The 3rd Annual Estes Park Film Festival Announces Official Selections
 

Showcasing over 40 independent films from around the world, the 3rd Annual Estes Park Film Festival will take place September 11-14 at the Historic Park Theatre in downtown Estes Park, Colorado. Built in 1913, the Park Theatre is the oldest operating movie theatre west of the Mississippi and is on the national register of historic places. This September filmmakers, festival attendees, and industry professionals from around the world will travel to Estes Park to enjoy the diverse selection of independent films, filmmaker panels, and numerous festival parties.

Included in this year's line-up is the feature film "Broken Fences" from University of Colorado film school graduate Troy McGatlin. In the film a lifetime of bad luck threatens a father and son's reunion, as old wounds resurface and new ones are opened in this fusion of family drama and contemporary western. In the film "War Eagle, Arkansas", starring Brian Dennehy, a young man must choose whether to leave his family and friends for a career in baseball or stay and redeem his struggling community.

Documentaries at the festival include "Six Seconds of Freedom" about the Angola Prison Rodeo and "RiverWebs" about the remarkable world of river ecosystems and the science that explores them. Champion tri-athlete and marathon runner Diane Israel chronicles her quest to understand both the personal and cultural forces that propelled her to seek physical perfection at any cost in the moving and inspirational film "Beauty Mark", and Hollywood agent, Richard Kraft, drags his son through an obsessive quest to recapture his childhood in the hilarious film "Finding Kraftland".

Four different programs of short films complete the festival line-up along with such highlights as the fanciful family film "Loon" at the EPFF Student Film Showcase and the world premiere of Ethan Knightchilde's "Not For Today, But For All Time" about the importance of movie theatre preservation. In the suspenseful "Merriman's Circle" an elderly woman fears she is being targeted by a menacing car cruising her suburban neighborhood, and in the film "Circulation" filmmaker Trevor Elliot takes you on a dollar bill's journey over the course of one day and the different ways that it affects the people it encounters.

Many of the filmmakers will be on hand to introduce their films and will be a part of a filmmaker panel discussion on the creative process of getting their films from script to screen. There will also be plenty of parties where attendees can mingle with the filmmakers and other film enthusiasts. For a complete schedule of film screenings, parties, and panel discussions visit www.estesparkfilm.com or call 970-231-2580. Advance tickets to the festival are available online or at the Park Theatre box office. The complete list of official selections is below.

Narrative Feature Films: Yesterday Was a Lie, Broken Fences, War Eagle Arkansas

Feature Documentaries: RiverWebs, Heart & Soil, Six Seconds of Freedom, This American Gothic, Via Bearzi, Finding Kraftland, Beauty Mark, and The Listening Project

Student Films: The Light, Rabia, Coons, Presence, Respect: Start the Ripple, Korea Divided, Loon

Short Films: Not For Today But For All Time, Teresa, This Bus Everyday, Ropies, Age Inappropriate, No One Island, Alicja Wonderland, Damaged, Ghosts of the West, Mint Flavored Death, MUGS, Sweetie, Merriman's Circle, Torture Porn, The Vault, Now You See Me Now You Don't, For the Masses, The Quickie, Ride of the Mergansers, The Hit, Circulation, ZAP Girl Makes Toast, One Two Punch, Case & Crowbar, & The Job Evaluation.