This March 21-23, theatergoers will be transported to new corners of the natural world when the Chattanooga Choo Choo Centennial Theatre hosts the second annual Lookout Wild Film Festival, featuring between 30-40 documentaries. The precise number of films is yet to be determined. Board members are still wading through submissions.
“When you’re trying to screen 125 films, you have just the first few minutes to decide if you’re going to watch the whole thing,” says Board Member Christina Holmes. “There is a minimum quality level that we all expect.” The board has spent the past six months screening films from over 22 countries. According to Holmes some of the films this year are the best outdoor adventure films in the world, but “we also get a lot of films that are just… odd,” she says.
I asked Festival Director Andy Johns for an example. “We got one film about STDs in the American pornographic industry. It was clear that they just didn’t understand what the festival was about,” he laughed. The criteria for films was simple: submissions had to be pretty, they had to be about outdoor adventure or conservation and they had to tell a story. “I think last year people were surprised when they showed up looking for the 30-second YouTube clip of a kayaker going over a waterfall with techno music in the background,” says Johns. “To me, it’s all about telling a story.”
The films selected so far range from three minutes to an hour and a half. They are shot from remote islands far north of the Arctic Circle to backyards in Collegedale. In fact, over a dozen films selected have a Southeastern connection. Recently, I had the chance to preview a few of the more diverse films of the festival. Story-telling aside, perhaps the best part of LWFF is that it provides unprecedented access to some of the wildest places on earth-proving what this magazine has touted for years. Outdoor adventure is accessible. All you have to do is get out, Chattanooga.
The Shortest Film