Events

2024 Tallgrass Film Festival Film Screenings at Orpheum Theatre

Friday, Oct. 25th

Beginning at 12:30 PM

Unwarranted: The Senseless Death of Journalist Joan Meyer

A police raid of a small-town newspaper in Kansas, and the death of the newspaper's owner a day later, brings worldwide condemnation and attention to attacks on press freedoms in the United States.

Color Me Wichita

Sara and Charity Harmon are sisters, artists and award-winning filmmakers. They spotlight Gary Pendergrass, creator of an outdoor museum called Steampunk Village. Inspired by Gary's work, the sisters attempt to create a piece of art in a steampunk-ish style and present it to him.

Black Enough (Season 2, Episode 5)

Black Enough is a web series that follows Amaya, an insecure dancer and her kaleidoscope of friends as they learn what it means to be Black on the campus of a BWI. In the 5th episode of season 2, Black Ball brings out a new flame Amaya, and old frustrations in in her first college friend and former crush, Jaheem.

Beginning at 5:30 PM

The Sunshine Dreamer Benefit & Concert

Ryan Benton is a young musician afflicted with the muscle-wasting disease, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which carries an average life expectancy of 16 to early 20s. He was the first human with MD to be treated with Mesenchymal Stem Cells. This treatment has worked on MD and many other untreatable rare diseases with no negative side effects! However, large pharmaceutical companies in the United States and the E.U. work hard to block this remedy since they stand to lose hundreds of billions in revenue if legalized. The film is a sobering snapshot of an uncured rare disease and an uplifting portrait of an artist who dreams big against all odds.

Sunshine Dreamer by Wichita filmmaker Shawn Rhodes will serve as the Friday night spotlight gala with special musical performances as we donate a portion of the proceeds from the screening to the non-profit organization Coming Together for a Cure, a 501c3 on a mission to advance stem cell therapy for people battling Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and millions fighting other rare diseases.

Saturday, Oct. 26th

Beginning at 10:00 AM

Tim Gruver Kansas Shorts

Breathless

As a young woman is terrorized in her home by an ancient creature, she discovers the hidden truth about its peculiar purpose.

Citrinitas

Dauph returns home to face her father's impending death. Outside of town, a crop circle has appeared. Their search for hope leads them to its center.

ELECTRA WASP

ELECTRA WASP is an experimental animated psycho-biography about the death and life of trailblazing pilot Amelia Earhart.

Harmony

Zane finds solace in their time at church, a peace that is not always reciprocated by others in the community. With a pastor they have known since childhood, they break down how they perceive their spirituality and gender to intersect, and hope that he has the heart to listen.

Icebox

On a bitterly cold night, Eric, a pizza delivery driver, shows up to face his demanding boss, Dee, and a stack of orders ready to go. After his first stop, a carjacker attacks him and locks him in the trunk. Even worse, a stray bullet from a fatal shootout leaves Eric wounded.

When Eric doesn't return, Dee sets out to find him. She sees his car at the shooting scene, but gets no help from the cops there. Only when Eric tries a last-ditch message-in-a-bottle tactic does Dee figure out how to free him, in the nick of time.

No Small Parts

An actor auditions to be an extra in a movie.

Pink Walls: Based on a True Story

Based on a True Story: A 15-year-old transgender youth who through internal contemplation and interactions with family, decides on whether to read a poem he wrote to a group of school peers, revealing his true self.

The Chronocular Device

A shadowy figure, upon breaking into an abandoned home, finds a strange device which allows him a glimpse into the home's past.

The Real Big Brucey

"The Real Big Brucey" is a quirky comedy that delves into the life of a former children's TV entertainer known as "Big Brucey." Now in his deep 30s, Bruce is on a quest to reinvent himself after a failed romance with Hannah, who couldn't separate him from his beloved puppeteer persona. The story oscillates between past and present, showcasing Bruce's struggle to move beyond the shadow of his famous alter-ego.

1:00 PM

Young Frankenstein on 35MM with Madame Mae Presentation

An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.

4:30 PM

In This Our Life (Hattie McDaniel Celebration)

The 22nd Annual Festival is dedicated to Celebrating Wichita Native Hattie McDaniel. Before the screening the City of Wichita will present a key to the city to her relatives. A panel discussion will be held after the film with Gordon Parks filmmakers David Parks and Kevin John Goff about Black Representation in Cinema Then and Now.

Hattie McDaniel was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedienne. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She was born in Wichita, Kansas. We are partnering with the Kansas African American Museum to host an exhibition and talk with her nephew Kevin John Goff.

Filmmaker, actor, and public speaker, Kevin John Goff attributes much of his entrepreneurial spirit to his legendary entertainment family, The McDaniels. The great-grandnephew of Hollywood's first black artist to win an Oscar (actress Hattie McDaniel, for her work on the 1939 film Gone with the Wind), Goff continues to honor her legacy by inspiring the newest generation to take courage from her trailblazing accomplishments.