Celebrate 21 Years of Stubborn Independence at the 2023 Tallgrass Film Festival

October 5th through 8th, downtown Wichita will host what has been named one of the “Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” by MovieMaker Magazine: the 21st Annual Tallgrass Film Festival. Executive Director Melanie Addington tells us all about this uniquely Wichita event. For schedules and information, see www.tallgrassfilm.org

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to Wichita on weekend, theweekly public affairs program from iHeartRadio Wichita one
O two one, The Bull Channelnine, six, three and seven three.
Have you seen any good movies lately? Oh? You know, about
one hundred and eighty four of them. I am visiting with Melanie Addington.

(00:21):
She's our guest right now on WichitaWeekend. Melanie is the executive director for
Tallgrass Film Festival. It's the twentyfirst year and it's happening October fifth through
eighth downtown. Melanie, it's anexciting time of year for you, It
isn't a very exciting time for us. Yeah, twenty one or finally legals
what we're going with? Yeah,right on, finally legal still stubbornly independent

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always, Yes, So give usa sketch of what we can expect at
this year's Yeah, we have alittle over one hundred and eighty films this
year. We have actor Barry Corbyn, who has been in literally any thing
you can think of, the Exposure, Yellowstone, Tulsa, King, the
Ranch. He's just one of thosewonderful human beings. He's coming to do

(01:07):
a conversation with and we partnered withWSU so he's also giving a conversation on
campus now, So I'm really excitedfor that. Lots of fun films,
lots of parties. We're known forthe parties a little bit more than the
film sometimes. So yeah, that'sthe rough sketch. That's the rough sketch.
Now, congrats are in order becauseyou were just named one of the

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top twenty five coolest film festivals inthe world. I like that category.
Yeah, I think it's a greatcategory, better than any other category.
Coolest is like, yes, weand then in the world, which is
incredible. That is incredible. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big feather in
Wichitas had. It really is,and we we love the recognition, but
it comes at a price of alot of work, of a lot of

(01:52):
people. So we appreciate it yearround, yeah, year round, endless.
Yeah, so probably the day afterI'm already planning twenty five right now,
I can imagine. I can imagine. Well, so, as executive
director, are you and how doesthe whole selection process go for movies that
are in the It's a seven monthprocess of film submitted all over the world

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into a platform that we all watch. We have about fifty people that screen
movies for us for seven months straightand then we also myself and head programmer
Andre Seward, we go to filmfestivals all over and watch more movies.
So we're just always watching movies.That's that's what we do. Yeah,
all right, So are all themovies going to be the Orphan this year?

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No, we have numerous venues.The new one this year is at
niche Downtown. Oh yeah, yeah, there's so many good restaurants in there
you might as well put movies inthere and then you have food. And
then Orpheum of course is our main. We also have our own micro cinema
we started two years ago in theLucks so right by the Orpheum, Yeah,
Scottish right library. We have somefree greetings thanks to Evergy. And

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then we're working again with Expiration Placefor a second year and we love working
with them. So a lot ofgood places. Well, how would you,
as executive director recommend that a normalcitizen or subnormal citizen like myself would
go about finding out which movies towatch and when to see him? And

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how do you recommend I negotiate?Yeah? Well, actually the easiest way
is this Friday, we're partnering withwhich art Museum for their Friday evening night,
and we're showing trailers and answering allthe questions and giving people hints about
what they might actually like to watch. But you can also go on our
site watch the trailers for all thefilms. You can click searchable things like

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I only want comedy and just clickon comedy and pick those. So there's
really there is something for everyone.There's no reason not to at least try.
Wow. Okay, very good advice. Then, yeah, and then
we've got some some big categories,big categories that some filmmakers have entered,
and you've got to be proud of. The three categories are really cool,
Yeah, tell us about him.Sure. So obviously our stubbornly Independent,

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which is films made under seven himfifty thousand dollars, which sounds like a
lot of money, it is not. In the film world. That is
very low budget now really yeah.Yeah, it used to be about five
hundred thousand, but now it's upto seven hundred fifty, which, believe
me, some of them have madeit for a lot less. And then,
of course our women Filmmaker category,and that is both documentary and narrative

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films, and that is all USAbased only, and then our Gordon Parks
Filmmaker Black Excellence in Filmmaking category,which is an incredible new category. His
son, David Parks now lives herein Wichita and supports and comes to the
festival. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he moved up here last year,
so he's been a wonderful supporter ofthe festival. We love working with him.

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Okay, yeah, Now, sofilmmakers are then competing with so we've
got judging going on. So yeah, we bring in industry judges from all
over the country, distributors, filmcritics, that sort of thing, and
they watch these films and then decidewho gets the five thousand dollars cash prize,
which is a nice bit. Nomatter what kind of filmmaker you are,

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so right, even if you're alow budget under one of those under
seven hundred and fifty thousand people.Oh yeah, you can feed your crew
for a while on that. Ohman. Well, So, Melanie Addington,
Executive Director, Tallgrass Film Festival,have you seen all the movies this
year? I watch all of themand quite a few that you don't have

(05:32):
to because we did so Okay,so you guys actually do turn some downright,
We do we have thousands of entries. Yeah, and so we really
do have to sort of comb throughand pick what we think Wichita will like
the most. Yeah. Yeah,I can remember in past years some really
outstanding. You know, it's allan experiment. Sometimes they're a little bit

(05:55):
more than we hope for, andsometimes they're very experimental in a stretch,
but we kind of like people tryingnew things and thinking outside of the normal
box they live in. Yeah.So do you have any hints about some
real outstanding I do. I havesome favorites. They're all great. All

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children are wonderful in her eyes.I love them all, but give us
a little in Yeah. Yeah.We are world premiering a film called Tokyo
Cowboy on Saturday, Tokyo Cowboys.Yeah, and it was filmed in Montana
and it is a wonderful film.I think anybody can get something out of
it. And we've tied it toa party at Cowtown so you can just

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go to the film where you canbuy a film and party ticket and write
a bowl. So it's going tobe a fun night. It includes a
bull ride, includes a bull rightif you're brave. I'm not, but
I will watch and laugh so awesome. Yeah, it'll be fun. So
Tokyo Cowboys. That's a big one. Your Fat Friend, which is about
Aubrey Gordon, the writer who startedwriting anonymously about being overweight and what that

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meant in today's society and has nowbecome a huge sensation. It's a wonderful
documentary. It premiered at Trebeca andJunes. We're only like the sixth film
festival to show it. Wow.Yeah, we have people of driving in
from all over, like three orfour states to see this movie. So
it's it's a big get for Wichitafor sure. Cool. Yeah, man,
there's so many three birthdays. Ourclosing night film is going to be

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one of those that's going to endup in theaters. So we're really excited
to have it three birthdays. Sothat'll be Sunday night, Sunday night at
the Orpheum. And then we're actuallywe're using the Crown. I didn't even
mention this. We were talking venues. We're using the Crown for the first
time on Thursday. Well the festival. Yeah, we love that venue and
it's so great to support it.So we're showing a film called The People's

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Joker, which is the definition ofstubbornly independent because it world premiered at Toronto
International Film Festival a year and ahalf ago. Warner Brothers slap them with
an intellectual property lawsuit and they actuallyone against Warner Brothers and now get to
show their film. It is righton amazing the Little Guy Finally. Yeah,

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so we're really happy to champion thatfilm. Oh wow. Yeah.
So if you're a casual movie buff, if you're a serious student of film,
if you're somebody somewhere in between,Yeah, you're definitely going to find
several movies to go check out andlove. I keep calling them movies.
There are really films a better wayyou know that we're not we're not as

(08:28):
snobby as as people think. Wayout, we're using interchangeably movie. I
feel like, oh no, ohno, these are movies you need to
see, Films you need to filmsyou should see. And what's great is
like we get a lot of like, oh well I was busy on Saturday.
Well cool, Well it started onThursday. You have four days you
can pick films. Oh well,I don't have any money. I definitely

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appreciate that because I work in anonprofit arts world. So we have free
films, we have free panels.The conversation with Barry Corbin is free at
door Film on Sunday, So wewant to make sure everyone has opportunity to
participate however they can. So thisis kind of like just open questions for
Barry Corbin. Then we're going todo a conversation with him, depending on
how the rest of the strike worksout. Since now writers, yeah,

(09:13):
the writer's agreement has been made,so we're hoping the actors agreement is made
before then because then we could talkabout a lot of things with him.
But otherwise we're going to talk abouta few things with him, his TV
and his short film experiences. It'sgoing to be very interesting, absolutely fascinating.
Oh he's a fascinating human being.So what a great what a great
gift we have with him. Sotell you what it's coming up quick.

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The tall Grass Film Festival the twentyfirst annual October fifth through eight, So
that's a Thursday through Sunday. Itis, And you say, the best
website to check out on it,tall grass film dot org has everything.
I like the way you title thatwebsite's very easy to find. Remember it
tall grass film dot org. Donesimple. Everything you need to so.

(10:00):
Information on tickets, if there aretickets for tickets, how to festival,
If you want to take a coupleof days off work and come downtown,
we have hotel discounts, you cando a staycation. We have quite a
few people to do that so well. Yeah, And like you say,
people are traveling in from all over, all over because the fame of the
Tall Grass Famous spread far and wide. And like we told you earlier,

(10:22):
it has been officially designated by MovieMakermagazine as one of the top twenty five
coolest film festivals in all the world. And we really hope you can come
and check it out as much ofit as you can. I got to
share with you, Melanie. Therewas a movie. There's two movies I
remember from years gone by at tallGrass, but one of them was about

(10:46):
the I'm a sports fan and I'malso a music fan. And there was
a beautiful documentary about the late WaymanTis Day. Oh yeah, gosh.
I can't remember the title of that, but I do remember, Oh,
oh my goodness, it was abeautiful, beautifully done yeah movie and I'll
never forget that. And then Ihad growing up the occasion to meet a

(11:09):
man by the name of Stuart Mossman. And Stuart was a guitar builder in
Winfield, Kansas, and when Imet him, he was on his way
up, but he became a guitarbuilder of considerable note. And so I
just remember that documentaries being fascinating andit was at the Scottish Rite Temple and

(11:30):
they had a whole display of hisguitars that he had built in anything and
it was just beautifully done. AndI was so grateful to Tall Grass.
I don't know where anywhere else thata person like me could have experienced something
like that. That was no Andyou know, when festivals started, we
didn't have Netflix and all of theseplaces, so we were the only source

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and still for a lot of them. Yes, you may eventually in a
year or two get to see iton Hulu, but you could see it
now in which time with the filmmakerright there and talk to them. So
that's experience it in the theater.It's something you can't create anywhere else.
Yeah. Yeah, So kudos totall Grass. You guys always do it
right and always do it big.So by all means, this is one

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big gem that you cannot afford toignore. You've got to check it out.
If you can't. Yeah, thankyou so much. It's a lot
of fun. I gotta and Igotta share one more memories. Our audience
will be able to relate to this. But he's passed away a few years
ago. But there was a legendarymovie trailer voiceover man by the name of

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Don Lafontaine, and he had aclassic opening line that everybody remembers from those
days of movie trailers, and likeit almost became his byline, if you
will. And that was in aworld well perfect well tall Grass bought brought

(12:56):
Don l Yeah, he was ourad astra guest, right, and so
he uh, first off, hewas really cool, really approachable, very
friendly. Had any I think hewas tickled that he got invited. He
couldn't believe that he was invited downhere. For that, he deserves it.
He's the one that gets you inthe theater. He's the one who

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gets you in the theater. Andso because I work in radio, right,
I'm a I'm a one one thousandof the voiceover guy that Don Lan
la Fontaine was. Some friends ofmine had Don la Fontaine autograph a picture
for me oh I love that andthe picture said done guide, I despise

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everything you stand signed don La.It was really he was humorous. So
yeah, but again thanks to totall Grass that brought this really cool individual
to town. I imagine a lotof the same things will be going on
with Barry Corbyn you kind of yeah. Yeah, he's our at ASTRO recipient
again this year, so we willbe giving him an awards Saturday night at

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the Orpheum. And then we havea couple other special guests. Jim Beaver
of Supernatural. He played Bobby Forever. Okay, he's coming with a short
film. Totally blanked on the nameof it, but so he was a
voice over for an animated character.Yes, yeah, yeah, and he's
in The Boys now and he's alsowe try and bring people that are just

(14:20):
really fun and down to earth rightdecite despite having an amazing career. So
both of them are going to bereally fun to hang out with for the
weekend. Tallgrass Film dot org.Yeah, go online learn about this fine
event. It's it's really one ofthe coolest things that Wichita has done in
a long long time in the world. Apparently one of the top twenty five

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of the top twenty five and we'reso proud to have them. So,
Melanie Addington, we know you're goingto be busy October fifth through eighth getting
everybody set and all the things going. So we're hoping you have a fantastic
festival. Thank you. We wantall of Wichita to come out for a
you want to see all of them? Yeah? Absolutely again, go to

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Tallgrass film dot Org. Anything elsewe need to tell a Melanie Oh man,
that's uh. You got to tryit at least once. Come on
down, Come on down at leastonce. If you have been before,
we know you're coming back. Ohyeah, if you've never been before,
go online. Fun pick a film, Pick two, yeah, pick more.

(15:24):
We've got one hundred and eighty four, one hundred and eighty four.
One of the things we added thisyear. We used to do just senior
and student discounts to single tickets,but now we have fifty percent off a
pass, so nice. We addedteachers, so that's a whole lot of
a whole lot of which ata that'sa heck of a value, right,
it's a heck of a value.So you can see the whole thing,
right, Yeah, you could doeverything for about one hundred and twenty dollars

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of it now all right, tallGrass film dot org. Melanie Addington,
executive director for the tall Grass FilmFestival, thanks so much for being with
us on which thank you for havingme. This has been a delight.
Thank you for listening to Tchuit ona weekend. A service of iHeartRadio stations
one Oho two one, The Bowl, Channel nine six three, all twe

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