HSDFF 2014 Festival Recap
It's been around a month since I was lucky enough to be a part of this fantastic film festival but I have to talk about the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. This was my second year working on the media team for this festival and it was a great time. Hosted in the historical Arlington Hotel HSDFF has a history of bringing in great films and filmmakers and this year was no exception.
A lot can be said about the caliber of this festival just in the way it was bookended. The festival kicked off with a bang showing "Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me" with Glen Campbell in attendance and live performances by members of the Campbell family and the closing night screening was "To Be Takei," a film about the life of George Takei with George Takei and his husband doing a Q and A afterward. Both are perfect examples of the kind of programming that this festival is capable of. Another screening, the showing of "Meet the Patels" was one of the most highly anticipated at the festival partially because the incredibly charismatic Patels were in attendance. They were a large part of the festival just because their presence made .
Another film attended by its filmmaker also happened to be on of my favorites. "Mudbloods" was a feature about quidditch growing as a collegiate club sport. All of these were great but there were plenty more as this national Academy Award qualifying festival shows 100 films every year.Another huge part of this festival besides the films themselves are the events. Throughout this ten day festival there are great panels, parties and musical performances.
From a panel about what it's like having your life filmed for a documentary called "Living Large: From Real Life to Reel Life" with the subjects of films that showed at HSDFF to "Shooting Under Fire: Surving in Combat Zones" with filmmakers with combat experience. One of my favorites was Kevin Delaney's Awesome Science Show as seen on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon but my favorite panel was "Masterclass: Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking with Gordon Quinn." Gordon Quinn showed clips from his films and discussed the idea of ethics in documentary filmmaking. Eventually he opened the floor to questions and the panel turned into more of an open discussion that everyone evolved enjoyed and learned from.
All of this goes without even mentioning the vast amounts of fun to be had at the parties held every night of the festival.The media team that I worked with put together a festival re-cap video that should give anyone who wishes they had made it a pretty good idea of what it was like to be at HSDFF 2014.
