A Day and Night at the Movies

The third annual Little Rock Film Festival kicked off Wednesday.

Organizers say this year is bigger and better then expected.
It takes dozens of people to make this festival work, and all but one of them do it for free.

Organizers say their work is for Arkansas. They want to add to the state's culture and arts and they want to make Arkansas a must-stop destination for filmmakers.

Some are short, others long, with more than screenings there's a bit of everything being shown at the Little Rock Film festival.

"You need to come because you're not going to be able to see these movies anywhere else," says movie-goer Sandra Smith.

The festival features two collections that give Arkansas filmmakers a venue to show their work.

One movie getting Oscar buzz is That Evening Sun starring Hal Holbrook.

" I'm very, very proud because Arkansas often gets the false reputation for being back woods and this has really shown that there is a lot of great talent in Arkansas," says festival supporter Pamela Brown.

After an admittedly rough start year two attracted 5,000 people and generated a buzz in the movie community.

Organizers are expecting about 6,000 people to participate in this event. Twenty percent are from out of state. In fact 15 different countries are represented.

Film festival co-founder Owen Brainard works full-time as a money manager.

"Our third annual festival is exactly where we'd hoped we would be, which just means we've had many more submissions we have a lot of film makers in town," say Brainard.

He expects the filmmakers and movie lovers to pump lots of revenue into the economy. However he says the bigger picture of the event is the positive publicity it brings to Arkansas.

"They really see that we have a beautiful state with a vibrant film community and a great set of people that live here," says Brainard.

Many in Arkansas' production community say this festival along with a recently passed tax breaks for moviemakers could encourage them to shoot in the Natural State.

Click here for more information about the Little Rock Film Festival.