Photo provided YES Film Festival guests participate in a question and answer session at a previous festival.
From local shorts to international films, from comedies to heartwarming stories. All these films and everything in between are to be featured in this year’s YES Film Festival, at YES Cinema.
The festival begins Oct. 24 and will conclude on Oct. 26. A full schedule will be made available at yesfilmfestival.com.
Tickets can be purchased at yesfilmfestival.com. An all access pass costs $35 while tickets to individual films cost $7. All funds go towards supporting Lincoln-Central Family Neighborhood Center.
What began over 10 years ago as a way to spotlight YES Cinema while also bringing great films and emerging filmmakers to the community quickly evolved to become quite the event for filmmakers from across the world. Diane Doup, community outreach with Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center, said bringing on their artistic director and Columbus native Diane Mason really took the festival to a new level.
“… she had access to other filmmakers and attends multiple film festivals,” Doup said. “So it really enabled us to grow the festival and to make it a really legitimate and desired festival to be part of.”
Mason, a filmmaker herself who submitted a film of her own to one of the first festivals, said she has been involved with the festival pretty much since the beginning. She said she reviews the films mostly herself to select them for the festival, always aiming for a variety, and she usually tries to select films with ties to Indiana.
“We’re getting really good stuff and I have a really high standard. I look at a lot of films but I’m very particular about how good they are,” Mason said. “So if you come to the festival, anybody who comes, you can guarantee… you’ll see good stuff on the screen.”
This year’s festival is to feature over 20 films, including seven documentaries, four narratives and 12 shorts. The shorts are divided into two programs called “Animals We Love” and “The Art of Loss,” Mason said. Subjects covered in each of these films vary greatly, from a documentary about Peru, Indiana’s circus to a compelling narrative as two lonely adults find their paths crossing one night.
“We have one that’s called ‘Row of Life,’ which is an interesting one about a former Marine and Paralympian who was attempting to solo row from Los Angeles to Hawaii, that was kind of exciting,” Doup said. “We also have one that’s about the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and it takes it from a different perspective than what people might expect to learn about that.”
The festival also features films from Canada, Belgium, Iran and Lithuania. More locally, a short documentary about Sandi’s Closet Singers, a dementia friendly choir began by the non-profit charity Sandi’s Closet and its founder Jill Tasker, will be shown at the festival.
This documentary, created by Tristan Watkins, tells the story behind the choir and the journey its members took throughout the 14-week program, which ultimately culminated in a performance at Memorial Baptist Church. The documentary premiered earlier this summer with a special screening for those who participated in the choir.
Columbus filmmaker Dustin Lowman also submitted an animal short titled “Velveteen” for this year’s festival. Doup said they have also partnered with Mental Health Matters, and their ambassadors have put together a special feature short series.
“Our short films, there’s ones about animals, there’s ones that… pull on your heartstrings some about loss,” Doup said. “But we have a wide variety, I always say there’s a little something for everybody…”
The festival is also juried, Doup said, and one documentary, one short and one narrative film will take home the title of the best in their category. Cash awards, ranging from $250 to $1,000 are also given out, and audience members can also vote for their favorite films for audience choice awards. Some films will also have Q&A sessions afterwards.
Food will also be available throughout the weekend from the Cinema Cafe as well as the cinema’s regular concessions. Doup said the festival is a wonderful way to spend the weekend, saying one of the best parts is getting to meet the filmmakers and talking with them about their films.
“Several of our films have gone on to win Oscars and you might meet a filmmaker this year who in a couple years you see standing on the stage the night of the Oscars accepting an award,” Doup said. “And it’s a really thrilling thing for us and we just love it when guests get that opportunity as well.”
