In honor of its historic 25th anniversary, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival will have not one, but two honorary celebrity chairmen this year, just one of the past-festival traditions to be revived during this year's festival.
Oscar and Emmy-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. and Emmy, Grammy and
Golden Globe-winning actor Beau Bridges will serve as honorary co-chairs at this year's 10-day event, set for Oct. 7-16 at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa.
"In addition to going back and reclaiming the tradition of the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show,' only with a little extra pizazz by bringing in Barry Bostwick, we wanted to go back and look at other traditions in the festival's early years and one of those was having a celebrity honorary chairman," said Courtney Pledger, HSDFF executive director.
"I think James Earl Jones was one, James Whitmore, Geraldine Chaplin, and so we just kind of set out to do that and ended up with a great deal of interest in it. Two yeses came at once and so we ended up creating co-chairs."
Gossett is featured in "Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise," the first full-length documentary centered on the famous Arkansas poet and civil rights activist. Bridges won his Grammy for his audiobook narration of "An Inconvenient Truth," which was adapted into an Oscar-winning documentary, a news release said.
Both Gossett and Bridges will attend the opening night festivities on Oct. 7.
"I would certainly say that we have a larger group of special celebrity guests than we've ever had before," Pledger said. "It's kind of a wide range of them, from Barry Bostwick to Ed Asner to Lou Gossett and Beau Bridges, and then we have others that are attached to films that are coming. There is another handful of special guests coming that we're going to announce. It's a big year. Very exciting. We're gearing up -- we're rolling."
Other special guests set to attend the 2016 HSDFF include Tempest Storm, "the queen of burlesque," Pledger said. Storm is the focus of "Tempest Storm," a film that reveals that the rise and fall of the greatest living burlesque dancer is a far more personal and emotional journey than the titillating story one might imagine, the release said. The film will make its U.S. premiere during the festival.
Billy Hayes, the man who chronicled his experience as a Turkish prisoner in the book "Midnight Express," later adapted into an Oscar-winning motion picture by director Alan Parker and screenwriter Oliver Stone, will also attend. Hayes goes back to the country that once imprisoned him 30 years later in "Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey."
The son and brother in a famous Hollywood family, Todd Fisher is featured in "Bright Lights: Starring Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher," an intimate look inside the sometimes eccentric lives of Hollywood royalty. During this year's festival Fisher will discuss the film, fresh off its sold-out screenings at Telluride, and share additional footage with the audience not included in the film's final cut.
Born with Chondroplasia (Dwarfism) and raised in rural England, Mike Edmonds' hard work and dedication led to a storied film career that includes work in "Return of the Jedi," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Time Bandits," and the "Harry Potter" franchise. A warmhearted look at his personal story, "Under the Radar: The Mike Edmonds Story" will make its North American debut at HSDFF.
Storm, Hayes, Fisher and Edmonds will join Gossett and Bridges on opening night.
"We have a ton of filmmakers coming in because their films are showing that weekend and they'll be here for opening night. It will be a really huge, buzzing, exciting opening night event," Pledger said. "Not to mention the incredible opening night film, 'Command and Control,' which I think is going to -- it's a story about us. It's a story about Arkansas told by a prominent documentarian and it's uncovering the story that very few, if any, people knew, except the people that were there."
Visit http://www.hsdfi.com for the full HSDFF lineup or to purchase passes and tickets.
Local on 09/14/2016