Published on April 29th, 2020 | by TLV News

Oxford Film Festival Presents 2nd Virtual Film Festival Week (May 1–8)

Films showcased include Daniel Lafrentz’s The Long Shadow, Travis Beard’s Rockabul, and OFF’s Fest Forward experimental films

Heavy author Kiese Laymon joins filmmakers Chris Windfield (70 Years of Blackness) and Je-Monda Roy (Getting to the Root) to talk about “Creating Black Stories in Mississippi”

TICKETS:

Creating Black Stories in Mississippi – https://www.youtube.com/user/oxfordfilmfest
Live conversation/panel set for Friday, May 1 at NOON CST

The Long Shadow/Sweet Steel – https://watch.eventive.org/2020oxff/play/5e908bf7773343002a2dd364
Live Q&A set for Wednesday, May 6 at 6 pm CST

Rockabul – https://watch.eventive.org/2020oxff/play/5e9dcb7302bda10185e916a8
Live Q&A set for Friday, May 8 at 8 pm CST

Fest Forward Global Short Film Collection – https://watch.eventive.org/2020oxff/play/5e94c2e22091350029382e2d
Live Q&A set for Saturday, May 2 at 1 pm CST

The Oxford Film Festival’s 2nd Weekly Virtual Film Fest showcases Daniel Lafrentz‘s LGBTQ+ drama The Long Shadow, where a small town sheriff in Louisiana investigates the murder of the woman she loved, which unearths old money corruption in her town, Travis Beard’s music documentary Rockabul, which places viewers in the middle of the underground expat music scene in Afghanistan, and the animated/experimental short film collection Fest Forward-Global, which features films from China, Estonia, Germany, Israel, and the USA exploring themes of loneliness and making connections with one another and the spaces we live in.

“The importance of curating this weekly mix is to showcase the versatility of our filmmakers and highlight how global cinema unites us,” Executive Director Melanie Addington said. “Whether through a music documentary about fighting a conservative government with art, or Queer cinema from southern filmmakers, to gorgeous animation from Oxford Film Fest alumni like film professor and fest circuit favorite Geoff Marslett, this week’s virtual film festival again allows us to narrowly focus in on these great films and engage much longer detailed conversations about filmmaking.”

Creating Black Stories in Mississippi

The first of Oxford Film festival’s Mississippi Humanities Council–sponsored panel discussions features filmmaker Chris Windfield of 70 Years of Blackness, Je-Monda Roy of Getting to the Root, with Mississippi author Kiese Laymon (Heavy) as they discuss Creating Black Stories in Mississippi. Ethel Scurlock of University of Mississippi will moderate the conversation. The live conversation/panel is set for Friday, May 1 at NOON CST.

THE LONG SHADOW

Director: Daniel Lafrentz
Country: USA
Running Time: 95 min
A young sheriff’s deputy takes on her Louisiana town’s old-money establishment when the woman she loves—an attorney fighting a rail deal that will displace the poor—is found murdered.

Preceded by

SWEET STEEL

Director: Will Goss
Country: USA
Running Time: 4:37 min
A depressed man puts off an important task.

ROCKABUL

Director: Travis Beard
Country: Afghanistan
Running Time: 90 min
Rockabul examines the counter culture campaign that the US government waged in Afghanistan, told through the eyes of a young band in the war torn capital of Kabul, where rock music is forbidden. The band, District Unknown put themselves in the firing line to challenge freedom of expression, youth identity and conflict with culture. A glimpse into the underground expat party scene, at odds with the conservative and fundamentalist society in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Fest Forward Global (Total Running Time: 59 min.)

Animated films from China, Estonia, Germany, and Israel join those from the USA that explore ideas of loneliness and emotional connection with each other and everything hat surrounds us.

ANACRONTE AND THE SORCERERS OF EVIL

Directors: Raul Koler, Emiliano Sette
Country: USA
Running Time: 14:00
Emotionlessly fulfilling their destiny, they put to test humanity’s happiness in a struggle that, in short, has each of us as winners and losers.

ANGEL’S TRUMPET

Director: Martinus Klemet
Country: Estonia
Running Time: 2:26
The next step in the evolution of hummingbirds.

HOW AND WHY DON JOSE DISSIPATED

Director: Moshe Ben-Avraham
Country: Israel
Running Time: 12:58
A delighted bee disturbs the tranquility of vacationers on a quiet pastoral island.

IKTAMULI

Director: Anne-Christin Plate
Country: Germany
Running Time: 5:30
An autobiographic story about the conflict of a mother and her feelings of love, connection, self-pity, and denial for her disabled son.

OSIKIRA – BLACK CHAMPAGNE

Director: Jeremiah Williams
Country: USA
Running Time: 5:00
Queen Suraya and King Jamari are the leaders of the magical Nemanyo civilization and derive their powers from an ancient lotus flower that was brought to earth by their ancestors thousands of years ago.

THE PHANTOM 52

Director: Geoff Marslett
Country: USA
Running Time: 7:25
Loneliness is a trucker who calls out on his CB radio waiting for a reply that never comes; A ghost that haunts the desert highways; and a whale that sings at a frequency no other whale can even hear.

PROPOLIS, PART 7

Director: Patricia Beckmann Wells
Country: USA
Running Time: 3:00
The human race is outnumbered by insects, so what would happen if they bonded together to take over the world? Liz and Beaux are a sister and brother, trapped in a closet as punishment by an alcoholic mother, who want to escape.

UMBILICAL

Director: Danski Tang
Countries: China/USA
Running Time: 6:53
This piece is an animated documentary exploring how a mother’s abusive relationship with the filmmaker’s father shaped their own experiences in a boarding school in China.

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.

Tags: Creating Black Stories in Mississippi, Fest Forward Global Short Film Collection, off, Rockabul, Sweet Steel, The Long Shadow, Virtual Film Festival

About the Author

TLV News The Local Voice is a bimonthly entertainment guide and newspaper based in Oxford, Mississippi, covering and distributed in North Central Mississippi, including Oxford, Ole Miss, Taylor, Abbeville, Water Valley, Lafayette County, Yalobusha County, and parts of Panola County, Marshall County, and Tupelo . The Local Voice is distributed free to over 255 locations in North Mississippi and also available as a full color PDF download worldwide on the internet.