The historical roots of many issues we face in American society presently are discussed in the film, ranging from segregation, race relations, and equity in education. At one moment in the film Baldwin Chiu makes the point that in school he never learned anything about the discriminatory laws that affected Chinese-Americans and other minority groups.
Women Texas Film Festival Founder and Festival Director Justina Walford said, “The virtual presentation somehow added to the immediacy of the moment with our screenings and Q&As and it was thrilling to not just experience each film without distractions but to also hear from so many filmmakers and actors and documentary subjects from all around the world right in our living rooms. And the films that our jury selected for these awards all shared the fact that they touched and inspired our judges to such an extent that they needed to be honored.”
Walford added, “We love being part of the international movement to showcase female filmmakers and we know we must continue our efforts with even more force so that we change the filmmaking industry in hiring an equitable gender ratio. Our goal has always been to show the range of the female storyteller, and the depths to which women can take us via their work in film- whether it be emotional, visual, introspective, startling, shocking, and horrific.
The 2020 Oxford Film Festival celebrated the best of this year’s films and filmmakers with a virtual awards ceremony on Saturday, June 6, highlighted by the announcement of Hoka awards for David Midell’s THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN for Best Narrative Feature, which included a $15,000 camera rental package from Panavision, and Pailin Wedel, and Nina Ijas’s HOPE FROZEN for Best Documentary Feature. The Best Documentary Feature prize included a $15,000 camera rental package from Panavision as well as documentary editing feedback from Joe Shapiro
Executive Director Melanie Addington said. “We are very excited to debut our OFF to the DRIVE IN film presentations, as I’m sure many of our locals are, to get out of the house and see some films but safely following CDC guidelines, but most importantly in this climate and in Mississippi, highlighting the great Mississippi-produced film THE EVERS on the anniversary of Medgar Evers’ death is crucial to further the conversation to improve our lives. A special conversation will be included with the film from the family and director.”
