Building a movie-going community

Ellar Coltrane and Ethan Hawke in Boyhood. Courtesy IFC Productions

Sure, we’re topping all the lists for film productions, but do Louisianans match that by heading to the movie theaters in droves?

“That’s the flip side—sometimes people don’t think about the distributors’ point of view. We’re doing a lot of productions here, but do distributors consider this a viable territory for distribution?” asks Louisiana International Film Festival (LIFF) director Chesley Heymsfield.

Heymsfield and artistic director Dan Ireland are trying to prove that people in Louisiana—a market that often flies under the radar of most independent film distributors—care about good films. Outside of the annual film festival (see below), LIFF screens several movies throughout the year ahead of official release dates via the LIFF Film Society.

They point to the movie Boyhood, for instance. The film, starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette (who won an Oscar this year for her performance), wasn’t originally slated for release in the Baton Rouge market. LIFF managed to get an early screening of the film, and the event attracted such a huge turnout that Cinemark Theatres in Perkins Rowe had to open up three additional theaters to host it.

After that, Heymsfield says, the distribution company behind the film opted to add Baton Rouge to its list of select theaters for the official release.

“Just by our audience showing up and being eager and really excited about these screenings, believe it or not, they are making a huge impact on what they are actually able to bring here,” she says. “So we want them to know they are incredibly influential in bringing these films and creating their own market for themselves.”

The Film Society has brought in other contenders for this year’s Oscars, such as The Imitation Game, Gone Girl, Selma and Two Days, One Night. While the general public is often able to RSVP to screenings free of charge on LIFF’s website (depending on seating availability), membership in the Film Society guarantees admission to screenings year-round, as well as access to events during the film festival.

Ireland sees the society as a way to keep interest going throughout the year.

“Baton Rouge is getting on people’s lips, which is really good,” Ireland says. “There is so much film production going on here. I’ve always been a big proponent of—if there’s a lot of film production here—this should also be a big film-going city.”

Film festival returns

The Louisiana International Film Festival and Mentorship Program is right around the corner. This is the third year for the annual festival, which runs May 7-10 at Cinemark Perkins Rowe.

“We’re aiming to top last year,” Ireland says. “It’s shaping into a very exciting schedule.”

Last year’s slate included critically acclaimed fodder such as The Double, starring Jesse Eisenberg; God’s Pocket, one of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final films; A Thousand Times Good Night, starring Juliette Binoche; and the 2015 Oscar-winning foreign film Ida.

At the time of publication, festival artistic director Dan Ireland and his team were finalizing the program slate and could not yet release the names of the films that will be screened.

In addition to documentaries and world cinema, this year’s event will also feature panels, industry guests, animation programs and a retrospective. “It’ll be four days of film and film-related indulgence,” Ireland says.

Young filmmakers interested in submitting still have time. The deadline to submit is April 11. For more information on how to submit, you must register at withoutabox.com and search Louisiana International Film Festival.

For more information on the festival, visit lifilmfest.org.

—MATTHEW SIGUR