The 2010 Kansas International Film Festival

From Oct. 1-7, the Fine Arts Theatres Group will be holding its annual Kansas International Film Festival at the Glenwood Arts theatre. In its 10th year, the festival showcases movies from all over the United States, as well as from many other countries such as France, Sweden and Croatia. Documentaries make up about 60 percent of the films while the other 40 percent are fictional features, including a handful of upcoming, anticipated art-house movies like Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours” and Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.”

“If you want to see certain films, you’re not going to see them unless you go to a festival,” KIFF and Film League President Ben Meade said. “Kids can’t go to the TV to learn anything. They can learn it through film, and so they learn it through film when they go to a festival, and that’s kind of what the whole thing’s about.”

Film aficionados from all over Kansas City join together for the festival. Even those at East put the event on their map. Junior Kelly Kuhn goes to KC film festivals every year, and has high hopes for the 2010 KIFF.

“The Kansas International Film Fest brings internationally acclaimed films to the local area, and since we usually don’t get a whole lot of those around here, it presents movie lovers with the opportunity to diversify their cinema experience,” Kuhn said. “This year’s lineup looks incredible, I’m definitely going to get a festival pass and see as many as possible.”

Brothers and Fine Arts Theatres owners Brian and Ben Mossman started the festival in 2001 along with Meade, changing their more locally focused Halfway to Hollywood festival into an international one. With that festival revamping, they began receiving entries from all over the world. More filmmakers began attending with their movies and the festival became a hit.

Meade believes the prevailing themes of the 60 films at the KIFF this year revolve around “social justice and the raunchiness of the United States.”

The Glenwood Arts theatre is located off of 95th and Metcalf and tickets for individual movies at the KIFF are on sale now, with passes for the entire festival ranging from $40 to $60. For a full list of the films being shown at the festival and for the schedule visit http://www.kansasfilm.com/index.html.