BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The Bentonville Film Festival is underway, drawing in independent filmmakers from across the country who promote diversity and inclusivity through storytelling.
Several big names, along with filmmakers, writers, and more appeared on the "green" carpet on Wednesday to chat about the films showing on screens throughout the city this week.
Geena Davis is the chair of the Bentonville Film Festival, and about two decades ago she created the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which researches the ways women and girls are shown in media and how they might be underrepresented.
"I had noticed that when my daughter was a toddler that children's entertainment media, unbeknownst to me, was wildly imbalanced, and had far more male characters than female, and I thought, 'This isn't really sending the perfect message to little kids," Davis explained. "So that's how it started."
As the film festival has grown, so has the mission behind it.
"Now this festival, which is in its ninth year, looks behind the camera, in front of the camera, everything," Davis emphasized. "It's a way to expand our mission. We also look at LGBTQ people, people of color, and people with disabilities. Thirty percent of our films this year are directed by filmmakers with a disability so we're doing some things that no other festival is doing."
The week showcases long and short-form stories that are inclusive in every sense of the word, promoting content that includes more women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community, along with different age groups, body types, and more.
Ken Jeong is in Bentonville for the world premiere of the film he stars in called A Great Divide.
"I feel like in many ways, the festival embodies many of the things that we're trying to articulate in this film," Jeong said.
It's a movie that shows the emotional impact racism and intolerance can have on Asian-Americans, told through the story of a family moving from California to Wyoming.
"It really is bringing awareness to a lot of things, especially with the state of affairs and the rise of hate crimes [against the Asian community], and it does that in a very thoughtful, well-executed narrative that is unlike anything I've ever been a part of in my life," Jeong added.
The festival draws in filmmakers from all across the country, sharing unique stories not often shown in major movies with the hope of leaving their audiences thinking about new perspectives.
"I'm hoping that this film shows people that might be resistant to mental health advocacy, or think it's a 'woke' concept, when in reality, it's in every person, if you have a brain and a conscience you can relate to the struggles of people with mental illness," said Nicole Melillo, a filmmaker showing her project called The Cab. "That's what I'm trying to do in this film, specifically."
The festival was brought to Bentonville because Walmart is a founding sponsor, and now, the annual event is having a larger impact on the community.
"When we first came to Bentonville, there were no movie theaters," said Wendy Guerrero, the president of the Bentonville Film Festival. "Now we have the Skylight Cinema, this amazing venue, The Momentary, and we're also over at Thaden School, which has an incredible performing arts center. We're showing all of our films in these world-class venues. So that's totally different because when we first came here in 2015, there was like nowhere to show movies."
To Geena Davis, Bentonville has become a special place to hold this annual event.
"I personally think if you were going to build a town to have a film festival, it would look like this," Davis said, smiling. "It looks like a movie set. It's so cute."
The film festival runs until Sunday, and tickets can be purchased on the Bentonville Film Festival's website, and there are a number of free events and screenings as well.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.