By David T. Miller
Contributing Writer

The historic Kentucky Theatre has seen plenty in its 103 years — world premieres, a devastating fire, shifts in technology and tastes, a pandemic shutdown and more. But it’s still doing what it does best: showcasing new and classic films that are hard to find anywhere else on a big screen. Now in its third year, the Twelve Lions Film Festival, run by the nonprofit Friends of the Kentucky Theatre, brings three full days of new and rarely seen films.

The festival runs Thursday evening, Sept. 25, through Sunday, Sept. 28, with films from 10-minute shorts to full-length features and documentaries. (See the full schedule here and printable detailed pdf schedule here.) Most movies are free during the day Friday through Sunday, although donations are welcome to support the theater. Reservations are suggested for some live events.

With thousands of film festivals worldwide, why Lexington? Lisa Meek, chair of the Kentucky Theatre board, said, “We’ve talked to a lot of filmmakers and many times they found themselves at festivals showing their film in a conference room with a pull-down screen or such. It can be kind of a crummy experience for them. And we thought, gosh, we have this absolutely beautiful theater, we’re close to a lot of things downtown such as hotels and restaurants and we thought it would be a great fit. And it has been — we’re in our third year now. Kentucky,” she adds, “has a burgeoning film industry and offers attractive incentives for filmmakers.”

The Twelve Lions committee received over 150 submissions and narrowed that to four dozen. “We have a big group of people helping us review films through the summer,” said Meek. “We have about 10 viewers for each film, so no filmmaker gets a bad score just because a judge was having a bad day. After that initial review, the Twelve Lions committee watches the ones the judges scored highest, and then we see how many we have room for on the schedule.”

The audience will have its say too. Attendees on Friday and Saturday can cast their votes for the “Audience Choice” film, and the winners in nine official categories will be announced on Saturday.

Many of the films have a connection to the Bluegrass or Kentucky. A highlight of the festival is the 25th-anniversary screening of “Stranger With a Camera,” the hour-long Appalshop documentary, presented as a benefit for the Kentucky Humanities Foundation. Appalshop is this year’s recipient of the Fred Mills Award for Outstanding Contributions to Film. How did Twelve Lions balance international and Kentucky-related films? “That wasn’t really a motivator for us,” according to Meek. “We're just looking at what is submitted and what the scores are. It just happens that there are a lot of talented filmmakers in Kentucky and the region.” 

That includes both rising talent and well-known Hollywood names, both before and behind the camera. “She Dances,” featuring local Steve Zahn and his daughter Audrey Zahn as a father and daughter confronting their fractured relationship on a road trip, will screen Saturday evening and a Q&A with Zahn will follow. On Sunday, native Lexingtonian Michael Shannon presents a master class in directing, followed by the Kentucky premiere of his feature film “Eric LaRue.”

Emmy-nominated filmmaker Tim Kirkman, originally from North Carolina and now a Lexington resident, will lead a Sunday afternoon master class on pre-production and design, exploring how design and film intersect and how filmmakers can draw on some simple aesthetic principles when developing a story.

Some of these principles will be showcased in Kirkman and co-director André Robert Lee’s short film, “Freeman Vines,” a documentary profiling artist and luthier Vines. In just 14 minutes, the film shares a heartfelt story of an elderly, ill Black guitar maker in rural North Carolina who is coming to terms with a lifetime of racism while searching for a particular sound that always seems just out of reach. Kirkman said he was excited to present Freeman’s story at the beautiful Kentucky Theatre. “Rural artists often go unnoticed and stay invisible, especially artists of color.” 

In addition to the master classes, the festival offers an inside look at the film industry through workshops on training to become a production assistant and to work in post-production. Meek says that such sessions aim to further the careers of emerging filmmakers. 

The festival mixes full-length films with shorts of varying length. Despite their brevity, the short films sketch out complex stories in just minutes, from circus-like nuptials (“My So-Called Iraqi Wedding”) to actual circuses (“Fortunas”) and brief but deep character studies (“Pierre West”). 

Kentucky-related shorts range from Samuel Thomas Santrock’s student film “Love at First Sight” to Asbury University Professor David Whitaker’s “Quest for Beauty,” a documentary on 20th-century Catholic artist William Schickel. Schickel is best known for his renovation of the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, where he worked with famed theologian Thomas Merton.