Dixie Film Festival embraces work of Georgia artists
Terry and Susan, former college sweethearts, are getting married. Like any couple about to tie the knot, struggles arise as Terry and Susan’s families meet and plan the myriad wedding details. However, unlike most couples, Susan is Caucasian and Terry is Polar-American, a race of people with blue skin.
This scene describes the movie “Something Blue”, an “improv mockumentary,” which will screen at the Dixie Film Festival this weekend.
“What we have done is invented a fictional race to talk about race, class, gender, age,” said co-director and co-writer Curtis Krick. “It’s a way that won’t alienate people but will get them to see things in a new light, a different angle and with a sense of humor.”
“It’s a fun film that’s got some substance to it but that’s also got a lot of laughs,” Krick said. “It proves you can make a movie with no names and no money.”
Krick grew up in and around Athens and briefly attended the University.
“[The movie is] something I’m proud of sharing with the community I grew up in,” Krick said.
DIXIE FILM FESTIVAL
When: October 16-18
Where: The Moron Theater, 195 W. Washington Street
Movie Times: www.dixiefilmfestival.com
Price: $8 for students with current, valid student ID (discount available at door only); $10 for one feature length film or category of shorts; $35 for festival pass
The Dixie Film Festival grew out of a short film called “Dixie Countyline” that was produced north of Athens. The production company, F.A. Entertainment, rented a theater in Atlanta to premiere the movie and invited other filmmakers to submit their work. Out of 120 works submitted, 20 were screened.
Now the festival gets a couple hundred works submitted each year. The festival will show 30 films in a variety of categories at the Morton Theater.
University alumni and filmmakers from all over the U.S. and the world were invited to submit feature-length and short films.
Gary Weeks is an alumnus who appears in a short film called “Clones Gone Wild,” which is airing along with other short films during the Mason-Dixon screenings. These are films that have Georgia connections of some kind.
Weeks also worked on the feature “Deadlands,” a story of a man searching for his wife during the aftermath of nuclear strikes on the U.S. in WWIII.
“It’s a post-apocalyptic movie but it’s a movie really about hope and the state of the world,” Weeks said.
The festival’s main goal is to promote filmmakers in Georgia.
“We want to show them that Georgia is a great place to make a feature or a short,” McDowell said.
