Victory International Film Festival adds venue, spotlights Hoosier-made films
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
More than 60 films covering a range of genres will be shown at the Victory International Film Festival in Evansville on September 7, 8 and 9. The fourth annual event, which involves multiple venues, celebrates the art of cinema by showcasing creativity, diversity and inspiration.
Festival director Patrick Higgs told Inside INdiana Business each film has a unique perspective and invites audiences to explore different cultures, ideas and emotions. “We like to encourage student filmmakers and first-time filmmakers. We show a lot of those,” he said. “You go through all the work of making a film—you want people to see it.”
The festival begins Thursday night at Showplace Cinemas East on Morgan Center Drive with a red-carpet event at 6 p.m. and a lineup of 10 films starting at 7 p.m. On Friday night, the festival moves to the Victory Theatre on Main Street with a red-carpet event at 6 p.m. and a lineup of 14 films starting at 7 p.m. On Saturday, the festival spans Main Street with screenings beginning at 11 a.m. at the WNIN Old National Public Theatre, Innovation Pointe and Encounter Church.
The filmmakers are competing for $4,000 in prizes, with the winners being announced Saturday night in a ceremony at Encounter Church. Ted Haycraft, a local film critic and enthusiast, told Inside INdiana Business submissions came from around the world. “We were able to get a lot of different films from different places and put Evansville on the map,” he said.
The festival also highlights Hoosier-made films, including a documentary produced by two University of Southern Indiana professors. Higgs said the event enables regional and state filmmakers to screen their content alongside global creations. “We’re trying to highlight that Indiana can be a place to come make films,” he said.
From ‘Alhambra Theatre’ to ‘Victory International’
Evansville’s previous cinematic celebration, the Alhambra Theatre Film Festival, ended in 2018 when the Alhambra Theatre was sold. However, organizers were eager to get the festival back on track.
“We approached the Victory Theatre—the Friends of the Victory nonprofit was trying to get a new sign on the building,” said Higgs. “We thought, well, we can work with them. We’ll do one of the nights at the theater. Proceeds can help put up the sign, which just happened a few weeks ago.”
The Victory International Film Festival began in 2019, taking place at the Victory Theatre and other venues in downtown Evansville over the next few years except for 2020 because of COVID-19. This year, organizers added Showplace Cinemas East as a venue for opening night. “The owners of Showplace actually used to own the Victory Theatre. So we have a little tie in there as they celebrate their 50th anniversary,” Higgs said.
Organizers used the popular Film Freeway website to accept submissions for the film festival. They also flexed their network to find films. “We’ll reach out to filmmakers we know here in Indiana and through social media groups, trying to let people know about the chance to screen in Evansville,” said Higgs. “It’s a lot of word of mouth between filmmakers. It’s a small group to a certain extent, but it always seems like there’s somebody else out there that’s making a film.”
Higgs said his goal for the film festival is to see it grow and give budding filmmakers a venue for their work. “You do not get to see a lot of foreign films at the commercial movie theaters in town. You don’t really ever get to see short films at the movie theater,” he said. “We bring all that together and highlight the filmmakers who are going to probably be the bigger directors in the future and see their start.”
Screenings, workshops, filmmakers panel and after-parties
The Victory International Film Festival is more than just screenings and awards. Other events include several workshops and the Filmmakers Panel, which Haycraft will host on Saturday. “It’s like a roundtable discussion where we invite all of the attending filmmakers to come, and the public is invited to ask questions,” said Higgs.
Haycraft enjoys moderating the panel because it allows filmmakers to talk about their craft and why they became filmmakers. “It’s cool to ask up front and personal, why this subject matter? Are you doing all horror films? Are you doing all documentaries? Do you see yourself going into a different genre? Is it better to write your own film and direct it? Or do you like to collaborate with a writer?” he said.
The workshops feature Shane Hazen talking about editing, Marti King Young discussing writing and Paul Nethercott addressing film funding, which Haycraft said was a hot topic last year. “There were some high schoolers that were very intrigued, very anxious to ask questions about money, how you budget your film and equipment questions. Because they were wanting to make films,” he said.
Higgs said afterparties will also be held each night after the screenings. “It’s another great chance to mingle with the filmmakers that are in attendance and celebrate Evansville, celebrate downtown Evansville, too, because it’s happening, and we’re glad to have been a part of everything being revitalized over the past few years,” he said.
Art for Science’s Sake: Stalking John James Audubon
The USI professors’ documentary, Art for Science’s Sake: Stalking John James Audubon, is nominated for Best Documentary and Best Hoosier-Made Film. Dr. Leigh Anne Howard, communication and media department chair and professor of communication studies, and Dr. David Black, associate professor emeritus of radio and television, used faculty development awards to fund the film.
“It looks at the life of the naturalist John James Audubon but primarily focusing on how he applied art to science,” Black told Inside INdiana Business. “He was always attracted to science and those gatherings rather than art. He didn’t hang around the art community so much.”
Howard and Black started the project 10 years ago, fitting the work in here and there among their other responsibilities and activities. “We wanted to know what made his work different from his contemporaries. Why is he still, 200 years later, such an inspiration in terms of the art of drawing today?” Howard told Inside INdiana Business.
While the professors talked to Audubon experts across the river in Henderson, Kentucky—the museum at John James Audubon State Park features three galleries chronicling his life story—they also traveled for the film. Black and Howard conducted interviews in Illinois, Louisiana, California, New York and even Scotland.
“We wanted to get a range of people,” said Howard. “We talked to his biographer, we talked to Audubon scholars, we talked to artists, we talked to collectors, we talked to people who study his writings…trying to think, okay, what do we need to know to explain what this guy achieved in terms of art and science?”
‘We’ll see what happens’
The decision to enter the Audubon documentary into the festival stemmed from the film’s praise after showings on USI’s campus and WNIN, the local PBS station, earlier this year. “We just received very nice compliments about it. And since the Victory International Film Festival is right here in our back door, we wanted to support that,” Howard said.
Even after the film festival, Howard and Black’s documentary will get additional opportunities for screen time. “We’ve been accepted into the Kentucky Educational Television network, KET,” said Black. “And then through KET, we’ll apply for the National Education Telecommunications Association, NETA, and that’s a way to get some national distribution.”
Black retired from USI earlier this year, but Howard plans to take the momentum from making the documentary back to campus. “This kind of scholarship brings us energy, it gives us experience that we can take into the classroom,” she said. “So it’s not just about creating a documentary, but it’s also about looking for ways to enrich what we do in our roles here at the university.”
As for the award nominations, the pair said they were pretty surprised by the accolades. “We’re very happy to be accepted, and we’ll see what happens,” Black said. “We’re just going to go and enjoy and be in the moment and see what everybody has created and have a great weekend,” added Howard.
Art for Science’s Sake: Stalking John James Audubon will be shown on Saturday at 4:45 p.m. at the WNIN Old National Public Theatre. Ticket information, screening schedules, film trailers and more information are in the film festival’s app, which can be found by searching “VictoryIFF” in the app store or Google Play. Details can also be found on Facebook and the event’s website.