Local films wanted for Downtown Sikeston film festival

scottw@standard-democrat.com

SIKESTON -- Ever wanted to write a screenplay, make a film -- and then see people actually watch it?

You will have your chance this summer by participating in the Tributary Film Festival in Downtown Sikeston.

"We are looking for people to shoot films," said Lynn Lancaster, executive director of Historic Downtown Sikeston.

"We want to pull filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers out of the woodwork," said Colby Williams, manager of Parengo Coffee and a Historic Downtown Sikeston board member.

Lancaster said the idea for a film festival was brought to the Historic Downtown Sikeston Board by Williams who has participated in film festival events elsewhere such as 48 Hour Film Project events, an annual short film contest held in more than 120 cities around the globe.

"It seems to be very popular thing across the United States," Lancaster said.

"There are people in the Historic Downtown Sikeston community who want events and new things that other more metropolitan neighborhoods have," Williams said. "We think we can have those down here, too. And festival events here have been very successful, very well attended."

As films will be shown July 10-11, organizers want to put out the word now so they can get plenty of submissions and have time to review them.

"We need everything submitted by the end of May," Williams said. "We want people to shoot shorts and submit their features. We have quite a few in preproduction so far. There is a team planning to shoot one at Parengo Coffee next month. There are some involved in the Sikeston Little Theatre working to rewrite one-act plays into screenplays for short films. They plan on shooting those and entering them."

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