The 34th annual Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival begins on Friday, Oct. 10. Ken Jacobson is the executive director of the festival. He spoke with Ozarks at Large’s Sophia Nourani over the phone to discuss this year's lineup of documentaries and other events taking place through next week.
Sophia Nourani: Thank you so much for speaking with me. So, 34 years of this — that’s a lot of history. Can you tell me a little bit about what’s led up to this year?
Ken Jacobson: We’ve been around for 34 years. We’re the longest-running documentary film festival in North America, founded here in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was started by some local enthusiasts, and they made connections to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the documentary branch of the Academy — and that’s how the thing got going. Back in ’91, the first festival was in ’92, and here we are 34 years later, getting ready to launch our latest edition.
Nourani: That’s very cool. So, tell me about what films you’re presenting this year and what people can expect.
Jacobson: We kind of have something for everyone. It’s an incredible variety this year, and I think — and I’ve been telling people this — that in my three years here, this is the strongest lineup we’ve put together. We’ve got 46 feature-length documentaries from around the world. We have one documentary series, 48 shorts in 11 shorts programs, and some incredible in-person events.
Our three gala films — one is our opening night, which is always a special night — is happening on Oct. 10 at Oaklawn. We’re showing the documentary Lost Wolves of Yellowstone by Tom Winston. This is a great film about a project 30 years ago. It’s the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bringing wolves back into Yellowstone National Park. It’s a great story involving courage and film footage that was lost for decades. Tom, the director, will be with us, along with a special guest. Being here in a national park, we have a kinship with Yellowstone being the first national park, so I think that’s a really great way to kick things off.
Then on Wednesday, the 15th, I’m really excited because we’re showing the North American premiere of a new documentary called The Cowboy, directed by a German filmmaker named André Hörmann. This is an amazing story — a longitudinal portrait that starts when the subject is a boy, 11 years old, living on a ranch with his family in Colorado. His dream is simple: he just wants to be a cowboy. The filmmaker would shoot with him and follow his story every year for 10 years.
When it’s all put together in this film, we see this individual — his name’s Crowley — grow up from age 11 to 21. It’s an amazing coming-of-age story, all the ups and downs that come with pursuing a dream as simple but also as hard to come by as being an American cowboy in this day and age. It’s a beautifully made film, beautifully shot. The director will be here along with special guests. So that’s going to be fun. Folks coming to that screening will be the first audience in North America to see that film.
Finally, closing night — we like to occasionally find a great music doc to show, because it ends things on a high note and puts people in a great mood. This year we’re featuring a wonderful documentary called Move Your Body: The Birth of House, directed by Elegance Bratton. It’s about the beginnings of house music, which I really didn’t know much about before — the incredible story behind how this music was created, who the creators were, and the whole culture that gave birth to it. It’s an amazing account of these incredibly creative people who started this musical phenomenon.
We also really want to spotlight not only Southern stories and Southern filmmakers but films by Arkansans. This year, we’re honored to show a new film from Craig Renaud. Craig grew up in Little Rock, and he made films for quite a number of years with his brother Brent. And Brent tragically was killed covering the war in Ukraine. He was the first American journalist who was killed in the war. And three years later, Craig has made a really incredible film about his brother. It’s, as you might expect, very personal, very intimate, but it also really highlights the dangers that filmmakers and journalists face when they go into conflict zones to cover wars.
So Craig will be here. Juan Arredondo, who is also a filmmaker and journalist who was with Brent at the time he was killed — and Juan was also shot and injured — Juan will be here. And we know it’s going to be a really powerful evening. And that’s happening on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 5:45 at the Arlington.
And I should mention our opening and closing nights this year, as they were last year, will be at Oaklawn at the Event Center there, which is a great place to show a movie and have a party. And then the middle seven days will be at the Arlington — two venues there. We build these out into real theaters. We have a professional team that comes in and does an amazing job with sound and picture quality. So we’ll be showing movies morning, afternoon, and evening at the Arlington in the middle seven days of the festival, from the 11th to the mid-afternoon on the 18th. And then that evening we go back to Oaklawn for closing night. Folks can learn about that and everything about the festival at our website.
Nourani: Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.
Jacobson: Thanks, Sophia. I really appreciate the opportunity.
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