Free State Festival 2026 - THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS and Boots Riley

 It's Festival time in Lawrence, KS again! This year's fest is underway - today features Robyn Hancock in performance followed by two more days of films.

It's World Cup mania and Lawrence is a host city for the Algerian team; the theme this year being "The Revolution Will Be At The Movies". So what better way to show solidarity with screenings of the 2026 film THE ARAB, by Algerian director Malek Bensmaïl - which was the U.S./North American premiere! - and Gillo Pontecorvo's classic THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, of which followed a panel discussion, which got a bit heated around the 32 minute mark. 

 

Boots Riley was a guest at the 2023 Free State Festival at the time when his I LOVE VIRGOS series was premiering, planning to screen the first episode. Due to the strike that was going on at the time, the episode didn't screen but that didn't prevent a good time from happening. Three years later, he returns to Lawrence & Free State with his insane (in a Great way) I LOVE BOOSTERS. The Q&A afterwards is over an hour, but it's good stuff.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM FREE STATE FESTIVAL 2025 VIA CHEAP BASTARD

 Free State Festival was just this past weekend in Lawrence, KS. If you couldn't make it, here's a taste of what you missed - if you did make it, some reminders of what you saw.

  

Kevin Willmott Celebration - A Career In Clips

 I had the privilege to be asked to contribute to an event at this year's Free State Festival, "An Evening of Oscars" - honoring pioneering Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux and recent Oscar🅡 winning filmmaker Kevin Willmott (he is one of the people featured in a new documentary about Micheaux, OSCAR MICHEAUX: THE SUPERHERO OF BLACK FILMMAKING). Part of that involved making a clip presentation of Kevin's film work to be shown amidst testimonials from his friends & collaborators. It was a lot of fun to do and they were received well, from what I could tell from the audience response.

So, I'm sharing them - or, more accurately, I'm sharing mostly the early versions of them; the final versions were mainly around 2 minutes (give or take) and I'm happy with them, but since I can be indulgent and self-serving in this forum, you get the benefits - You Lucky People!

Check them out via this YouTube playlist - and if you enjoy them, the full-length feature films are even BETTER - and worth searching for.

 

 

And if you can attend (with masking, of course - even though We Won Covid - Again🅡, it's still an Active Pandemic, kids), you might like some of what's coming up this weekend at FSF.