Weekend’s best bet: 18th annual Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival

WHO:Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute

WHAT: 18th Annual Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival

WHEN: 9:30 am to 10:30 p.m., Friday to Sunday

WHERE:

Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute

819 Central Ave., Hot Springs, AR 71901 and

Historic Malco Theatre

817 Central Ave., Hot Springs, AR 71901

SCHEDULE (click here)

The time has come again for the documentary film festival in Spa City. This is one of the state’s best festivals. It’s a must for Autumn.

It’s only a handful of hours away and, as a frequent attendee, I can recommend the day trip without reservation.

HIGHLIGHTED FILMS:

Food Inc.

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli–the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually.

We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms‘ Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms’ Joe Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Abraham Obama

When contemporary pop/street artist Ron English creates an iconic image of Abraham Lincoln’s faced merged with Barack Obama’s, he, of course, pastes it up illegally all over Boston. The national attention it generates inspires English to gather a crew of artists and musicians to travel across America, plastering the image wherever they can find an open wall. In the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson and the Merry Pranksters, English and crew take us on an unforgettable trip through America’s underground. Along the way they meet up with counterculture heroes like Shepard Fairey, Morgan Spurlock and David Choe and spread their subversive propaganda to America’s heartland on a grassroots campaign to get Obama elected.

Ron English is the New Jersey artist who merged the mugs of Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama into one of the most iconic images of the 2008 presidential campaign. He’s also known for “liberating” corporate billboards with his own provocative anti-smoking, corporate-bunking and progressive political messages. Born in Texas in 1966, English is a radical supporter of free speech and social equality. As a world-renown artist, a musician, political activist and father of two, he’s both a controversial character and model citizen.

About the festival:

The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival is one of the first and the oldest documentary film festivals in the world (second only to Amsterdam) dedicated solely to documentary film. Known as “the filmmaker’s festival” for its non-competitive focus, HSDFI is finalizing the 100 films to be screened this year, which include entries from countries throughout the world. Tickets for the festival are $5 per film, $50 for a three-day pass and $150 for a ten-day pass.

The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (HSDFF) began in 1992, launched by a small group of arts activists in Hot Springs. That year, 10 Academy Award-nominated documentary films were screened to the public free of charge.

HSDFF was incorporated as a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization that year and was renamed the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute (HSDFI) in 1996. HSDFI remains the only film institute in the United States dedicated solely to the documentary film genre, deeming Hot Springs the documentary capital of the world, and it offers a complete slate of year-round educational and cultural programs. Each year with the help of more than 700 dedicated volunteers, board and staff members, HSDFI presents the annual HSDFF.

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