International film festival declared a success

WASHINGTON — Both organizers and attendees said they were impressed with Washington’s debut of an international film festival, titled “Farm to Film Fest,” over the weekend.

The event drew entries from five countries, as well as praise from the filmmakers and moviegoers visiting town to catch screenings at a handful of public venues.

“I would be totally shocked and surprised to know that this is you guys’ first film festival,” Stephen Berry, director of the film “Ako Abdul-Samad: Panther Politician” said. “What you’ve done, and how everything is organized, is truly phenomenal. I’ve been to a few film festivals around the world, and you guys got it together.”

Entertainers voice optimism, hope to return next year

Directors, actors and crew members gave a variety of reasons the first-time event drew their eye, many of them expressing a desire to return for future festivals.

For Nick Ohde, who directed four agricultural documentaries accepted for screenings, the venue offered an audience that his subject matter would resonate with more than almost anywhere else.

“Our film’s about the promise of regenerative agriculture, and I think there’s more cover crops in Washington County than I think in any other county in the state by far,” he said during a Q&A panel Saturday night. “I think it’s really cool to have the opportunity to show a film about regenerative agriculture in a place where there’s a lot of people doing a lot of cool things.”

J.D. O’Brien directed the narrative feature “After the Gunflint,” which won a prestigious Laurel Award at the festival. He said the event’s marketing was simply effective enough to grab his attention.

“I just liked the name and logo,” he said. “Where I’m at with my independent film, the Laurels are really important, and so an impressive logo makes my film better.”

Others said the local event offered a shot at a valuable shred of spotlight in the highly competitive world of moviemaking.

“Not every film is going to get into Sundance, let’s face it” said Tom Procida, director of the short film, “My Dear Aunt Sally” in a phone call from Austin, Texas. “What filmmakers can get out of the smaller festivals is, first of all, networking … but also, having your film screen at any festival is always a positive thing.”

Weekend highlights city’s filmmaking history

Organizers said the Farm to Film Festival was sparked by Washington’s sometimes overlooked tradition of entertainment.

Local film historian Michael Zahs said that legacy was hard to overstate for the home of the longest continuously operating movie theater in the world, as well as the historical Brinton film collection.

“We’re the most entertaining state in the United States,” he said. “(Washington County) has had over 70 buildings built for the purpose entertainment. I don’t know whether that can be duplicated in the country … always, when you hear about movies or any kind of entertainment theater, you can sit up a little straighter and look down your nose at the rest of the country.”

F2F Co-Chair Sarah Grunewaldt said the community’s past “planted the seed” of ideas to host such a festival in the first place.

“We have this history of film in our community, and why aren’t we celebrating the fact that people in our community were watching films before anyone else in the world?” she said.

Filmmakers said that legacy wasn’t lost on them either.

“There’s some wonderful opportunities with that, the fact that you have a theater that’s been running that long,” said Miguel Tarango, a DMACC professor and director of an autobiographical film about Belle Plaine man Jack Schlesselman. “That kind of history, it’s phenomenal.”

Eva Beunza — who wrote, codirected, and acted in a short film titled “Letters” — said she agreed.

“This cinema has been open the longest,” she said. “It’s something that caught my attention.”

Preparations began years ago

The Farm to Film Festival was originally announced in March of 2020, but was promptly canceled two weeks later as surges of the COVID-19 pandemic brought such gatherings to a halt.

In the three years since that initial announcement and cancellation, organizers had time to carefully plan every last detail.

F2F Co-Chair Lyle Moen journeyed to several film festivals in the interim, taking notes on each one’s highs and lows to build Washington’s event around.

“Our purpose of hosting a film festival is to promote the arts, first of all, and to showcase Washington,” Moen said. “I like to volunteer and give back to the community, and it’s another way to honor our history.”

In a handful of impromptu interviews throughout the weekend, organizers consistently said the event was going off without a hitch.

Moen credited the smooth-running operation to an effective and thorough team working behind the scenes.

“One of the best parts about volunteering is getting to work with and getting to know other volunteers in the community,” he said. “Washington has an extraordinary core of volunteers, ready and willing to say, yes, when asked.“

Much of the programming was based on the Oneota Film Festival in Decorah, with guidance from and hours of conversation with that event’s president, Nancy Sojka. The two events used the same content submission platform, the same admission-free funding model and the same judging process for entries.

Sojka said she was impressed with the organizers’ initiative.

“I came down here because I was so impressed that somebody came to our festival and said, ‘We could do this,’ and then they did it,” she said. “It wasn’t like, you know, ‘Maybe, someday, we can do this,’ … They said, ‘How can we do this?’ So I wanted to see how it worked, and I think it’s working really well.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com