OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL

By Shawn and Leslie Morton

The Oxford Film Festival does not pretend to be more than it is.  Don’t get me wrong, it is quaint and comfortable and fierce, but it manages these attributes by recognizing its fledgling festival status in a small Mississippi town.  We sat through numerous small technical difficulties.  We mingled with great independent filmmakers as the masses were coming to see Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins in the theatre across the way.  Just when we would be awestruck and feel a million miles away from Oxford, something small town would remind us of home.

The 2008 festival marked its fifth year and with it came growth.  When many people heard that we were attending a film festival in Mississippi they assumed the worst.  Bad movies! No celebrities! Absent filmmakers! No shoes???-these are some of the guttural reactions we received, yet Oxford is a cultural anomaly in the grand scheme of Mississippi.  Only in Oxford will you find Morgan Freeman opening the festival by introducing a local documentary about a bygone movie theatre named the Hoka that existed in Oxford for 20 years and prided itself on showing midnight Rocky Horror Picture Show runs and Debbie Does Dallas.  Only in Oxford will you hobnob with local and not-so-local filmmakers over a plate of fried pickles while a local musician picks out the blues in the background.  Only in Oxford will you find a rich tableau of local grass-roots documentaries showing in the same theatres as Lisa Kudrow or Ellen Burstyn’s latest foray.  The Oxford Film Festival may never grow into a Sundance or AFI, but it is our little Cannes, and we adore it!  Many thanks and accolades to Micah Ginn, Michelle Emanuel, Molly Ferguson, Anne Pitts, Melanie Addington, and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.

The Listening Project

 A film by Dominic Howes & Joel Weber

A documentary that premiered in its entirety at O.F.F. this year was The Listening Project.  This visceral and unabashed look at how the rest of the world truly views the United States of America is a humbling and poignant glimpse into the verbal diary of the world.  This global quest for the truth led four American “listeners” all from different backgrounds and walks of life on a fourteen country journey taking them from the rural jungles of Tanzania to the bustling metropolis of Shanghai.  They asked one seemingly banal question each time- “What do you think of when I say America?”  The film never shies away from its goal of ascertaining the reality of our global view while capturing the beauty and culture of these distant countries.  There were times in the film when I, as an American, wanted to know more or ask my own questions, but alas, that is just my desire to ‘talk’ instead of ‘listen.’  I wanted to shout to the screen, “Well, what do you think about this??” or “Where did you get that information??”  I did not want to ask these questions so that I could possibly refute the answers.  I wanted to know more because the film draws you in and urges you to want to know more. Yet the listeners stay true to their titular role and pose simple questions.  If the subject elaborated, great, if not, so be it.

The amazing part of the movie, aside from the sweeping cinematography and colorful characters encountered, was the accurateness in which the rest of the world views us.  Other than the little Indian boy who commented that all Americans are rich, I never once flinched or so much as raised my eyebrow to one assertion made.  The ideas of consumerism, political fear, and closed-mindedness toward the rest of the world are all easily witnessed daily on any U.S. newscast, newspaper, or internet sites.  One of the listeners, Han Shan, was in attendance for the festival.  Han is a twenty year human and environmental activist from Baltimore.  Han traveled to Afghanistan, Israel, Canada, India, and Palestine to ‘listen.’ His sincerity in the film and in person is evident and refreshing.  The Listening Project won the Oxford Film Festival’s Spirit of the Hoka award for best feature length documentary. 

Please visit www.thelisteningprojectfilm.com to learn more about this movie.