Lone Star Film Festival
Lone Star Film Festival
The Lone Star Film Festival takes place each November, showcasing short and feature-length films by local and international makers.
Executive Director Chad Mathews and the programming crew of the upcoming Lone Star Film Festival watch and analyze over a thousand movies in the year leading up to the festival to bring Fort Worthians a cinema experience into which they can really sink their teeth.
To call them movie buffs is an understatement.
Their labor of love carefully balances watchability and entertainment with things like cultural significance, representation and storytelling. Mathews says he relies on detailed notes and a seasoned gut to choose over 150 films to showcase in Sundance Square each November.
“When you watch films over and over again, you get a really good sense of things that are absolutely terrible, things that are mediocre, things that are good,” Mathews says. “Those ones where you’re like, ‘I am totally digging this. I can’t wait to share this with the world.’ Those are the ones you hope to hit more often than not.”
Submissions open in January through the platform FilmFreeway, and selections are finalized in October. The 10 months in between are packed with painstaking critiques and discussion about the entries.
Individual programmers take the lead in selecting films for specific genres. Each film is rated on a scale of one to 10 and passed around to other programmers for additional notes and feedback. Mathews enjoys selecting dramas and comedies, while lead programmer Rachel Burgess specializes in “simple, slice of life stories.”
Programmer Lisandra Montes takes the lead in programming LSFF’s newest festival category: Cine-más.
“We want to share these stories with the Hispanic community in Fort Worth,” Montes says. “Around 40 percent of the population is Hispanic. We want Hispanic artists to feel represented and acknowledged and encourage them to make more art.”
LSFF aims to please audiences while pushing boundaries. The key, Mathews says, is gaining the trust of the audience through consistent, outstanding programming so moviegoers and filmmakers alike feel comfortable exploring outside-the-box art.
“We want to build a film culture here,” Mathews said. “We want to celebrate those films, and we want to make sure that film makers feel welcome to make their movies here.”
Latino filmmakers aren’t the only artists LSFF wants to feel welcome in Fort Worth. The LSFF programming team looks to expand the number of female filmmakers showcased in the festival.
Burgess says although there aren’t many submissions from female filmmakers, they bring a much needed and noticeable change in perspective.
“You can just tell when it’s a film about a woman, but written and directed by a man. Something is just off,” Burgess says.
Selecting films for the festival is like asking Mathews to “choose between his children,” he says. LSFF programmers understand the plight of independent filmmakers and have a passion for films created outside the Hollywood system. Montes looks at programming the festival as a way to bridge cultural gaps and bring the Fort Worth community closer to understanding one another.
“Art in itself is just a great way to create that empathy,” she says.
The Lone Star Film Festival runs Nov. 13 to 17 in Sundance Square. For more information, tickets or volunteer opportunities that come with free access to the festival, visit lonestarfilmfestival.com. Matthews encourages fans of film to try their hand at becoming a programming volunteer — reach out through the “contact us” tab on the website.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Lisandra Montes is an intern. She is the festival's Cine-Más Programmer.
