FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: The Hico, Texas-based Billy the Kid Film Festival announces it will ride into town and debut on November 1-2
The Billy the Kid Film Festival today officially announced the film lineup for the first edition of the film festival, taking place in Hico, Texas, on November 1-2. Celebrating independent film, international cinema, and filmmakers with an independent spirit to match the fest’s namesake, the Billy the Kid Film Festival will present films from around the world, films that have a distinctly Texas-flavor to them, and films that will engage, entertain, and surprise audiences.
Two Texas-based films that have won awards and fans on the film festival circuit will bookend BTKFF, with Ty Roberts’ THE IRON ORCHARD selected as the Opening Night selection, and David Blue Garcia’s TEJANO tapped as the Closing Night selection. Television legend and Texas-resident Ruth Buzzi will be on hand as the film festival’s first Ambassador of Film.
Festival founders and directors, Philip Vazquez and Luci Digiorgio, along with co-director, Sue Land, and lead film programmer Justina Walford, the Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Women Texas Film Festival in Dallas, have designed the Billy the Kid Film Festival to be an event that will connect audiences and film lovers with filmmakers in Texas Hill Country in the welcoming, down-to-earth setting that Hico is known for. Vasquez and Didiorgio said, “We could not be more excited about the lineup of films we have to offer for our first time out. They are meaningful and entertaining films that most everyone can relate to on one level or another, which is why we still thrill at the shared experience of seeing a film in a theater. And having Ruth Buzzi to help us kick things off on Opening Night will add to the fun, immeasurably!”
Buzzi will be honored as part of the Opening Night celebration on Friday, November 1 at the Bluebonnet Country Club (27521 FM1602) which will include a special conversation about her career in comedy. Best known for her performances on the classic comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1968-1973), Buzzi received both a Golden Globe Award and five Emmy Award nominations during its influential run. One of the most versatile performers on the show, she played everything from her famous deadpan old woman character, to hard-bitten drunks, to southern belles to hookers. Other memorable characters include Busy-Buzzi, a Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris Sidebottom, the hard-bitten drunk; and an inconsiderate flight attendant. A familiar and beloved presence in television comedy, Buzzi appeared on countless variety shows, situation comedies, and Saturday-morning shows for the next three decades. She also appeared in several films, including CHU CHU AND THE PHILLY FLASH, FREAKY FRIDAY, THE NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS, THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG RIDES AGAIN, THE VILLAIN, and THE ADVENTURES OF ELMO IN GROUCHLAND.
Roberts’ THE IRON ORCHARD will be the Opening Night film presentation with the film’s star, Lane Garrison, in attendance. Set in the West Texas oilfields in 1939, the story of a man’s rise to become a formidable wildcatter has been a favorite and award winner on the film festival circuit. The film won the Audience Award at last year’s Austin Film Festival and a Best of Fest Award at the Lone Star Film Festival highlighting the popularity and the critical appreciation of the film during its tour. Following the screening will be a VIP After Party at the Hico’s popular Silver Spur Winery (115 S. Pecan St).
Similarly, Garcia’s Tejano will enjoy a victory lap of sorts, screening as the Closing Night selection on Saturday, November 2 at the Old Hico Jail Building, which will be retrofitted and transformed into a theater for the film festival. The hard-bitten thriller about a man going to extremes with a plan to smuggle drugs in order to help his sick grandfather has been another favorite in the film festival world.
Highlights among the other features, include; Trista Suke’s FOXY, which is a docu-drama hybrid out of Canada about a woman dealing with her rare hair-loss condition; Julius Telmer’s GREENFIELD, which follows a man’s struggle to rebuild his relationship with an ex-girlfriend in the face of a shocking secret looming over them; Mindy Bledsoe’s THE IN-BETWEEN, winner of the Best Feature Award at WTxFF this year, about two women with different medical conditions on an emotional and tenuous road trip; Rachael Waxler, and EmaLee Arroyo’s MISS SNAKE CHARMER, which combines a beauty pageant with rattlesnakes; and Elsa Sinclair’s TAMING WILD: PURE VIDA, which brings all the feels as it looks at the efforts of two women to save wild horses in Costa Rica. Suke and Waxler will both be on hand for their screenings to participate in Q&As and meet the film fans.
Land, who is also the Director of the Billy the Kid Museum, heads up two filmmaker panels BTKFF will offer. A Writers Workshop will be moderated by Peggy Purser Freeman at the Hico Community Center on 11/1 (1:00PM-2:45PM). Freeman, a noted author, teacher, film editor and publisher, she will answer questions on writing and assist attendees to find their niche in the writing world. A Film Workshop, moderated by Roni Hummel, will follow at 3:00PM-4:45PM. Hummel, a Dallas-based casting director, actor, and director will discuss how to break into the movie industry in Texas.
Film festival passes and tickets are on-sale now. For more information on the Billy the Kid Film Festival go to https://www.billythekidfilmfestival.com.
The 2019 Billy the Kid Film Festival official selections:
OPENING NIGHT FILM
THE IRON ORCHARD
Director: Ty Roberts
Country: USA, Running Time: 112 min
THE IRON ORCHARD tells the story of Jim McNeely, a young man thrust into the vibrant and brutal world of the West Texas oilfields in 1939. His journey leads him to work his way through the ranks until he ultimately becomes a formidable wildcatter.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
TEJANO
Director: David Blue Garcia
Country: USA, Running Time: 88 min
Desperate for money to save his sick Grandfather, a South Texas farmhand resorts to the extreme: He breaks his own arm to smuggle a cast made of cocaine across the Mexican border.
ADDITIONAL FEATURE FILMS AND FEATURED PRESENTATIONS
ALL GÜT THINGS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF TEXAS GERMAN
Director: Chase Honaker
Country: USA, Running Time: 35 min
Texas German is a unique dialect that was once the first language of over 120,000 people. Today it’s on the verge of extinction. We look at the life and death of the language and culture through the eyes of the last generation of native speakers and those trying to save it.
Screens with
POZOLE
Director: Jessica Mendez Siqueiros
Country: USA, Running Time:10 min
La gringa killed her Nana.
BRONCHO BILLY AND THE BANDIT’S SECRET (2015)
Director: David Kiehn
Country: USA, Running Time: 40 min
One hundred years ago, Gilbert M. ‘Broncho Billy’ Anderson, the first cowboy movie star, was making westerns for the Essanay Film Company in Niles Canyon, California. To commemorate this pioneering period in film history, Kiehn produced a two-reel silent western film using the techniques of those early days. The story of the film involves the Essanay Film Company on a train headed for Niles when bandits stop the train in Niles Canyon to take the strong box, and Broncho Billy helps the sheriff bring the robbers to justice.
Screens with
WINDOW TO THE PAST (2017)
Director: David Kiehn
Country: USA, Running Time: 30 min
Documentary details the making of BRONCHO BILLY AND THE BANDIT’S SECRET and the history surrounding the project.
FOXY
Director: Trista Suke
Country: Canada, Running Time: 61 min
Director Trista Suke documents her experience struggling with alopecia universalis through an eccentric, scripted memoir on film. Interview segments featuring various people living with the hair loss condition are artfully tied into Suke’s story, shining light on mental health, society’s unachievable beauty standards, and what it’s like to live as a bald woman.
GREENFIELD
Director: Julius Telmer
Country: Australia, Running Time: 74 min
James’ aspirations of rebuilding his former life with girlfriend Kelley are short-lived when her brother confides in him with a volatile secret.
THE IN-BETWEEN
Director: Mindy Bledsoe
Country: USA, Running Time: 78 min
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. Mads is also keeping a secret from Junior, that could explode at any moment and ruin their journey.
MISS SNAKE CHARMER
Directors: Rachael Waxler, EmaLee Arroyo
Country: USA, Running Time: 66 min
The contestants for Miss Snake Charmer are not your typical high school beauty queens. These teens must show they are more than just pretty faces—that they have the guts and grit to win America’s toughest beauty pageant. Contestants must prove their bravery by killing and skinning a rattlesnake before showcasing their talents and evening wear. The winner then spends the weekend reigning over pits of live vipers during the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup.
TAMING WILD: PURA VIDA
Director: Elsa Sinclair
Country: USA, Running Time: 66 min
Two Costa Rican horses rescued from lives of pain and hardship, and two horse trainers on a mission to understand new beginnings and connection through movement. A country to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, over mountains, through valleys, across rives, and embraced by Costa Rican jungle. Could this shared journey be enough to build trust between horse and human? Could horses from a history such as theirs learn to trust anew?
SHORT FILMS
COMEDY SHORTS
TRT: 82 min
LA GRINGA
Director: Alex Verlage
Country: USA, Running Time: 11 min
La Gringa; a rough and tough cowgirl, has to change the rules to get what she wants in a small pueblo in Mexico.
RANDOM KNOWLEDGE
Director: Michael Charron
Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min
The final round at a pub trivia game puts the random knowledge of six oddly-matched teammates to the test. …but knowing things is only half the battle.
A TOUCH TOO MUCH
Director: J William Boothman II
Country: USA, Running Time: 20 min
Felina, an undocumented housekeeper, faces the values of parenting as an out of control homeowner continues to make messes bigger.
THE WITCHES OF THE WATCH
Director: Roger Sampson
Country: USA, Running Time: 16 min
A single mom and her daughter move to a neighborhood which is home to a coven of housewife witches.
YEEHAWBANERO
Directors Ralph Blanchard, Casey Poma
Country: USA, Running Time: 18 min
In this hilarious send up of Sergio Leone’s DOLLARS films, habaneros are bullets and milk bottles are negotiation tools. Can mine-owner George get the help of a new-to-town stranger, or will the villainous railroader Jesse “Milkman” McRooney send him to a spicy grave?
HIGH NOON SHORTS
TRT: 62 min
THE MAN FROM DEATH
Director: Stephen Reedy
Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min
A poor, dumb sap, Elijah Stryder and his wife, are attacked by the nefarious Ailester Hall and left for dead in the wild wild west. Stryder then awakens with a mysterious green colored list of prophecies that lead him on a journey of fun and fancy free adventures with his skeptical partner, Sergio. There is only one caveat, Stryder is not allowed to take revenge on the man who shot and killed his wife. Can he keep his composure and learn how to forgive, or will he ruin it for everybody?
NOT YOUR DAY
Director: George Meyers
Country: Philippines, Running Time: 6 min
Vic is having a really bad day. It gets even worse when a carjacker decides to jump into Vic’s car and control his destiny. But the balance of power can change very quickly sometimes, and by the end of the ride it may be the carjacker who will be the one having a really bad day.
RATTLETRAP
Director: Riley Cusick
Country: USA, Running Time: 9 min
A father and son spend the day working on the family car only to have their inner turmoil come to the surface.
ROAM
Dir: Hector Martinez
United States, 12 min
Suffering injuries at the hands of Native American forces, two buffalo hunters set camp near enemy territory and try to survive the night.
A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
Directors: Nik Oczkus, Mitchell Montgomery
Country: USA, Running Time: 8 min
Be it chance or divine providence, three strangers, a drunk, an outlaw, and a preacher, share a campfire.
WALKING PAPERS
Director: Micheal Willbanks
Country: USA, Running Time: 23 min
Set in the Texas Panhandle in the 1980’s, WALKING PAPERS finds Joe at his post as a security guard at a rural bank on his last day of work before being forced into retirement. As the last hour of his employment strikes, the bank is robbed at gunpoint, and Joe must then make a decision: will he let these men get away with the bank’s money? Or will he go after them, risking his life to protect a bank that has shown him no mercy?
WESTERN PRIDE SHORTS
TRT: 69 min
JOHN DOE: A WESTERN TALE
Director: Ryan Riffle
Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min
Western tale of the local town killer by the name of John Doe, a man who has successfully continued to be unidentified – despite his crimes – throughout the West.
OASIS
Director: Paul Vernon
Country: USA, Running Time: 12 min
A car breaks down in the desert and a young man has to decide whether to sell his soul to a demon for water or secure his place in heaven.
RIDIN’ ROPIN’ & JUMPIN’ OVER CARS
Director: Elaine Smith
Country USA, Running Time: 27 min
The story of a bigger than life woman who lived an amazing life in rodeo for three decades from the 1930’s – 1960’s is depicted in this documentary created from interviews with the now 90-year-old and her unbelievable treasure of memorabilia.
SMILE
Director: Jay Pennington
Country: USA, Running Time: 13 min
Gold is found by a gunslinger who was hired to watch the comings and goings of the bustling town.
