Setting record attendance, about 7,500 film fans enjoyed last weekend's 6th annual Tallgrass Film Festival. The festival featured multiple sell-outs, from NAKED CITY'S Opening Night Gala featuring the work-in-progress screening of Laura Winston and Joe Cohen's WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?, to several screenings over the weekend including GOOD DICK with filmmakers Marianna Palka and Jason Ritter. A fourth-screening of WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? also sold-out at the Old Town Warren Theater on Sunday afternoon.
Attendees enjoyed the Opening Night party at Rock Island Studios, and VIP pass-holders enjoyed the Dean & DeLuca Filmmaker Lounge at City Arts, and couldn't get enough of Mayor Carl Brewer's BBQ at Wichita Magazine's VIP Filmmaker BBQ at WSU Shiftspace on Friday night.
The Saturday Night Ad Astra Gala presented by Stella Artois featured a lively conversation with Wichita native Dan Glickman, Chairman & CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America followed by a party at the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Sunday morning began with a VIP Brunch presented by Wichita Magazine at the Old Mill Tasty Shop featuring an amazing breakfast spread. More than 250 movie-fans headed over to the Orpheum for the Timothy Gruver Spotlight on Kansas Filmmakers Presented by the Kansas Film Commission, which featured 12 short films from Kansas filmmakers.
The festival concluded with a packed screening of Steven Schachter and William H. Macy's THE DEAL at WSU's C.A.C. Theater, followed by a Q&A with producers Arthur Allen (of Valley Center, KS), Jacqueline Corbelli, and actor Jason Ritter, and the Closing Night Party at the Ulrich Museum of Art.
SAVE THE DATE FOR THE 2009 TALLGRASS FILM FESTIVAL:
OCTOBER 22-25, 2009!

THE WRECKING CREW, ELECTRIC REVOLUTION ROCK 2008 AUDIENCE AWARDS
Denny Tedesco's THE WRECKING CREW took the title of 2008 Audience Award Winning Feature Film ($1,000 Cash Prize, Software Bundle from Showbiz Software & 1 year subscription to Variety.com).
Collectively, their roster of hit songs is unmatched in the recording industry, numbering into the hundreds and spanning decades and yet, outside the industry, few could name a single member. They are The Wrecking Crew. When a hit record was the desired result, there were no others to consider but, The Wrecking Crew, a group of professional session musicians for hire who lent far more to these hit songs than mere instrumentation. Director/Writer Denny Tedesco's chronicle of pop music's Heyday delves back to the late 50s, the 60s and the 70s, an era of all night recording sessions in cramped, smoke-filled rooms, when real musicianship was not only appreciated, it was demanded. Stocked with rare, historical footage and interviews with the group’s members along with testimonials from music giants Dick Clark, Herb Alpert, Glen Campbell, Cher, Brian Wilson, Jimmy Webb and Gary Lewis. THE WRECKING CREW is an essential document of contemporary pop history and a must-see for anyone who's ever picked up an instrument, lived-off pop radio and collected music.
Winner of the 2008 Audience Award Winning Short Film ($500 Cash Prize, Software Bundle from Showbiz Software.com & 1 year subscription to Variety.com) was Mark Moormann's ELECTRIC REVOLUTION which documents Gage Brewer’s world premiere performance of the electric guitar in Wichita, Kansas in 1932.
Runners-up for the 2008 Audience Award Winning Feature Film included: ALICE, UPSIDE DOWN, CALL ME TROY, CAPTAIN ABU RAED and HALF-LIFE.


SO YOU WANNA MAKE A MOVIE, KID?
After seeing some of the amazing indie films at the Tallgrass Film Festival you may be inspired to finally put that pen to paper and write your very own screenplay.
Presented by WAMPA and The Independent School, Screenwriter Mitch Brian will hold a two day seminar called “Thinking in Pictures: the Art and Craft of Screenwrting", November 15 and 16, from 9am to 5pm, at the Independent School.
Topics will include an in-depth exploration of screenplay structure, format and language of the screenplay. The weekend will focus on creating vivid characters, writing good scenes, understanding screen dialogue, using theme and genre to convey meaning and exercises in pitching your screenplay. Film clips and screenplay excerpts will be used throughout both days.
The cost is $200 per person, payable by check. Register with Mitch Brian via email by clicking here, or call (913) 831 2372.
Brian has written teleplays for all the major networks as well as HBO and FX. He co-created and wrote episodes for Batman: The Animated Series and co-wrote the NBC mini-series The 70’s. He has written feature screenplays for directors Chris Columbus, Oliver Stone, Luis Mandoki and Robert Schwentke as well as for producers including Gina Davis, Mike Medavoy and James Ellroy. He can be heard monthly on KCUR's Up To Date discussing film genres. Visit KCUR and the Up to Date archives to listen online.


THANK YOU TALLGRASS SPONSORS!!!!
To our amazing festival sponsors, we could not have done this without you. A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who made this possible, including WARREN THEATERS, INTEGRATED MEDIA GROUP, JET DIGITAL PRINTING & SIGNS, CLEAR CHANNEL RADIO WICHITA, CITY OF WICHITA, EMILY BONAVIA, SPANGENBERG PHILLIPS ARCHITECTURE, KANSAS ARTS COMMISSION, GREATER WICHITA CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU and STELLA ARTOIS. For a complete list of festival sponsors, click here.
Please continue to bring your patronage their way throughout the year!

THANK YOU TALLGRASS VOLUNTEERS!!!
Without our amazing volunteers, the Tallgrass Film Festival would not happen. From our 6-year veterans to our first-timers, you make it possible!
On behalf of the Board of Directors for the Wichita Association for the Motion Picture Arts and the staff of the Tallgrass Film Festival, THANK YOU!! We'd also like to thank our Volunteer Coordinator Gay Quisenberry for taking such good care of everyone over the weekend.