The 12th annual Magnolia Independent Film Festival commenced the first of its three-day festivities Thursday night at Starkville’s Hollywood Premier Cinemas.
The night included independent films of all lengths and genres.
Festival director Elaine Peterson said the theater was unexpectedly crowded for a Thursday night.
She said the first night of the festival was an overall success and expected the next two nights of the festival to be sold out.
“I think it went great. The theater was almost completely full,” she said. “Thursday night is usually our smallest night, so we were really pleased.”
The late Ron Tibbett founded the festival, which is often referred to simply as “The Mag,” in 1997.
He started the project after searching for festivals in which to enter his own film and realizing that no such thing existed in Mississippi.
Since then, the Mag has given an opportunity for many filmmakers from Mississippi and elsewhere to showcase their own unique creations.
The first night of the 2009 festival featured three Mississippi filmmakers. Daniel Lee said his short film “Faithful Departed” tells the story of “a man mourning the loss of his beloved wife” and his attempts to bring her back. The film was shot in a silhouette style, giving it a look unlike any of the other films.
The second film from a Mississippian was “Dust to Dust: From the Blackest Dawn Chronicles,” a satirical zombie movie that seemed to be a crowd favorite. “Dust to Dust” was directed by senior MSU computer science major Johnson Thomasson.
Michael Williams, a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi, rounded out the night’s trio of Mississippi film makers with his film “(Un) Wanted.”
The film shows the popular story of an unplanned pregnancy, but it is told from the rarely shown perspective of the male involved.
“I wanted to make a film that explored a guy’s perspective on an abortion without trying to raise its moral issues,” Williams said.
“The Farm Team,” by Scott Balzer, a short documentary on the work done by the grounds crew of a minor league baseball team in Mobile, Ala., and “Cross-Eyed Dinner Theater Presents,” a short narrative comedy by Eric J. Naughton, completed the night’s presentation of short films.
Kaithlynn Phillips’ film “Chasing the White Dragon,” headlined as the feature-length film of the opening night.
The film, shot entirely in Tupelo and Guntown, tells the dark tale of six small-town youths addicted to crystal meth.
While the characters and events in the film were entirely fictional, Phillips said actual people were the inspiration behind them.
“Chasing the White Dragon” was the final film shown at Hollywood Premier Cinemas Thursday, and the evening concluded with a short question and answer session with the filmmakers in attendance.
Afterward, festival attendees had the option of heading to State Theater for “The Mag: Late Nite,” which included free popcorn and a world premiere screening of “Yesterday,” a feature-length zombie movie written, directed and filmed entirely by a group of students at the University of British Columbia.
For more information on The Magnolia Independent Film Festival or on the films shown Friday through Sunday, visit the festival’s Web site at magfilmfest.com.