The southeast Iowa town of Washington is hosting a film festival this weekend — with free admission.
Organizers of the second annual Farm To Film Fest say their mission is to engage and entertain audiences, inspire thought-provoking conversation, and enrich the community while celebrating its film heritage.
The fest’s Nancy Rash says they’re featuring 38 films from across the U.S. and eight other countries.
“We offer an opening session Saturday starting at 9:45 AM, and we will have two films that will be shown at our historic State Theater,” Rash says, “and then we’ll have a short Q-and-A with one of the film producers afterwards. Following a lunch break, people can start viewing films at our five different venues.”
That night, there’s a Filmmakers Reception at the Washington Public Library featuring at least five filmmakers, where attendees can quiz them about their creative processes.
Washington is home to film historian Michael Zahs, who is featured in the award-winning film preservation documentary called “Saving Brinton.” Washington was also home to the late Frank Brinton who was one of the earliest exhibitors of moving pictures in the country. The list of films to be shown includes “Shift: The RAGBRAI Documentary.”
“We gave awards to three Iowa-made films,” Rash says. “We recognize our filmmakers at the reception, so there’ll be three people that are receiving awards because they have films that were Iowa-made, and then there’s other categories as well like narrative short, women-made, documentary, features, but we do have some Iowa-made films that we’re very proud of.”
One of the venues for the festival is the State Theater, which is featured in the Guinness Book of World Records. “It’s been in continuous operation since 1897 and it’s beautiful. It’s been renovated and we are going to show a couple of films there,” she says. “One of the filmmakers was so excited to be able to have his film shown on the big screen, he’s bringing his family so his kids can see the film that way.”
The festival runs Saturday and Sunday with additional venues at the Washington City Hall, the Washington Public Library, Art Domestique, and the former YMCA. Find the full schedule of films at: FarmtoFilmFest.org.