Now in its 12th year, the Rockport Film festival likes to keep the traditions rolling. This year’s festival began at the Red Carpet Event at Heritage Place on Oct. 31 and made its way to the Aransas Pass County Airport on Nov 3.
“Our goal is to unite filmmakers and cinephiles in the cool, artistically vibrant town of Rockport. It’s a celebration of independent film and the creative spirit,” said Elena Rodriguez, managing director of the festival.
The four-day event featured over 40 independent films. The festival was split into six categories: documentary feature, narrative feature, documentary short, narrative short, animated short and student film.
Included in the Rockport Film Festival was a film block, Local Love. This block gave locals a chance to show their work, including work from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student and director of “El Oso Loco,” Matthew Taylor.
“El Oso Loco” tells the story of a Rockport local and TAMU-CC graduate, Alex Bardin. Bardin has a passion for monster trucks and has successfully become a professional driver.
“Seeing my film in a festival was a very surreal feeling. Me personally, I only look at myself as a student. I didn’t really think I could make something worthy of a film fest just yet. But I am extremely grateful that I have earned this opportunity” said Taylor, a TAMU-CC media production student.
Other films accepted into the film fest included “The Cheech,” directed by former TAMU-CC professor Edward Tyndall.
“The Cheech” brings to light Cheech Marin’s lifelong advocacy of the Chicano Art Movement, and his journey to develop the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture and Industry.
“We received this opportunity through the Art Museum of South Texas. The museum was having Cheech Marin come in and they wanted someone to document it. I’ve worked with Cheech Marin before and he is such a down-to-earth individual,” Tyndall said. “So as a filmmaker I jumped on the opportunity.”
Managing directors of the Rockport Film Festival said they plan to continue traveling to other festivals to learn and get new ideas and they look forward to seeing films next year.
Winners for the six categories are:
Best Documentary Feature:
“Seadrift,” Directed by Tim Tsai
Best Narrative Feature:
“Easy Does It,” Directed by Will Addison
Best Documentary Short:
“Cantina,” Directed by Erik Mauck
Best Student Film:
“Colors Run,” Directed by Olivia Carter
Best Animation:
“Medium Rare,” Directed by Luca Cioci
