A few Fridays ago, Arkansas Cinema Society announced that Little Rock native Jeff Nichols‘ first movie in seven years, “The Bikeriders,” is coming to Filmland on Sunday, Oct. 15, a month and a half ahead of its theatrical release in early December.
Today, more of the Filmland lineup has been unveiled, including actor Michael Shannon‘s harrowing directorial debut, “Eric LaRue,” which casts Judy Greer in the role of Janice LaRue, a mother trying to make sense of her place in the world and her community after her son shoots and kills three of his high school classmates. God is presented as the answer by her husband and by religious leaders, but Janice remains skeptical. After it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, The Hollywood Reporter called it “a work of thoughtful intelligence and restraint.”
Shannon and Nichols are frequent collaborators, with Shannon starring in all six of Nichols’ feature length pictures (including “The Bikeriders”) and Nichols serving as an executive producer for “Eric LaRue.” A Q&A session with the two will follow the film’s showing at CALS Ron Robinson Theater on Saturday, Oct. 14.
With more to come, ACS has revealed two other Filmland screenings so far. The first is “The Lady Bird Diaries,” a New York Times-anticipated documentary built from hundreds of hours of the titular First Lady’s audio diaries to be screened on Monday, Oct. 16. Then there’s “Hard Miles,” a drama by Arkansas-raised director R.J. Daniel Hanna to be screened on Tuesday, Oct. 17. The film’s log line reads as follows: “A strong-willed social worker at a youth prison assembles a cycling team of teenage convicts and takes them on a transformative 1000-mile ride.”
Filmland will also offer two workshops on Saturday, Oct. 14: “The Art of Directing” with Nichols and “The Art of Being a Film Critic” with Peter Debruge, Variety magazine’s chief film critic.
Tickets to “The Bikeriders” are available now, and the rest of the events go on sale at noon on Thursday, Oct. 5.
The festival’s not just about big-name releases, either. Filmland: Arkansas, which will spotlight nearly two dozen student and professional shorts as well as three features — all made by rising Natural State filmmakers — runs this Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7, and tickets can be found here.
