongest titles of 2020 to the Hot Springs audience.”
This year’s lineup of films has a strong element of diversity with filmmakers of color representing 47% of the HSDFF feature films. Women directed more than half of this year’s movies.
“We are also proud to showcase several regional titles, elevating local directors and the idiosyncratic culture of the South. The films in our 2020 program will inspire viewers, challenge perceptions, and illuminate the urgent realities of this turbulent year,” Fairbanks said.
(For more information on purchasing tickets and passes, and for additional details about the Hot Springs Documentary Film festival, visit hsdfi. org.)