JACKSON, Wyo. — Center for the Arts announces the official selections for the 2024 Frank’s Fall Film Festival, which will include six carefully curated films honoring the legacy of Frank Londy. Tickets are on sale now.
The festival runs from Friday, Oct. 4, through Sunday, Oct. 6.
Londy, the man who brought the magic of cinema to Jackson Hole, once said, “The recorded movie image has become the treasury of our past, a window on our present, and a glimpse into our future. No other art form can so effortlessly transport us to other times and places, real and imagined, and in so doing tell the story of humanity and the human condition we all share.”
Londy (1946-2021) started Sunshine Films in Jackson in 1972 and opened the Jackson Hole Cinema on Pearl Street in 1977 and the Movieworks Cinema in 1991. In 1990, Londy started “Frank’s Fall Film Festival.” A $50 pass to see all six films is available now. Tickets to see individual shows are available through the links below.
Friday, October 4 | 7 p.m.: “Thelma.” The feature directorial debut of Josh Margolin, “Thelma” is a poignant action-comedy that gives veteran Oscar nominee June Squibb (“Nebraska”) her first leading role and features the final performance of trailblazing actor Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”).
Squibb, who did most of her own stunts in the film, plays Thelma Post, a feisty 93-year-old grandmother who gets conned by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson (“The White Lotus'” Fred Hechinger) and sets out on a treacherous quest across Los Angeles, accompanied by an aging friend (Roundtree) and his motorized scooter, to reclaim what was taken from her.
Saturday, October 5 | 2 p.m.: “Good One.” A seemingly small incident has monumental implications in the extraordinary feature debut of India Donaldson, a film of expertly harnessed naturalism and restrained emotional intensity. Seventeen-year-old high school senior Sam (a revelatory Lily Collias) has agreed to join her father, Chris (James Le Gros), and his longtime buddy Matt (Danny McCarthy) on a camping trip in the Catskills, though she’d rather be hanging with her friends for the weekend. Affable and wise, Sam at first seems to enjoy the intergenerational bonding experience with the two divorced dads, yet the men’s own festering, middle-aged resentments begin to change the emotional tenor of the trip—until something happens that alters Sam’s perception of the men and her place in their orbit. Amidst the lush beauty and contemplative forest atmosphere in upstate New York, “Good One” asks provocative questions about the dynamics of family, friendship and what it means to engage in or avoid conflict. A Metrograph Pictures release.
Saturday, October 5 | 5 p.m.: “The Dead Don’t Hurt.“ “The Dead Don’t Hurt” is a story of star-crossed lovers that takes place on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s. Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada, where they start a life together. The outbreak of the Civil War separates them when Olsen makes a fateful decision to fight for the Union. This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his unscrupulous business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred’s violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances. When Olsen returns from the war, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the person each has become. Both a tragic love story and a nuanced depiction of the conflict between revenge and forgiveness, “The Dead Don’t Hurt” is a portrait of a passionate woman determined to stand up for herself in an unforgiving world dominated by ruthless men.
Saturday, October 5 | 8 p.m.: “Return.” “Return” is the story of adventure, vulnerability and healing that follows Jim Markel Sr., a retired Green Beret who voyages from Montana to Vietnam for the first time since the war. In retracing his steps with his adult son, he reflects on his past actions as both soldier and parent. Together, father and son embark on a deep search: for long-overdue family healing, for the roots of PTSD and for the mountain tribes Markel once lived with, fought alongside and eventually abandoned 45 years ago.
Sunday, October 6 | 4 p.m.: “The Old Oak.” “The Old Oak” is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing, it is the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once-thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner), the landlord, hangs on to the Old Oak by his fingertips, and his hold is endangered even more when the pub becomes contested territory after the arrival of Syrian refugees who are placed in the village. An unlikely friendship develops when TJ encounters a young Syrian with a camera, Yara (Ebla Mari). Can they find a way for the two communities to understand each other? So unfolds a deeply moving drama about loss, fear and the difficulty of finding hope.
Sunday, October 6 | 7 p.m.: “Kneecap.” When fate brings Belfast schoolteacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed “low life scum” Naoise and Liam Og, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other.
Rapping in their native Irish language, Kneecap fast become the unlikely figureheads of a Civil Rights movement to save their mother tongue. But the trio must first overcome police, paramilitaries and politicians trying to silence their defiant sound — while their anarchic approach to life often makes them their own worst enemies.
In this fiercely original sex, drugs and hip-hop biopic, Kneecap play themselves, laying down a global rallying cry for the defense of native cultures.
