Tonight’s opening night gala spotlights one of the great voices in R&B. The documentary Luther: Never Too Much looks at the life and career of none other than Luther Vandross. It’s directed by Dawn Porter, who made a well-received documentary about Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis just a few years ago, and this screening is being presented by our very own Carla Eckels and her magnificent show Soulsations, which of course you’re all big fans of already. The movie shows at 7:00 tonight at Century II’s Mary Jane Teall Theater.
Friday evening’s gala at the Orpheum includes a screening of the documentary The Sunshine Dreamer from Wichita filmmaker Shawn Rhodes, which looks at Ryan Benton, a musician with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and his attempts to find a treatment involving a controversial use of stem cells. Following the film there will be a Q&A with the director and Dr. Neil Riordan, who’s featured in the movie, and then a concert from Rudy Love and the Encore.
Saturday night at the Orpheum the gala film is Albany Road, one of the movies competing for the Gordon Parks Award for Black Excellence in Filmmaking, the only narrative feature in that category, with the other two films being documentaries: Othelo, The Great plays Thursday and The Fight for Black Lives is on Sunday.
And then Sunday’s closing night gala features Bob Trevino Likes It, a dramatized version of writer/director Tracie Laymon’s search for her father and the friendship she accidentally developed with a man who happened to have the same name as her father.
And of course there’s a ton more going on through the weekend, you can find out about all of it at tallgrassfilm.org, and you can follow along with me as I give my thoughts about everything I see at the festival, I’ll be posting each day at kmuw.org.
