This week, Starkville’s own Hollywood Premier Cinema will be filled with directors, actors, producers and many others involved with the filmmaking process, along with a large crowd of film enthusiasts. The cinema is the site of 2008’s Magnolia Film Festival, now in its 11th year.
The Magnolia Film Festival was the brainchild of late film director Ron Tibbett. In 1997, while scouring for film festivals in which to enter his new film “Swept Off My Feet,” Tibbett discovered that Mississippi had no such festivals, and decided to create one himself.
“It’s the oldest film festival in Mississippi, and that’s kind of cool,” said Elaine Peterson, festival director and professor of music at Mississippi State.
The festival has always provided an opportunity to view a vast array of new films, and this year is no different.
“We’ve got 35 that we’re showing,” Peterson said. “Comedies, dramas, quite a few documentaries and experimental films [will be shown].”
“We’re unique in that we only have one screen going at a time, whereas in other festivals you have to choose between this and that,” Peterson said. “We have everybody together at the same time seeing the same stuff. That makes the conversations and friendships [between attendees] better.”
The filmmakers also reap the benefits of Starkville’s small town atmosphere.
“We treat the filmmakers really well,” Peterson said. “We put them up. We feed them. We have a reputation in the independent filmmaker community as being one of the nicest festivals to get into. It’s that Southern hospitality thing.”
The filmmakers’ housing is provided by Old Waverly resort.
The festival is divided into four blocks during which films were shown Thursday and will be shown Friday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m. and Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Each block is a little over three hours long and includes a Q&A session with the filmmakers at the end. The films vary in length as much as they do in genre and subject.
“The shortest one is a minute and fifteen seconds, and the longest ones are about an hour-and-a-half, a feature-length film,” Peterson said. “We try to make a variety for every single block, so if you only make one block you’ll get a taste of everything.”
The festival is set up so that a single block of film should satisfy viewers despite likes and dislikes.
“We didn’t put all the experimental films in one block,” Peterson said. “I don’t think you could say you’re going to come and love everything, but I think anyone could come and go to any block and find movies that are really unique.”
In addition to the appeal for movie fans, the festival is an opportunity for networking and learning for those who aspire for film as a profession.
“[If you’re interested in that sort of career] you should definitely come and talk to these people and find out how they got started and how they got into it,” Peterson said.
One of Friday night’s features is “Spine Tingler: The William Castle Story.” The film is a documentary focused on ’50s and ’60s horror film director and promoter William Castle.
In addition to the film, the festivities will include “nurses” outside the theater selling life insurance policies, in case any of the viewers get “scared to death.”
This was one of the many outlandish gimmicks Castle himself used to promote his films.
Saturday at 10 a.m., Jeffrey Schwarz, the director of “Spine Tingler,” will be leading a workshop on how modern filmmakers should go about promoting their own work.
“The workshop is free and open to the public,” Peterson said. “[In addition to filmmakers] it would be good for anyone in a band or doing anything artistic.”
Filmmakers from all over the nation will be attending the festival, but Starkville and the area surrounding it will be represented as well. One of the local talents to be featured at the festival is none other than Starkville comedy troupe Good Commitment, whose short film “The Peripook” will be making its premiere Saturday night.
Other films to be shown during the festival include “Archer House,” a comedy about college Greek life; “Cathedral Park,” a unique drama about a girl discovering her past; and “The Jesus Guy,” a documentary about a man who journeys the country dressed as Jesus Christ. This is only a tiny selection of the 35 films that will be shown at the festival. They are, in fact, only half of the entries received.
“This is a cool event. Most of the filmmakers are younger, and they’re out there expressing their ideas. It does hit on the taste and style of college students,” Peterson said. “It’s not a Hollywood studio saying ‘We have to make this work so it can appeal to a mass audience.’ You don’t get this type of thing in Starkville very often.