Thank you to all of the artists, guests, staff, volunteers, sponsors, partners and audience members for making the 2017 Free State Film Festival such a success! Our community came together for an inspiring week of films, music, comedy and ideas and we couldn’t be more grateful for your support.
Highlights of this year’s festival included a hilarious night of comedy by KU Alum Nikki Glaser; fervent storytelling by Lawrence favorite Barry Crimmins; an electrifying performance by Chicano Batman; applause after each film screening; our first ever live podcast by the Lawrence Public Library’s BookSquad, a sensational Whiskey and Donut Tasting at Harold’s Whiskey, Chicken and Donuts, engaging discussions at the Jackpot Music Hall and Ladybird Diner on the subjects of social justice, women in comedy, latino civil rights and indigenous music; a coffee and film theory conversation at Decade Coffee; fantastic guests such as SJ Chiro, Nancy Pickard, Blake Robbins, Casey Twenter, Jamala Rogers and Jacquie Fernandez-Lenati (the great-niece of Dolores Huerta), Stephen and Mary Pruitt, Joicee Appell, Laura Kirk, Paul Fellers, Clarence Lang, Verdell Taylor, Kate Haugan, Maeret Lemons, Rhonda LeValdo, Mike Stewart, Dan Wildcat, Mike Baldwin, Michael Paull, Heidi Gluck, Polli Kenn, Kate Gramlich, Nick Carswell, Chris Blunk, Bianca Brown and Nick Spacek.
Special thank you to our sponsors and partners:
The City of Lawrence; Unmistakably Lawrence; Kansas Public Radio; Prairie Fire Entertainment; Ingredient; Five Bar and Tables; the Jackpot Music Hall; Harold’s Chicken, Whiskey and Donuts; Lawrence Business Magazine, Ladybird Diner; Decade Coffee, Lawrence Public Library; Audio-Reader of Kansas, the KU African and African-American Studies Department, the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies at the University of Kansas; Haskell Indian Nations University, Velocity Church; Port Fonda; The Merc Co-op; 715; the Bourgeois Pig; John Brown’s Underground and The Burger Stand.