(Article by Robert Farago)
According to popular belief, success has many fathers/mothers/gender unspecified caregivers. True that. The second annual Film Fest Knox owes its success to a well-coordinated team of movie-mad mavens, not unlike To Kill a Wolf, the full-length feature film scooping the American Regional Cinema Competition.
From the festival’s resume-heavy jurists and selection committees, to the movie-loving execs green-lighting the Regal theater’s participation, to six generous patrons (including PopFizz productions, Scruffy City Hall and insPYRE metals), Film Fest Knox was knocking on the door of success from the git-go. No surprise, then, that it answered.
That said, the script for Marble City’s marvelous movie mingle was written by a single not to say singular author: Curt Willis, Senior Director of the Visit Knoxville Film Office. The city’s film guy reports that “Things are changing in the way movies are being made, to the point where we’re entering the golden age of independent filmmaking.” An assertion he’s determined to foster.
Working with Kim Bumpas, Willis negotiated with the Cineworld Group to show the Regional Competition winner’s film at ten of the top 50 U.S. markets – a prize that qualified To Kill a Wolf for an Oscar nomination. Not to mention the Indiana native’s guiding hand over every other aspect of Film Fest Knox’s screening and schmoozing schedule.
A Hoosier he may be, but Willis is as committed to showcasing Knoxville’s growing film community as the city’s football fans are to the Vols. “Moviemaker Magazine named us number six in this year’s list of The Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker,” Willis reveals proudly, sucking down a cup of black coffee in the run-up to All That We Love, a “heartfelt and poignant depiction of grief [that] blends sorrow with insightful humor.” The festival’s opening night’s feature.
Make no mistake: the herding cats-class struggle pulling together the 2024 Film Fest Knox was a heartfelt labor for Willis and Co. That they corralled the conclave with grace and pace is a major win for Knoxville’s cineasts. According to Willis, it was a Tennessee twofer. “The festival’s both a celebration of our city’s one-stop-shop filmmaking talent and a high-profile recruitment tool for [independent film] location shooting.”
The audience accounting for 2024’s tripled ticket sales was an eclectic mix of fanatical film folk: producers, directors, actors and technicians. Many of whom were gunning for the Film Fest Knox’s Oscar-related nod. But not all. The Made in Tennessee showdown roster – two long-form and 17 short films – attracted stellar talent on all sides of the lens.
A prestigious three-judge panel awarded top honors to the 35-minute historical drama How to Sue the Klan (screen grab above) – the story of “five Black women from Chattanooga [who] used legal ingenuity to take on the Ku Klux Klan in a historic 1982 civil case, fighting to hold them accountable for their crimes and bring justice to their community.”
Film Fest Knox brought a killer vibe to the city’s small but perfectly formed cinema community. Over the course of the event, VIP pass holders quaffed adult beverages at The Vault, Five Thirty Lounge and Scruffy City Hall, networking like KUB’s fiberoptic installers, exchanging contact info like it was going out of style.
What wasn’t going out of style: the local and visiting movie-mad tribe’s passionate dedication to a craft launched by Frenchman Louis Le Prince in 1888 (two seconds of four people walking in a garden). While Film Fest Knox will never have the status or cachet of the LA, New York City or Sundance festivals, it didn’t take this observer two seconds to realize Knoxville’s version has the easy accessibility, local charm and low-key camaraderie the Big Cities lack.
With Curt Willis devising inventive incentives to lure independent filmmakers to Knoxville, with Visit Knoxville’s crew managing logistics with Germanic precision, Film Fest Knox is well on its way to becoming America’s biggest little film festival. While this year’s success guarantees next year’s growth, it’s hard to imagine bigger will be better. Then again, imagination is what Film Fest Knox is all about.