Best of KC 2023: Free State Film Festival remains a beacon for freaks and freedom in the Midwest

This month, we published The Pitch’s annual Best of Kansas City issue. You can browse the results of the readers’ poll here. The issue also included a list, compiled and written by our editorial staff, of some of our current favorite things about Kansas City in 2023. We’ll be publishing these items online throughout November. 

When we consider art festivals, music is the common thread that connects theater, film, dance, and of course, live musical performances. Starting as a platform for short films in 2011 before morphing into a weekend Free State Film Festival in 2012, this year’s FSFF truly hit its artistic stride and fully achieved the vision set by festival director Marlo Angell over a decade ago.

“I would love to see the whole city take ownership of this festival as other venues downtown step up to host additional film screenings, live music concerts and art events,” Angell told lawrence.com in 2012 when she served as the Lawrence Arts Center’s digital media specialist.

In the same lawrence.com article, Angell spoke about the value of the communal experience of watching a film together and having the opportunity to have an open dialogue with directors about their art and discussed the importance of having local and national films which present a wide range of artistic visions.

Judging by the eclectic and electric offerings of 2023’s Free State Film Festival, it is clear their recipe for success has been perfected and surpassed those initial aspirations. With a potent combination of individual sponsors and community allies, and a few grants sprinkled in for good measure, FSFF has developed into something uniquely Lawrence, celebrating the free spirit of the state of Kansas, including art for everyone, all brought together through the magic of music.

With the pandemic limiting 2021’s offerings to socially-distanced outdoor screenings, last year’s weeklong festival got the proceedings back on track by bringing in heavy-hitters such as acclaimed filmmakers John Waters and Lawrence-based Kevin Willmott. However, 2023’s FSFF took matters to an entirely new stratosphere with the incredible breadth and depth of diverse offerings, partnering with local venues, community organizations, and the University of Kansas, just as Angell had prophesied earlier.

Liberty Hall provided a safe space for a wide-ranging discussion with Boots Riley, lead vocalist of the revolutionary hip-hop group The Coup, and also the director of the new boundary-pushing Amazon series I’m A Virgo. Liberty Hall welcomed in BLKBOK, a neo-classical pianist who marries Mozart with hip-hop, spitting lyrics with his piano keys. The famed venue also saw the return of seminal ’80s Wichita act The Embarrassment, in town for a screening of We Were Famous, You Don’t Remember, as well as a raucous performance powerfully demonstrating the band had lost none of their chops. All screenings were followed by intimate Q&A sessions with the audience, providing rare access to these artists.

A brisk five-minute walk away, the Lawrence Arts Center hosted an equally impressive slate of programming. The aforementioned Kevin Willmott was back again this year with No Place Like Home: The Struggle Against Hate In Kansas, a documentary based on CJ Janovy’s book of the same name which describes the LGBTQ community and their struggles for empathy and acceptance. Renowned producer and turntablist DJ Spooky created a live score to accompany the (classic) film Body & Soul, while local artist Bad Alaskan provided pre-show music to set the stage for the documentary Imagining The Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting.

The closing event at Liberty Hall was a showing of Lost Angel: The Genius Of Judy Sill, which was capped off with a tribute concert curated by Heidi Gluck, a perfect Midwestern complement to the baroque pop folkie Sill. Student-run radio station KJHK partnered with the theater for many of these events, introducing scores of scholars to these cross-disciplinary artistic delights.