{"id":108938,"date":"2021-01-21T17:06:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T23:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=108938"},"modified":"2021-01-21T17:06:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T23:06:36","slug":"11th-annual-clarksdale-film-music-festival-puts-safety-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/11th-annual-clarksdale-film-music-festival-puts-safety-first\/","title":{"rendered":"11th Annual Clarksdale Film & Music Festival Puts Safety First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lights, camera… masks… action! Clarksdale, Mississippi, readies its first-ever “pandemic edition” of the annual Clarksdale Film & Music Festival \u2014 January 29\u201331, 2021.<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Since the pandemic shutdowns began last March, festivals around the world have either cancelled or gotten creative in order to keep attendees safe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month’s Clarksdale Film & Music Festival<\/strong> in historic Clarksdale, Mississippi,<\/strong> has paid attention and incorporated health and safety measures into its planning every step of the way. The festival is scheduled for Friday through Sunday, January 29\u201331\u2014indoors, outdoors, and online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’ve been working for months planning our most thoughtful film festival ever,” explained co-organizer Nan Hughes<\/strong>. “With the help of our friends and fans, our aim is to make this year’s nonprofit event both fun and safe.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

INDOOR VENUE, OUTDOOR DRIVE-IN <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This year’s indoor venue, The Bank<\/strong> event space at E. 2nd & Yazoo Ave.<\/strong>, will feature everything from temperature checks and hand sanitizing at the door to properly-worn face masks and less than 25 percent seating capacity inside. All health and safety protocols are posted at\u00a0clarksdalefilmfestival.com<\/a>.\u00a0For nighttime, health and safety conversations led to an exciting new festival addition: A “pop-up” drive-in theater at 3rd & Issaquena Ave., downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re only putting on our festival if we can make it as safe as possible, so a nighttime drive-in seemed like the perfect solution,” said Roger Stolle<\/strong>, co-founder of the event. “Like with our indoor venue, we’ve hired professionals to stage the outdoor screen and projection. The drive-in audio will be broadcast through viewers’ car radios. Pretty cool.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AN ENTIRE WEEKEND OF EVENTS\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The Bank<\/strong> indoor venue runs Saturday, January 30, from 11 am\u20136 pm with doors opening at 10:30 am. The outdoor drive-in theater runs Friday and Saturday with parking starting at 5 pm and the films at 6 pm. Pre-sale tickets and details are at\u00a0clarksdalefilmfestival.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For obvious reasons, we need to limit ticket availability this year, so we strongly recommend that attendees buy pre-sale tickets online now,” said Hughes. “Pre-sale ticket buyers will save money and know that they can get in for our full roster of films. For fans who can’t attend, we also have a donation button online.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daytime documentaries explore blues, jazz, vinyl records, and more. The nighttime drive-in films are\u00a0Finding Nemo<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(which has Clarksdale connections) for Family Night and\u00a0Blues Trail Revisited I&II<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(partly filmed in Clarksdale) for Blues Night.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MOVIES, MUSIC, AND MORE\u00a0<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In addition to celluloid favorites, the weekend includes History Walking Tours<\/strong> with Robert Birdsong<\/strong>, Virtual Panel Discussions<\/strong> moderated by Clay Motley<\/strong>, and plenty of live blues music.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Well, it is a film\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0music festival,” said Stolle, emphasizing “music.” “Folks can go to\u00a0clarksdalefilmfestival.com<\/a>\u00a0for a full schedule of music performances, movie schedules, walking tours, and panel discussion info.”\u00a0Music performers include Terry “Harmonica” Bean<\/strong>, Sean “Bad” Apple<\/strong>, Anthony “Big A” Sherrod<\/strong>, Watermelon Slim<\/strong>, and more at venues like Bluesberry Cafe<\/strong>, Bad Apple Blues Club<\/strong>, and Hambone Gallery<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with the film screenings, festival organizers ask attendees to come prepared with face masks, etc. Each music venue will have a small cover charge at its door and be limiting attendance for social-distancing purposes.\u00a0Festival organizers wish to thank the filmmakers, musicians, and volunteers as well as event supporters including Visit Clarksdale Tourism<\/strong>, The Walton Family Foundation<\/strong>, and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“See y’all at the movies!”, Hughes said in closing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lights, camera… masks… action! Clarksdale, Mississippi, readies its first-ever “pandemic edition” of the annual Clarksdale Film & Music<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":109178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[3470,18074,10500,5,11529,2722],"class_list":["post-108938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-localfestivals","tag-clarksdale","tag-clarksdale-film-music-festival","tag-clarksdale-film-festival","tag-mississippi","tag-nan-hughes","tag-roger-stolle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-21-Clarksdale-Film-Fest.jpg?fit=440%2C252&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}