The Rolling River Music and Film Festival is a five-day event featuring films from Alaska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas because Los Angeles and New York are the DEVIL!
“I don’t know if there is another art form that is so pushed through two major portals – LA and NY. I think the quality and the breadth of American filmmaking has suffered greatly because of it,” says Todd Hansen, film programmer for The Rolling River Music and Film Festival. We get the same stories with the same look over and over again. And as our regional talent heads to the big city to chase their dreams, they all too often end up in the support system for this factory that is up and running, or their work begins to blend in to the crowd of same experiences.” Geez, we’re not all that bad out here in LA.
The Rolling River Music and Film Festival includes:
The 20th Anniversary Screening of David Burton Morris’s Minnesota-made “Purple Haze.”
Two programs devoted solely to short films (narrative, documentary, animation and experimental) as well as many short films paired with feature length work throughout the festival.
Fourteen regional documentaries with topics ranging from spelling bees, paperboys, barbershops, bicycle activism, right to die issues, father-son relationships, rural America’s challenges for survival, Native American activism, gay rights issues in Kansas, the military tactics applied by today’s police forces, gay parenthood, high school football, Pentecostal haunted houses, and internationally acclaimed photographer Dorthea Lange’s travels to Ireland.
Q & A sessions to all screenings with many attending filmmakers.
Independent Film Channel / Bravo Network sponsored screenings of opening night film “Big Bad Love” and the documentary Go Tigers!
The 5th Annual installment of IFC’s “IFC Presents IFP Minneapolis/St. Paul” filmed in conjunction with the festival spotlighting the work of native Minnesota filmmakers. Shot concurrent with the festival and a variety of locations, the program will air later this year on IFC.
Visit the Rolling River Music and Film Festival website for more information.
