Tallgrass is proud to unveil the first look at this year’s festival line-up, taking place virtually October 16-25, 2020, presented by Consolidated Equities Trust.
The 18th Annual Tallgrass Film Festival takes place virtually this year, streaming through Cinesend at watch.tallgrassfilm.org. More titles and events to be announced ahead of the festival, including our opening night gala, award winners, shorts programs, panels, education, and more.
A message on the program from Director of Programming, Nick Pope:
“This year’s film festival may not be what any of us expected, however the program of films is as timely and diverse as our audience has come to expect after 18 years. And if anyone has yet to dip their toe into the Tallgrass waters, the convenience of the festival from home is a great place to start. With a special emphasis on documentaries and world cinema, this year’s movies present a huge array of topics and subjects: journalism, football, autism, coming out, jazz, women kicking ass, art, memes, war veterans, punk rock, grifters, aliens, and many other unique snapshots of history and the present. We say it every year, but it’s true as ever: there are movies for everyone. While we may be relegated to our living rooms, we can still immerse ourselves in the art and find refuge in escapism for a few hours each day. Don’t let these films be used as background filler or while standing by for whatever else 2020 might have in store. There are countless stories happening beyond our walls and beyond our community that will bring joy, hope, laughter and thoughtfulness in a time that we need it most.”
See the first round of features announced below.
9/11 Kids
World Documentary Feature
Director: Elizabeth St. Philip | Canada | 2020 | 1 hr 28 min
On the morning of September 11, as a plane hit the second tower of the World Trade Center, US president George W. Bush was reading a story to a classroom of second-graders at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida. For the 16 kids and their teacher, this iconic moment in American history is forever etched in their minds.
A New York Christmas Wedding
Domestic Narrative Feature
Director: Otoja Abit | USA | 2020 | 1 hr 30 min
Torn between a lost love and her soon to be husband, a woman embarks on an unexpected journey through time to reconnect with herself and her heart.
Asking For It
Domestic Narrative Feature
Director: Amanda Lundquist, Becky Scott | USA | 2020 | 1 hr 23 min
A journalist takes justice into her own hands when her internet stalker walks free from the law.
Bastards’ Road
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: Brian Morrison | USA | 2020 | 1 hr 33 min
War veteran Jon Hancock wrestles with his demons while walking 5,800 miles across the United States.
Billie
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: James Erskine USA | 2019 | 1 hr 36 min
In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Over 8 years, she tracked down and tape-recorded over 200 hours of interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer’s short, tumultuous life. However, Linda’s book was never finished and the tapes never heard — until now.
Collective
World Documentary Feature
Romanian with English Subtitles
Director: Alexander Nanau| Romania | 2019 | 1 hr 49 min
The film follows an investigation by journalists of the newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor into healthcare corruption in the wake of the Colectiv nightclub fire
Don’t Date Your Sister (World Premiere)
Domestic Narrative Feature
Director: Nick Catanese| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 26 min
An outlandish, romantic comedy about a recent widower and the antics surrounding his attempts to end his son’s relationship, with whom he believes is with his long-lost daughter, due to a promise he made to his dying wife.
Donut Dollies
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: Norm Anderson| USA | 2019 | 1 hr 28 min
The untold story, 50-years in the making, of the American women who volunteered to go to Vietnam on an impossible mission. Sponsored by Martin Pringle Law.
Dramarama
Domestic Narrative Feature
Director: Jonathan Wysocki | USA | 2020| 1 hr 31 min
In 1994, a closeted teen struggles to part ways with his 4 high school drama friends at their final murder mystery party before they leave for college. 2020 Stubbornly Independent Award Finalist.
Feels Good Man
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: Arthur Jones| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 33 min
When indie comic character Pepe the Frog becomes the unwitting icon of hate, his creator fights to bring Pepe back from the darkness.
Finding YingYing
Domestic Documentary Feature
Chinese and English
Director: Jiayan “Jenny” Shi| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 33 min
Itchy Fingers (World Premiere)
Domestic Narrative Feature
Director(s) by Anna Nilles, Marco Jake| USA | 2020| 1 hr 58 min
An aspiring teenage comedian joins a community theater and is cast to play a school shooter. 2020 Stubbornly Independent Award Finalist.
It Takes a Family
World Documentary Feature
Danish with English subtitles
Director: Susanne Kovács | Denmark |2020| 1 hr
It Takes A Family is a family drama about secrets and repressed memories. Director, Susanne Kovacs, is the grandchild of Jewish Holocaust survivors and the daughter of a German mother and a Danish Jewish father. When Susanne is born, in the eyes of her grandparents she is a child of the enemy and a constant reminder of their tragic past. Years later, Susanne starts asking the difficult questions only to discover that the war never really ended in the tormented family; Somehow, the horrors of the past have always been present as a deafening yet unspoken trauma. 2020 DOXX Award Finalist.
Materna
Domestic Narrative Feature
Director: David Gutnik |USA|2020|1 hr 45 min
A closely observed psychological portrait of four women, whose lives are bound together by an incident on the New York City subway. 2020 Stubbornly Independent Award Finalist.
Narrowsburg
Domestic Documentary Feature
Domestic Documentary Feature
No Fear No Favor goes to the front lines of Africa’s poaching and extinction crisis with local people determined to protect threatened wildlife for future generations. 2020 DOXX Award Finalist.
Domestic Documentary Feature
‘Domestic Documentary Feature
Rose Plays Julie
World Narrative Feature
Director: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor | Ireland | 2019 | 1 hr 40 min
An adopted girl who seeks out her birth mother only to be told her mother has no desire to meet her.
The Earth is Blue as an Orange
World Documentary Feature
Russian with English subtitles
Director: Iryna Tsilyk | Ukraine | 2020| 1 hr 14 min
Single mother Anna and her four children live in the front-line war zone of Donbas, Ukraine. While the outside world is made up of bombings and chaos, the family is managing to keep their home a safe haven, full of life and full of light. Every member of the family has a passion for cinema, motivating them to shoot a film inspired by their own life during a time of war. The creative process raises the question of what kind of power the magical world of cinema could have during times of disaster. How to picture war through fiction? For Anna and the children, transforming trauma into a work of art is the ultimate way to stay human. 2020 DOXX Award Finalist
The Perfect Candidate
World Narrative Feature
Arabic with English Subtitles
Director: Haifaa al-Mansour | Saudi Arabia| 2019 | 1 hr 44 min
A Saudi woman is frustrated after being turned back at the airport because her travel permission from her male guardian is not up to date. She then embarks on an absurd campaign that juggles strict social norms, gender segregation and the influence of her eccentric family.
There is No Evil
World Documentary Feature
Persian with English Subtitles
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof | Iran| 2020 | 2 hr 30 min
The four stories that are variations on the crucial themes of moral strength and the death penalty that ask to what extent individual freedom can be expressed under a despotic regime and its seemingly inescapable threats.
The Reason I Jump
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: Jerry Rothwell | USA | 2020 | 1 hr 24 min
An immersive cinematic experience of nonspeaking autistic people across the world, The Reason I Jump is based on a book written by Naoki Higashida when he was just 13. The film follows a young Japanese boy on a journey through an epic landscape. As a maelstrom of thoughts, feelings, impulses, and memories affects his every action, he gradually discovers what his autism means to him, how his perception of the world differs from others’, and why he acts the way he does—the reason he jumps.
The State of Texas vs Melissa
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: Sabrina Van Tassel| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 37 min
Domestic Narrative Feature
Director: Dennis Donovan| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 37 min
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: George King| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 35 min
Transhood
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: Sharon Liese| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 38 min
Four kids and their families unmask the intimate realities of how gender fluidity is reshaping the family next door, especially in America’s heartland.
Two of Us
World Feature Narrative
French with English subtitles
Director: Filippo Meneghetti| France | 2019 | 1 hr 35 min
Pensioners Nina and Madeleine have hidden their deep and passionate love for many decades, but their bond is put to the test when they are suddenly unable to move freely between each other’s apartments.
Uncle Peckerhead
Domestic Narrative Feature
Director: Matt Lawrence| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 37 min
When a punk band scores their first tour, life on the road proves tough when they are joined by a man-eating demon as a roadie.
Vinyl Nation
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director(s): Christoper Boone, Kevin Smokler| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 38 min
Vinyl Nation digs into the crates of the record resurgence in search of truths set in deep wax: Has the return of vinyl made music fandom more inclusive or divided? What does vinyl say about our past here in the present? How has the second life of vinyl changed how we hear music and how we listen to each other? Sponsored by McClelland Sound.
White Riot
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: Rubika Shah| USA | 2019 | 1 hr 24 min
An energizing film telling the story of a vital national protest movement – Rock Against Racism, formed in 1976 when a group of artists united to take on the National Front. Sponsored by Hinkle Law.
Win, Lose or Draw Straws
Domestic Documentary Feature
Director: Casey Phillips| USA | 2020 | 1 hr 23 min
Set against the looming and presumably competitive and divisive 2020 US Presidential Election. Win, Lose or Draw Straws is a feature-length documentary exploring one particular oddity of the US election system that is the existence of and wildly varied ways of determining election contests that end in perfect ties. Told by the people who experienced the emotional highs and lows of a political campaign that was determined by a game of chance. Sponsored by The League of Women Voters.
The 18th Annual Tallgrass Film Festival takes place virtually this year, streaming through Cinesend at watch.tallgrassfilm.org. More titles and events to be announced ahead of the festival, including opening night, panels, education, and more.