Carolina Monnerat

Jack C. Newell’s MONUMENTS Opens Illinois’ Lake County Film Festival rolls out lineup of virtual/in-person screenings for November

Lake County Film Festival Director Nat Dykeman said, “Like many film festivals we have taken the challenges presented to us by restrictions and limitations brought about by the pandemic to actually broaden our scope, extend ourselves and use this moment as a chance to introduce our films and filmmakers – as well as the personality of LCFF to audience in two states. It’s an opportunity to create a bigger tent of film fans, who just might come to Lake County next year to enjoy the show we put on in person.”

Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat’s QUEEN OF LAPA featured at Oxford Film Festival’s 5th Weekly Virtual Fest is topped by docs, films focusing on the black experience, and experimental film

“Our audiences have become accustomed to the Oxford Film Festival bringing the world to them via the documentary films we program,” Executive Director Melanie Addington said. “QUEEN OF LAPA and LIFE IN SYNCHRO are vastly different films, but share that sense of discovery, whether it be a transgender sex workers community in Brazil or the amazing women that make synchronized skating a sport that will surprise and excite you. It’s also exciting to give a platform to the filmmakers and stories delving into the black experience in Mississippi, Memphis and this country through our Black Lens Narrative shorts program and the expected, yet unexpected cinematic visions our Fest Forward programs always deliver.”

FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: Rainn Wilson with THOM PAIN Opens 2017 Indie Memphis Red Carpet shots – indie and local filmmakers hit the carpet in Bluff City

This year’s 20th Anniversary Indie Memphis film festival featured a street closure for the first time in their storied history, adding a big festival tent to expand the fest’s presence and footprint on the city. After the Opening Night red carpet featuring THOM PAIN and Rainn Wilson, and Thursday’s photo call with Mark Webber – two of indie films’s best examples of the actor’s actor, the red carpet under the tent on Friday night encouraged the attending filmmakers, as well as the notoriously photo and press-shy Memphis filmmaking regulars to allow themselves to be corralled for their moment in the fake-sun, while others still managed to dodge it (we’re looking right at you, Morgan Jon Fox).