Stubbornly Independent: The Tallgrass Film Festival

Posted on October 16, 2013 at 2:21 pm

Wish I could attend the Tallgrass Film Festival this year — it just keeps getting better, with great documentaries like “Blackfish” and “20 Feet from Stardom” and classics like “Pulp Fiction” and “Airplane!”

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Tallgrass Film Festival

Tallgrass Film Festival

Posted on October 24, 2009 at 11:37 am

I am thrilled to have been asked to attend the Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita, Kansas, later this month and especially looking forward to spending time with my beloved B98 buddies, Brett and Tracy and am forever grateful to them for making it possible for me to be there.

tallgrass.jpg

I am very excited about the line-up of screenings, including a preview look of a work in progress, the documentary “What’s the Matter with Kansas,” based on the best-selling book by Thomas Frank about shifting political priorities and coalitions. The film features former Kansas Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, who now serves as the head of the Motion Picture Association of America. And I am really looking forward to introducing the family film program, featuring “Alice Upside Down.”

The program is filled with enticing choices from exotic international releases to heartland American stories. I can’t wait.

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Return from Tallgrass!

Posted on October 26, 2008 at 9:05 am

Many, many thanks to Susan Moneypenny and everyone at B98 for a sensational trip to Wichita and the Tallgrass Film Festival. I had a blast!
IMG_0126-1.jpgOpening night was the work-in-progress screening of What’s the Matter with Kansas, a documentary from Laura Cohen and Joe Winston that they say is a “sequel” to the best-selling book by Thomas Frank that shares its title. Both explore Kansas as the the heart of Middle America, which twice helped elect George W. Bush. The documentary includes a range of fascinating and stereotype-busting characters, several of whom were in the theater. There was what we in Washington call a “free and frank exchange of ideas” with the film-makers following the screening.
I spent Friday morning in the studio with my beloved Brett, Tracy, and Kathy. I had a tour of the stunning Warren Theater, an art deco masterpiece with white-gloved ushers and a balcony with heated Tempur-pedic loveseats to cuddle in and a full-service menu delivered to you as you watch. And then we had lunch at the best place in town, the Old Mill Tasty Shop. Trust me, it’s worth the trip to Kansas to taste the tomato bisque, chicken salad, and hot fudge sundae brownie.
We saw the documentary shorts:
* Springed Migration (a six-mile portage of a trampoline through the streets of Austin)
* For Tomorrow, The Toms Shoes Story (TOMS shoes gives away a pair of shoes to a poor child for every pair purchased — 65,000 given away so far)
* From My Hands (Fulbright scholar Jessica Tibbits shows us a school for the deaf in Yemen)
* If a Body Meet a Body (the LA coroner’s office has to identify a dead body)
* I See the Music: Baron Wolman The Rolling Stone Years (interview with the man who photographed Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and others for the then-new Rolling Stone)
IMG_0128-1.jpgI got to host the family film screenings, which included <a href="http://www.jumpmovie.com

Jump!, a sensational documentary about the intensely competitive international jump rope athletes, and the marvelous Alice Upside Down, based on the books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It stars Camp Rock’s Alyson Stoner along with Penny Marshall, Luke Perry, and High School Musical’s Lucas Grabeel. Look for more about that film, which came in second for the festival’s audience award, in an upcoming DVD pick of the week.
It all went by too fast!

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In Studio with Brett and Tracy

Posted on October 24, 2008 at 6:00 am

I’m in the studio this morning with Brett and Tracy, two of my very favorite people! We’ll be talking about “High School Musical 3,” “Pride and Glory,” and of course the fabulous Tallgrass Film Festival, which I’ll be attending today and tomorrow. Many, many thanks to Brett and Tracy and Kathy Deane and Susan Moneypenny for inviting me and for their wonderful hospitality.
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Tallgrass Film Festival

Posted on October 8, 2008 at 8:00 am

I am thrilled to have been asked to attend the Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita, Kansas, later this month and especially looking forward to spending time with my beloved B98 buddies, Brett and Tracy and am forever grateful to them for making it possible for me to be there.

tallgrass.jpg

I am very excited about the line-up of screenings, including a preview look of a work in progress, the documentary “What’s the Matter with Kansas,” based on the best-selling book by Thomas Frank about shifting political priorities and coalitions. The film features former Kansas Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, who now serves as the head of the Motion Picture Association of America. And I am really looking forward to introducing the family film program, featuring “Alice Upside Down.”

The program is filled with enticing choices from exotic international releases to heartland American stories. I can’t wait.

Related Tags:

 

Festivals
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