Nov. 8-10 the inaugural film festival took place in downtown Johnson City. Current students Taylor Williams, Travis Kyker and 2019 Milligan graduate Erin Donovan had their films featured in the festival.
Freshman Travis Kyker’s film “The Richest Man in the Wood” was selected for the festival. Senior Taylor Williams had two films, “Lady Umbrella” and “Worthless Idea,” featured in the festival.
The Johnson City Film Festival is a program of the newly-formed Northeast Tennessee Entertainment Alliance. This non-profit organization is dedicated to bringing film production into the region, as well as building up filmmakers to practice their craft locally.
This was the first year Johnson City has hosted a film festival, and it included workshops as well as showcasing the selected films. Throughout the weekend, films premiered at various locations downtown including Willow Tree, Main Street Theatre and JRH Brewing Co.
CEO of Mancuso entertainment, Josh Mancuso was in charge of the festival. “We (Mancuso’s team) wanted to host the festival downtown to encourage people to visit downtown shops and restaurants, as well as make the festival walkable,” Mancuso said. “We asked Willow Tree and JRH Brewing, and they were both interested, so we made it happen.”
Donovan was a communications major with a film studies emphasis. Her film “our neighbors” (purposefully titled with lowercase letters) was chosen to be featured in the film festival. The entire film took about nine months to complete, and Donovan drew inspiration from her best friend who is part of the LGBTQ+ community and a Christian.
“While here at Milligan, I had so many conversations with queer christian students and hearing them talk about their struggles broke my heart,” Donovan said. “I wanted to shine a light on a very important topic that people want to avoid because they’re uncomfortable.”
Donovan’s favorite part about creating “our neighbors” was the filming itself. “Hearing everyone’s amazing stories and getting to have conversations with them was eye-opening, informative and, overall, a perfect experience.”
Donovan applied for the Johnson City film festival after a friend encouraged her to do so. She was already making a version of her film for Milligan’s film festival; however, the two film festivals required different versions. “The version of the film that I sent to the Johnson City festival was much longer and included more content.”
The film festival also has an Instagram account @johnsoncityfilmfestival.
For more information about the festival, visit www.johnsoncityfilmfestival.com
You can find “Lady Umbrella” and “Worthless Idea” on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vteenes5R9E and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVzcN6blczs.
Donovan’s “our neighbors” is also on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYD6HZj8hfw.
Headline photo: Audiences gather at Main Street Theatre for the festival. Photo courtesy of @johnsoncityfilmfestival on Instagram.