Bentonville, Arkansas in the News!
One of my Ozark friends, Jay Nemec, has been keeping me alerted to the growth of Bentonville as cultural center in the Ozarks, but I'm now learning about it from the New York Times, which we Hillbillies appreciate even if the headline does read, "Bentonville, Ark., Hosts a Film Festival Without a Movie Theater" (NYT, May 5, 2015):
Despite that technical difficulty, Mr. Drinkwater, an independent film distributor, believes Bentonville is ready to host a major film festival, which he expects to grow each year. If nothing else, he has the corporate sponsors.Well, that sounds . . . interesting. Keep at it, Bentonville, and don't let NYT headlines get you down, for at least, unlike art critic for Glasstire, Christina Rees, the NYT doesn't characterize the Bentonvillle area as exuding a "whiff of meth hillbilly"!
AMC Theatres, Coca-Cola and Walmart have joined to offer distribution on limited AMC screens and via Walmart to the winners. The festival, through its partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, is open exclusively to female and minority filmmakers, with the aim of igniting careers.
Robert DeNiro, Rosie O’Donnell, Soledad O’Brien and other A-listers are said to be attending.
Ms. Davis has visited Bentonville several times in advance of the festival, strolling the square and staying in the 21c Museum Hotel.
Maybe I'll visit the place this coming vacation . . .
Labels: Arkansas, Ozark Mountains
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 6:39 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Thanks for the plug Jeff. By all accounts the Bentonville Film Festival, or BFF, as it was called, was a critical success. Our performance theater, Rogers Little Theater, participated in the event and was transformed back into a movie house for the week. I did not have a lot to do with any of the festival as my wife and I are busy directing rehearsals for the next play, but I did get to see how professional production teams set up and tear down their sets. Remarkably efficient as they dismantled their set! It would be wonderful for you to visit our area and see first hand the changes and growth our region has had over the past 10 to 15 years. We also have a number of new breweries that might pique your interest.
Jay
Hi all--The 21C Hotel is one of the most astounding hotels I've ever seen to date, anywhere. Given the established emphasis on home-grown (American) art at Crystal Bridges, it basically holds up high-end fine art from "elsewhere", too, just for good measure; making for a pretty complete fine-art experience if one goes to NWArk, I have to say. Multiple thumbs up. Sor--ry, New Yawk! --CPH
--eh, just a bit more here; from what I can tell, Chicago is where it's at on the big-city front, anyhow, not HTT NYC; greatest collection of Big Public Art I've seen in the US, unless somebody can tell me of a greater one...Final Kid John is headed to the school of the Art Institute in the fall, where we hope he'll tear it all down and build it all back up; we shall see. OK, see ya--CPH (and go, BFF! very cool)
Jay, I hope to have time for getting to the area. I haven't seen that part of the Ozarks for over 30 years!
I assume you're looking for a new job around or in Bentonville. I hope you find one so that you can continue your cultural activities.
Jeffery Hodges
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Funny how we all got interested in art - considering how we grew up without much of it.
Of course, there was Renaissance Man himself, Jim Scott, who influenced me. By the way, is that mural still visible on the wall of the counselor's office? Jim Scott did the perspective and then explained to us how to apply the paint.
Jeffery Hodges
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