The Gulf Coast Film and Video Festival returns
The Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival (GCFVF) is back and ready for its 18th season in Houston.
This year’s screening categories at the festival include animation, comedy, documentary, drama, faith-based, foreign language, horror, music videos and trailers.
The festival is a place for both new and already established filmmakers to display their work.
Hundreds of films were submitted and excitement is buzzing for the lucky finalists selected to show at this year’s festival.
“We actually have a film from Beijing, China, this year,” said Hal Wixon, organizer and founder of the Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival. “We have three from Los Angeles, one from Oklahoma and one from the New York Area. So it definitely isn’t just a local festival.”
There will be 23 films/videos shown at this year’s festival.
“Once we narrow down the submissions to about 40 films, we send them to an outside judging group and there the finalists are selected,” Wixon said. “One film will win the grand prize known as ‘Best of Festival.’”
One film contending for the coveted Best of Festival prize this year is “The Example.” The film highlights racial tensions experienced by a black business owner and father in Texas in 1943.
Gordon S. Williams, writer and producer of “The Example,” explained the inspiration behind writing his film.
“Close to 13 or 14 years ago my colleagues and I started researching the Beaumont race riot of 1943,” Williams said. “We all were just kind of sitting on the research until about a year ago we came up with the idea to create a fictional story. A lot of the guys were experiencing things like fatherhood for the first time, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.”
Williams, a past finalist, conveyed his excitement to be returning to the Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival this year.
“I have actually had the opportunity to show at the festival before,” Williams said. “It’s always a great experience, and we were really happy to hear that we had been selected.”
Another returning artist is Margo Stutts Toombs. Toombs has become a consistent finalist at the festival, making 2016 her fifth year in a row to compete. She won the “Best Student Award” for her documentary “Liz Un-Caged” in 2012. Her music video for the song “Hope in My Veins” is a finalist in this year’s festival.
“Jaunetta Cooper co-wrote and performed the song ‘Hope in My Veins’ (with Warren Hansen) to honor marathon runners for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society,” Toombs said. “I created a music video for the song with footage from NASA that is in the public domain.”
Another prestigious award given out at the festival is the Lifetime Achievement Award. This year’s selected recipient is Texas-born multilingual actress June Griffin Garcia.
“This year will be my very first time at the festival, and I am so honored to be invited,” Garcia said.
Garcia also communicated her inspiration behind becoming an actress.
“Since I was very small, I had always been fascinated by film and theatre actors but never dreamed I could do it,” Garcia said. “Raising three sons changed me; it made me a braver woman.”
Garcia’s IMDB credits include TV series’ “The Lying Game,” “Killer Women” and new series “Dream$ville.” Garcia will also be a celebrity guest judge.
“We were looking for someone different,” Wixon said. “She has made both Spanish and English speaking films. She really just seemed like the perfect fit for this year’s festival.”
The Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival screenings will be held at the Nassau Bay Hilton Sept. 23 – 24 in The Atlantis Room 4 of the hotel. The GCFVF Awards Presentation and Dinner will take place Sept. 24 at the Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook, Texas.
For more information about the festival, to view screening times or to purchase tickets, visit their website.
