Lost River Film Festival kicks off Oct. 17

The Lost River Film Festival, San Marcos’ four-day gathering of independent cinema worship, will be kicking off its diverse lineup of international, domestic and local films starting Thursday, Oct. 17 going through Sunday, Oct. 20 with screenings, workshops, interactive events and exclusive parties throughout the city.

The festival, a project of the San Marcos Cinema Club, features a deluge of film screenings for every niche, a Quentin Tarantino-inspired burlesque performance, a BMX spectacle titled Wheelz 'n' Reelz and director Q&As galore.

The San Marcos Cinema Club whittled down the selection to 75 submissions from across the globe, in addition to select new films plucked from other Texas festivals.

The Price Center will serve as the primary venue for the Lost River Film Festival screenings, with secondary locations at the historic Devil’s Backbone Tavern, the San Marcos Public Library, the Texas State University’s Performing Arts Center, the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and a special “Be Brave In the Cave” Bloc 80 feet underground in a cavern at Wonder World Cave.

Thursday, Oct. 17

The festivities will kick off Oct. 17 at 10 a.m. at the Price Center with the “Finding Home” Bloc with special guest film producer Sommer Garcia Saqr and a two-and-a half-hour block consisting of four films focused on the idea of finding home and kinship. Following the “Finding Home” Bloc is the “Persian Shorts Showcase” featuring seven short films, as well as a 3 p.m. screening of “Free Slave,” preceded by the short film “The Stain.”

The Opening Night Party of the film fest will be held at the Devil’s Backbone Tavern with live music provided by Holiday Indians and local bluegrass punk group Rock Bottom String Band. This year’s opening night film is “Race With the Devil.”

“Every opening night for Lost River Film Fest, we kick off with a film that was shot in the San Marcos area,” said film festival co-director Jordan Buckley. “This year it'll be Peter Fonda's ‘Race With the Devil,’ the car chase thriller in which RV tourists enjoying the Hill Country are interrupted by Satanic assailants.”

Friday, Oct. 18

On Friday, screenings will kick off at the Price Center at 10 a.m. with a screening of “Triplex” with co-directors Jim Gilmore and Nadia Ramoutar, preceded by screenings of short films “Lunchbreak” and “The Mismanagement of Medwin Monroe.”

Screenings will kick back up at 12:30 p.m. at the Price Center with “Robbery of the Heart,” followed by a Q & A with Director Micah Brandt and preceded by short “On the Border.”

The workshop “Documentary Master Class” with award-winning Producer Jeffrey Brown will start at 1:30 p.m. Brown has produced several award-winning narrative features and feature documentaries in Europe, Africa and the US. He is the producer of “Nothing Stays the Same,” a recent SXSW award-winner, and “No No: a Dockumentary,” about outspoken 1970s baseball player Dock Ellis, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2014. Following the workshop will be a screening of “Nothing Stays the Same” with Brown and director Jeff Sandmann.

At 3 p.m., activities will kick off underground at Wonder World Cave and Park with the “Music in Motion” Bloc, which will feature a screening of “The Avant-gardener,” a visual storytelling to Lindsay Katt's new record, and “The Jeffers Live!,” a documentary about the band The Jeffers and their 2016 Hell Ride show in the home of San Marcos vintage king David Marrs.

At 5 p.m., the “Be Brave in the Cave” Bloc will kick off with a screening of thriller “Beneath” with director JJ Perez. Many filmmakers, like Robert Rodriguez, have tried to gain access to Inner Space Caverns, but “Beneath” remains the first and only to do it. The movie is a DIY thriller made entirely by Inner Space employees who secured special permission. The film features around a group of cavern tour guides who hear an old tale of a sacrificial cult performing rituals in the cave and decide to sneak down into the restricted areas to find out more. “Beneath” will be preceded by short “Carnage Radio” with writer and director James Fite, actor and producer Brandon J. Johnson and cinematographer Zach Campbell in attendance.

At 8:30 p.m. Dark Matter Productions will host a Quentin Tarantino-inspired burlesque performance at Stonewall Warehouse, 141 E. Hopkins St. And the final screening of the evening will be at 10 p.m. at the Price Center with “Building the American Dream,” a film that tells the story of several immigrant workers in the Texas construction industry who face hardship and are taking action to change the political system in order to protect workers. The screening is sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Southwest at Texas State University and Mano Amiga.

Saturday, Oct. 19

Saturday will begin at 10 a.m. at the Price Center with the “Experimental Iran” Bloc, a block consisting of five short films created by Iranian filmmakers. The lineup will include “Motherland,” “Starvation,” “Divine Comedy,” “Wound” and “Salsus.”

Following the “Experimental Iran” Bloc, is the “Creepy Outdoors” Bloc with three film screenings at the Price Center: “Feed the Ground” “Safe” and “Truth Lies Upstream.” After the “Creepy Outdoors” Bloc will be a screening of “Empty Nester’s Handbook” with director and producer David Reyes.

X Games medalist Chase Hawk gets air from a ramp during the 2017 Wheelz N' Reelz.

Also starting at 10 a.m. are several free screenings open to the public at the San Marcos Public Library, 625 E. Hopkins St.

• 10 a.m. - “El Libro De Lila”
• 12 p.m. - “The Birth of Big Air,” preceded by book reading of "The Ride of my Life" by BMX legend Mat Hoffman
• 2 p.m. - “Our Friend Jon”
• 3:45 p.m. - “When All That's Left Is Love,” preceded by “Dear Autism: a Parents' Perspective”

One of the world's best known BMX athletes Mat Hoffman will share excerpts from his autobiography, "The Ride of my Life,” reflecting on an unparalleled career as a freestyle-biking pioneer, who lost his spleen while setting the aerial-jump world record. Then “The Birth of Big Air,” an ESPN special by Oscar-nominated director Spike Jonze and Johnny Knoxville, will screen at the library. Following the screening, there will be a free spectacle, Wheelz 'n' Reelz, in the San Marcos Skate Park from 2-5 p.m., featuring demos by BMX pros Chase Hawk, Tony Cardona, EZ, R Dog, skater Sam Bethke, the San Marcos River Rollers derby team and live music by Split Hoof.

At 3:30 p.m., Film Fest attendees can join the celebrations at the Sacred Springs Powwow, held at The Meadows Center, for the screening of “Warrior Women” with Producer Julianna Brannum. “Warrior Women” chronicles the lifelong struggle of a Lakota mother and daughter as part of the American Indian movement’s fight for native liberation. The film observes early 1970s efforts alongside the Black Panther Party and the overtaking of Alcatraz Island, up to today: protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock in 2016.

At 6 p.m., immigration advocacy group Mano Amiga will sponsor film screenings at Texas State University’s Performing Arts Recital Hall called “Stories Beyond Borders Y Más!”

Closing out Saturday will be a Highwater Rooftop Dance Party at AquaBrew, starting at 10 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 20

According to Buckley, the last day of the film fest is always dedicated to honoring local and statewide filmmakers.

“The final day is when we really focus on Texas filmmakers,” Buckley said. “So everything that we play on Sunday will be made by a Texas filmmaker. And so we'll start in the morning with different shorts, from across the Lone Star State. At t 11 a.m. will be a showing 'Minor Injustice,' which talks about how Texas one of four states that treats 17 year olds as adults, and the criminal system… And then we'll be showing the what's it called the 'San Marcos on the Screen,' a whole bunch of short films that are comprised of folks from San Marcos.”

The screenings start at the Price Center Ballroom at 9 a.m. with the “Texas Shorts” Bloc, featuring nine shorts made by Texas filmmakers. Following the “Texas Shorts” Bloc, will be a screening of “Minor Injustice,” sponsored by Mano Amiga, and preceded by a screening of “I Am Here.”

At 1 p.m. at the Price Center will be the San Marcos on the Screen Showcase, featuring: “Paradise Lost,” “Paradigm Shift,” “Three Generations,” “Silent Train,” “Hurricane Joli,” “Nothing to Say,” “I Am Tx,” “Intro for Patrick,” “Tiramisu for Two” and “The Bubbleman.”

At 3 p.m. will be the Lone Star Shorts Showcase sponsored by Tom Copeland, featuring seven shorts created by all Texas filmmakers.

Closing out the last night will the awards and closing night ceremony at 5 p.m. and the final screening of the festival, “Seadrift,” a documentary that examines circumstances that led to deadly violence, racial tensions and Ku Klux Klan involvement in the small Texas city of Seadrift in the 70s — as well as its dramatic aftermath & unexpected consequences that continue to reverberate today. Director Tim Tsai and activist Beth Aplin Martin will be in attendance. The “Seadrift” screening is sponsored by Kevin Huffaker.

The Cinema Club is offering special free entry to Daily Record readers who whisper the phrase "The price is right," at the ticket booth for the screening of “Triplex,” “Robbery of the Heart,” “Nothing Stays the Same,” “Jackrabbit 29” and “Empty Nester’s Handbook.”

Local actor Antonio Palacios, Arts Commissioner Anita Azenet and Cinema Club member Tafari Robertson at AquaBrew.

The Cinema Club is also offering a half off deal for anyone that “lives, works or attends school in Hays County” and can provide reasonable proof, Buckley said. The reason for this, according to Buckley, is he hopes that the county and other area police agencies will define residency the same way in cite and divert policies that criminal justice advocacy groups are asking local officials to adopt to keep low-level, non-violent offenders out of jail.

“We've made a decision that we're a film society that cares both about film and society,” Buckley said. “And part of the reason that the San Marcos Police Department overwhelmingly arrested when they had the opportunity to cite people last year, is the way that they defined residency. I think Chief (Chase) Stapp deserves a lot of credit for recognizing the need for us to expand the definition of residency. And so Lost River Film Fest wants to echo that sentiment by extending 50% off tickets for all Hays County residents. And we're going to define residents in the same way that we hope that the county and the city will, which is ‘anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in Hays County.”

Tickets are on sale now at www.lostriverfilmfest.org/attend and will go on sale Oct. 17 at the Price Center. Four day passes are $100 each. One Day passes are $30 for each day and individual screening tickets are $10 each.

All-day passes, 4-day general admission and VIP passes are also redeemable for free entry into the Sacred Springs Powwow and powwow wristbands also earn free entry into any individual screening. A full schedule of Lost River screenings and events is available at Lost River Film Fest's website.

Sponsors for this year’s Lost River Film Fest include the San Marcos Arts Commission, Planet K, Texas State University’s Center for the Study of the Southwest as well as the College of Fine Arts & Communication, Empire BMX, Kissing Tree, Grande, Tom Copeland, Kevin Huffaker and the Texas Film Commission.