The Lost River Film Festival took place at the Price Center in downtown San Marcos as well as the film school at Texas State University, with live music, poetry, and forums mixed into a weekend of new, indie cinema from February 5- 8th this year. The film fest is presented by San Marcos Cinema Club.
The Opening Night film was Leadbelly (U.S./Hays County, 2hr 6min). This was a special, semicentennial screening of a stunning biopic filmed in our region. On the 50th anniversary of its release, this is a chronicle of the iconic life of blues legend Huddie Ledbetter: surviving the segregated South in general, and chain-gang imprisonment in particular, wielding soulful original music to win his freedom. Directed by Gordon Parks, with film production in San Marcos, Uhland, Fentress & Lockhart.
On Friday and Saturday, there was a large variety of shorts in various categories, as well as feature films. On Sunday, the shorts screened were in the Texas Standouts category. According to the San Marcos Daily Record newspaper, the last day of the festival is “dedicated to new Texas cinema” with “48 films recently produced in the Lone Star State.”
Among them was the World Premiere of Fracine (ATX, 18min), written and directed by Julian Montez. Synopsis: Francine, a young woman with a supernatural ability to see into people’s memories, uses this ability to hunt the people who have wronged those she looks into. It is an interesting story and one that makes the viewer want to know more about the characters. The story and cinematography were good as well as the performances.
A Q&A was led by Robert Rodriguez of the Texas Film Commission. Among the directors participating was Julian Montez and actress/co-producer Sophie Niles (Francine). Additional directors include Joshua Raley (Blood Box), Brett Alistar Redden (Tangelo Is Not a Frog), Nick Nielsen (Sweetwater, Texas) and Jody Stelzig (Crude).
About Julian Montez (director) and actress/co-producer Sophie Niles (Francine).
The filmmakers have been working together for over ten years since they were teen. They made a short that was screened at the LA Film Fest in 2015. This led to securing a budget for their first feature film, “Wind.” It premiered at the Lost River Film Festival in 2018. Niles stated, “Making “Wind” was like our film school, and while we were happy with a lot of the film, we weren’t fully satisfied.” They followed this feature film with three short films, with being “Francine.” The film was shot entirely in Austin, TX with a crew of four friends. Julian also served as the DP, editor and colorist.
Ms. Niles stated “We’re excited we get to premiere at Lost River this weekend, and we’re still submitting to many more festivals. We are currently in the process of developing our next project, a feature film, which we hope to find funding for while we get “Francine” out into the world.”
For additional information about submissions and dates for the 2027 festival visit filmfreeway.com/LostRiverFilmFest
Source: LRFF and Francine filmmakers
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