Mindy Bledsoe’s THE IN-BETWEEN Opens Oxford Film Festival’s 10th Weekly Virtual Fest ; OFF to the DRIVE IN delivers the scares with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
Mindy Bledsoe’s THE IN-BETWEEN Opens the Oxford Film Festival’s 10th Weekly Virtual Film Fest, Virtual Art House and OFF to the DRIVE IN films are highlighted by award winners and music.
The virtual presentation of Mindy Bledsoe’s winner of multiple awards on the film festival circuit, THE IN-BETWEEN is a road movie with depth of two women with medical issues battling and leaning on each other as they make a cross-country trip, and Braden King’s THE EVENING HOUR is a taut down-home drama (with Oxford’s Susan McPhail in the cast) that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
THE IN-BETWEEN
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
Last year’s big prize winners and top finisher’s from the Memphis Film Prize and Louisiana Film Prize will be featured, giving Oxford audiences a chance to see what inspired thousands of people to vote and help those films win the big bucks.
Leslie Woodhead’s documentary on one of the all time great singers, ELLA FITZGERALD: JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS, and Asaf Galay’s ARMY OF LOVERS IN THE HOLY LAND chronicling the upheaval that took place when the band’s lead singer moved from Sweden to Israel put music front and center once again.
Last but not least, one of the all-time drive in classics will be at OFF to the DRIVE IN on July 2 as George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD will deliver the scares and social commentary courtesy of the zombie hoards.
ARMY OF LOVERS IN THE HOLY LAND
ELLA FITZGERALD: JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS
Executive Director Melanie Addington said. “ARMY OF LOVERS IN THE HOLY LAND and ELLA FITZGERALD: JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS are inspiring documentaries that are a vivid reminder of why art can change the world. Between that and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which is one of the all-time drive-in classics, to the weekly virtual festival continuing with award winning films such as THE IN-BETWEEN, last year’s winners and top finishers from the Memphis and Louisiana Film Prize competitions, and THE EVENING HOUR, which played at Sundance, this is an action-packed week.”
WEEKLY VIRTUAL FILM FEST TICKETS:
THE IN-BETWEEN
Live Q&A set for June 27 at 4:00PM
Film Prize Top 5 Shorts Block
Live Q&A set for June 27 at 5:00PM
THE EVENING HOUR
Live Q&A set for June 28 at 7:00PM
VIRTUAL ART HOUSE RENTAL TICKETS:
ALL I CAN SAY
ARMY OF LOVERS IN THE HOLY LAND
ELLA FITZGERALD: JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS
THE LAST TREE
Oxford Film Festival Presents FILM FESTIVAL DAY Rainbow Retrospective: A Decade of Queer Comedy Shorts
OFF to the DRIVE-IN TICKETS
GREASE
June 27 at 8:00PM at Cannon Lot (100 Thacker loop)
Pre-purchases only
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
July 2 at 8:00PM at Cannon Lot (100 Thacker loop)
Pre-purchases only
ANNIVERSARY
GHOSTED
MAVEN VOYAGE
OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL 2020 10th WEEKLY VIRTUAL FILM FEST
Films, events and descriptions
OXFORD WEEKLY VIRTUAL FEST
THE EVENING HOUR
Director: Braden King
Country: USA, Running Time: 115 min
Cole, a popular, young health aide at a nursing home living in rural Appalachia, makes ends meet by redistributing excess medication from townies to local buyers. Among a community low on opportunities but seemingly awash in pill bottles, he envisions himself as a caretaker, genuinely fond of his suppliers and keeping addicted customers out of the path of the town’s menacing kingpin. The fragile balance of his double life is suddenly threatened when childhood friend Terry Rose returns after years away with plans to capitalize on what he perceives as Cole’s place in the local drug trade.
THE IN-BETWEEN
Director: Mindy Bledsoe
Country: USA, Running Time: 77 minutes
Two women set out on a road trip with different missions. Mads (Jennifer Stone, Wizards of Waverly Place) needs to renew her driver’s license in South Dakota, while Junior needs to visit Portland, Oregon on a quest for her dead sister. Both women have medical issues that cause friction along the way, but they never let those problems define their identities. Of course, Mads is also keeping a secret from Junior, that could explode at any moment and ruin their journey…
SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Film Prize Top 5
TRT: 74:15 min
A NIGHT OUT 2019 Memphis Film Prize Winner
Directors: Abby Meyers, Kevin Brooks
Country: USA, Running Time: 13 min
A woman goes for a night out after a messy breakup.
ANNIVERSARY 2019 Louisiana Film Prize Winner
Director: James Harlin Palmer
Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min
ANNIVERSARY is the story of a couple celebrating one year as doting sweethearts. Everything is going swimmingly until Jimmy realizes Ellie believes this milestone leads to the altar – a sacrifice he’s not ready to make.
BLACK PAJAMAS
Director: Hattie Haggard Gobble
Country: USA, Running Time: 12 min
A Vietnam veteran encounters one of his triggers when walking up to a large river. As he approaches a woman in red, he is suddenly taken to a new mindset due to his struggle with PTSD. He begins a romantic duet with the woman in red, but tragically can not see her face.
GHOSTED
Director: Blayne Weaver
Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min
A lonely man uses his special gift to pursue his dark infatuation with a coworker.
LEO & GRACE
Director: Gabriel Savodivker
Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min
Torn apart by a racial divide, two lovers find each other 30 years later and must do the impossible to stay together, even if it means risking their freedom forever.
MAVEN VOYAGE
Director: Rachel Emerson
Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min
Maeve is working toward someone’s life-long goal to be on the first manned mission to Mars, in a slightly unconventional way.
OFF to the DRIVE IN
GREASE (1978)
Director: Randel Kleiser
Country: USA, Running Time: 110 min
Good girl Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) and greaser Danny Zuko (John Travolta) fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they’re now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
Director: George A. Romero
Country: USA, Running Time: 96 min
A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a bloodthirsty, flesh-eating breed of monsters who are ravaging the East Coast of the United States.
VIRTUAL ART HOUSE
ALL I CAN SAY
Directors: Danny Clinch, Taryn Gould
Coleen Hennessy, Shannon Hoon
Country: USA, Running Time: 102 min
Shannon Hoon, lead singer of the rock band Blind Melon, filmed himself from 1990-95 with a Hi8 video camera, recording up until a few hours before his sudden death at the age of 28. His camera was a diary and his closest confidant. In the hundreds of hours of footage, Hoon meticulously documented his life – his family, his creative process, his television, his band’s rise to fame and his struggle with addiction.
ARMY OF LOVERS IN THE HOLY LAND
Director: Asaf Galay
Country: Israel, Running Time: 65 min
Thirty years after launching into international stardom, queer disco-pop band Army of Lovers embarks on a new chapter when lead singer Jean-Pierre Barda embraces his roots by moving from Sweden to Israel.
ELLA FITZGERALD: JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS
Director: Leslie Woodhead
Country: USA, Running Time: 89 min
Film looks at the life ad career of the legendary and unique songstress, Ella Fitzgerald
THE LAST TREE
Director: Shola Amoo
Country: UK, Running Time: 98 min
After a happy childhood in the countryside, a teenager moves to London, where he must navigate an unfamiliar environment on his road to adulthood.
Oxford Film Festival Presents FILM FESTIVAL DAY Rainbow Retrospective: A Decade of Queer Comedy Shorts
Directors: Various
Running Time: 77 min
On June 28th, film festival audiences from across North America will join together for a virtual screening celebrating Pride Month and the queer film community. This retrospective of humorous hits represents a fascinating time capsule of LGBTQ+ humor and evolving perspectives over the last decade. (Some language & profanity.) Films include:
FOXY TROT (2018)
Director: Lisa Donato
Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min
A lesbian couple is unexpectedly faced with their relationship issues when they take ballroom dancing lessons in a heteronormative class.
GAYBY (2010)
Director: Jonathan Lisecki
Country: USA, Running Time: 11 min
Jenn (straight) and Matt (gay) are best friends from college who are now in their thirties. Single by choice, they decide to fulfill a youthful promise to have a child together…the old fashioned way.
GAYSHARKTANK.COM (2010)
Director: Guy Shalem
Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min
In early 2010, Chatroulette.com, a website that allows people to meet other online strangers via web cam, became an internet sensation. GAYSHARKTANK.COM is a film about the first gay site told through the interactions of 25 strangers looking for love, lust, and other things you might look for on a random gay video chat.
I KNOW HER (2019)
Director: Fawzia Mirza
Country: USA, Running Time: 3 min
In the afterglow of a seemingly fated hookup, two women realize that perhaps they have a little too much in common.
ONE YEAR LEASE (2014)
Director: Brian Bolster
Told almost entirely through voice mail messages, ONE YEAR LEASE documents the travails of Brian, Thomas, and Casper as they endure a year-long sentence with Rita, the cat-loving landlady.
SOMETHING REAL (2012)
Director: Guy Shalem
Country USA, Running Time: 9 min
A celebrity-packed short with a musical twist about the bar scene in New York.
SPUNKLE (2016)
Director: Lisa Donato
Country: USA, Running Time: 13 min
A man contemplates fatherhood when his older sister and her free-spirited wife ask him to be the sperm donor and uncle of their baby.
Mindy Bledsoe’s THE IN-BETWEEN Opens the Oxford Film Festival’s 10th Weekly Virtual Film Fest, Virtual Art House and OFF to the DRIVE IN films are highlighted by award winners and music.