SHARE
COMMENTARY
Norman Film Festival
An audience watches house-made videos at Resonator Institute. (Doug Hill)

This year marks the second year in a row for the Norman Film Festival to host screenings in downtown Norman, Oklahoma. In September, audiences saw feature-length films, shorts and documentaries across six locations. New venues this year included Shevaun Williams and Associates’ studio, Lazy Circles brewery tap room and The Old Lumber Yard (TOLY).

The festival’s board of directors said they aimed for younger and more family oriented audiences and participants in their second iteration. Children’s film workshops organized by the Pioneer Library System contributed to that plan.

Like the festival’s first installment, many films shown were produced outside the U.S., with even fewer Oklahoma-made submissions than in 2017. Several music videos, including Call Me by Norman musician Kyle Reid, debuted at the Opolis venue. A full-length American comedy, titled Freelancers Anonymous and directed by Sonia Sebastian, had also played at Sundance Film Festival and was included in the programming. Norman Film Festival’s board was delighted to present Studio 54: The Documentary, in no small part because OKC’s deadCenter Film Festival had intended to feature it this year but, for timing reasons, couldn’t pull it off.

RELATED

Norman Film Festival offered more than just movies

SHARE
Doug Hill earned a double-major undergraduate degree in English and East Asian Studies from the University of Kansas and a master's in human relations from the University of Oklahoma. He's been a freelance journalist and photographer in central Oklahoma since 1997.