Every day on Art&Seek, we’re talking to people who have tips on art in the time of social distancing.  Share yours with us on Facebook, Instagram, or @artandseek on Twitter. Click above to listen to Barak Epstein, organizer of the NOT The Oak Cliff Film Festival, share his tip with KERA’s Nilufer Arsala. 

The 9th annual Oak Cliff Film Festival would have been a large in-person event happening June 4-7. But, plans have changed and now the NOT the Oak Cliff Film Festival is a free, one-night streaming event.

“Instead of newer films, we’re actually highlighting short films from filmmakers we’ve featured before,” said festival organizer Barak Epstein. “The hour-long program will be followed by a live-streamed Q&A with the filmmakers. We hope this will be a fun evening of virtual togetherness.”

The evening’s program includes:

• Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe’s 2015 short film “Greener Grass,” a feature that was the opening night film at OCFF 2019.
• Dustin Guy Defa’s 2014 short film “Person To Person.”  The full-length version of “Person To Person” screened at OCFF 2017.
• Sarah Adina Smith’s 2009 short “The Sirens,” which inspired her OCFF 2015 feature “The Midnight Swim.”
• Brett Whitcomb and Bradford Thomason’s 2019 documentary short “Lost Weekend.”
• A post-screening discussion that will be co-moderated by filmmaker David Lowery (“A Ghost Story,” “The Green Knight)
• Additional bonus shorts to be announced.

Image from The Not the Oak Cliff Film Festival’s website.

Filmmakers who had previously submitted their films to the 2020 festival have been given the option of full submission fee refund, submission deferment for the 2021 Oak Cliff Film Festival, or to donate their submission fee to the 501(c)(3) Oak Cliff Film Society. The festival’s 2020 VIP Badgeholders have been given the same options.

The OCFF looks to the future, though. 2021 will be its 10th anniversary of celebrating film and hopes to be bigger and better than ever. Keep an eye out for updates on the festival’s Facebook page or website.

Got a tip? Email Jessica Cross at jcross@kera.org. You can follow her on Instagram at @jessica.cross.

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