What started out as a few local films shown at Foster’s Martini Bar has turned into an event that lasts several days and features films from around the world.
Lisa Erdman is the Executive Director of the Outlaw Film Festival in St. Joseph which begins Wednesday night and continues through Saturday. Erdman said this is the 4th year of the festival which started out as Foster’s Film Festival due to the venue and now takes place at Paradox Coffee and Theatre.
“I’m a movie critic and movie fanatic and a lot of people in my social circle love movies as well. A group of us started talking about how sad it was that there was so much talent coming out of St. Joe with students at Missouri Western, students at Northwest Missouri State that would go into the film genre and then leave St. Joe because there’s really nothing here for them to do to pursue their dreams,” Erdman said. “So we thought let’s at least try to celebrate the ones that do stick around, so we were really encouraging local filmmakers to share their work with us. That’s kind of how it got started and that’s our main focus is to celebrate the local filmmakers and also give the community a place to experience film outside of your typical movie theater.”
Erdman said in addition to local filmmakers they have films from around the world from places such as Russia, China and France.
“But we really hope to see the local number of filmmakers that submit continue to climb,” Erdman said. “To that end, we’re going to have a separate award category at our awards ceremony that will be just for filmmakers who live within 100 miles of St. Joseph.”
Erdman said they began receiving more submissions when they joined the website FilmFreeway, where filmmakers can upload their work and festival directors can post information about their events, which in turn is accessible to filmmakers from around the world. Erdman said they began with seven films the first year and this year over 150 films were submitted and the event will screen 81 different films. The short films were chosen by a jury of judges including Broadcast Film Critics Association members from around the state and a professor from a local university. Films are ranked according to acting, writing, cinematography and more. Awards will be presented Saturday night.
Outlaw Film Festival – Awards Ceremony – Nov 5 from Marks Media on Vimeo.
Erdman said one of the highlights of the festival is the Young Filmmakers Showcase Thursday night featuring the work of filmmakers under the age of 21, including films by students from Lafayette High School.
The Outlaw Film Festival begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, November 2nd. Film screenings begin at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
For a schedule, tickets and more information, go to the Outlaw Film Festival Facebook page or click here.