A new film festival is coming to Jackson Hole this weekend – screening documentaries, features and Oscar hopefuls.
The festival’s executive director Marni Walsh said the goal of the three-day festival is to bring more culture to Jackson.
“You know, get people to think outside the box, see different kinds of films. Films open your eyes to different parts of the world, different stories and just make you look at things other than yourself and the microcosm you live in,” explained Walsh.
Opening the festival on Friday afternoon is “A Great Divide,” a narrative feature exploring the experience of a Korean American family as they make a new life for themselves in small-town Wyoming. Several films will be followed by Q&As with filmmakers, including Brendan Walsh’s “I’ll Be Right There” about a family falling apart, starring Edie Falco and produced by Falco and Jesse Eisenberg.
Movie screenings are just one part of the Jackson Hole International Film Festival’s programming, which plans to hold summer camps and workshops for students as well as a screenwriters lab. The festival was founded by Jackson Hole resident Stuart Suna, who also founded the Hamptons Film Festival in New York over 30 years ago. The organization’s board includes some local heavy-hitters in the film industry, including Academy Award-winning director Jimmy Chin, as well as Emmy Award-nominated cinematographer Danny Moder.
The festival’s centerpiece film “American Fiction,” stars Jeffery Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross in a comedy about an under-appreciated author fed up with the state of Black literature in America. When he uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, he is propelled into the hypocritical madness he claims to disdain.
Full festival passes cost $400 and include access to all eight films as well as dinners and private events. Tickets to individual screenings cost $22.
More information at jhiff.org
