Oxford Film Festival Presents 10th Virtual Film Week

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 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.

Last year’s big prize winners and top finishers 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 and ELLA FITZGERALD: JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS are inspiring documentaries that are a vivid reminder of why art can change the world,” Executive Director Melanie Addington said. “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.”

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

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 28, 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.

WEEKLY VIRTUAL FILM FEST TICKETS:

THE IN-BETWEEN
https://watch.eventive.org/2020oxff/play/5e9c93d8139d81002ad82740/5e9f072233bbae0031d3e6ef
Live Q&A set for June 27 at 4 p.m.

Film Prize Top 5 Shorts Block
https://watch.eventive.org/2020oxff/play/5e9c96f5fb3a4500293f6e0d
Live Q&A set for June 27 at 5 p.m.

THE EVENING HOUR
https://watch.eventive.org/2020oxff/play/5eb483d4b6d6c8083e2b1f33
Live Q&A set for June 28 at 7 p.m.

VIRTUAL ART HOUSE RENTAL TICKETS:

ALL I CAN SAY
https://oxfordac.eventive.org/schedule/5eda5c919f89590030a99b9e

ARMY OF LOVERS IN THE HOLY LAND
https://watch.eventive.org/oxfordac/play/5eed598f443989004c303147

ELLA FITZGERALD: JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS
https://oxfordac.eventive.org/schedule/5ed329c0f7f9e2009140d10e

THE LAST TREE
https://oxfordac.eventive.org/schedule/5edac78508ec2e003033aaa0

Oxford Film Festival Presents FILM FESTIVAL DAY Rainbow Retrospective: A Decade of Queer Comedy Shorts
https://oxfordac.eventive.org/schedule/5ef4cec1b2ea220036e0baa8

OFF to the DRIVE-IN TICKETS

GREASE
https://oxfordac.eventive.org/schedule/5eda1607e560c600458e2096
June 27 at 8 p.m. at Cannon Lot (100 Thacker loop)
Pre-purchases only

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
https://oxfordac.eventive.org/schedule/5eda170be24881002980569e
July 2 at 8 p.m. at Cannon Lot (100 Thacker loop)
Pre-purchases only

ABOUT OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL
The Oxford Film Festival was founded in 2003 to bring exciting, new, and unusual films (and the people who create them) to North Mississippi. The annual five-day festival screens short and feature-length films in both showcase and competition settings. The festival is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization. For more information, visit www.oxfordfilmfest.com.

Release courtesy of the Oxford Film Festival