Film News

KidFilm Festival in Dallas will screen first-ever Looney Tunes feature

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie will headline the 41st annual KidFilm Family Festival.

Ketchup Entertainment

A kid-themed film festival is coming to Dallas: Called The 41st Annual KidFilm Family Festival, it will take place January 18-19 at the Angelika Film Center Dallas, featuring 12 programs with feature films, short films, and author appearances.

KidFilm is a spinoff of the USA Film Festival, the Dallas-based, 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to the encouragement and recognition of excellence in film and video arts.

The highlight of KidFilm is a screening of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, the first fully-animated feature-length film in Looney Tunes history.

The buddy comedy, scheduled for release on February 28, stars the comedic duo of Porky Pig and Daffy Duck and features hand-drawn 2D animation.

Other highlights include an appearance by author Aaron Reynolds, who's written books like Creepy Carrots!, Creepy Pair of Underwear!, Creepy Crayon!, The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter, and more.

The program will include a screening of the short film version of Creepy Carrots!, followed by a reading of Creepy Crayon!. Free copies of Creepy Crayon! will be distributed to families at the show (while supplies last), and Reynolds will sign books for the kids.

Other feature-length films will include:

Pedro Solís García & Juan Jesús García Galocha's Buffalo Kids (Spain), a hilarious yet heartwarming film filled with devious villains, unexpected heroes and unimaginable adventures.
Richard Claus & Karsten Kiilerich's Panda Bear in Africa (Netherlands/Germany/Denmark/ France), an exciting, adventurous, fish-out-of-water comedy.
Kristina Dufková's Living Large (Czech Republic/Slovakia/France), a charming coming-of-age stop motion film that follows a witty, overweight 12-year-old boy.
Mike Johnson's A Tooth Fairy Tale (USA), a magical tale with a star-studded voice cast that includes Fran Drescher, Jon Lovitz, Boo Boo Stewart, Vivica A. Fox, and Larkin Bell.
Eric Power's Brambletown (USA), a musical film featuring songs from popular children's musicians The Okee Dokee Brothers that explores connections with each other and nature.
Winfried Oelsner's Max and the Senior Squad (Germany), a film about teamwork and finding friendship in the unlikeliest places.
Rodrigo Zanforlin's fantastical Galactic Cat and the Spell of Time (Brazil).

There will also be three short film programs featuring 26 animated and live-action short films from around the world, including two Texas-made films.

National Popcorn Day takes place on Sunday, January 19, and KidFilm will celebrate the occasion by offering 50 percent off popcorn orders at the Angelika that day.

All programs will be presented free, but tickets are required. Tickets for all shows are available at the theater on the day of show only, beginning one hour before each showtime. (Note: Lines can form earlier.)

The full schedule of KidFilm programs may be viewed online at usafilmfestival.com. For additional information, call 214-821-3456.

KidFilm is just one of year-round programs of the USA Film Festival, now in its 55th year, and coming to Dallas in April with lineup and details still to be announced. The USA Film Festival is supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Movie Review

War film From Ground Zero offers closeup of Gaza from many voices

Photo courtesy of Watermelon Pictures

Scene from From Ground Zero: Stories from Gaza.

The war between Israel and Hamas that has been going on since October 2023 has had far-reaching effects, especially for the people in the region. While there are many perspectives on the political and military conflict, a new film presents the resulting humanitarian crisis from a specific point of view: that of Palestinian filmmakers inside Gaza.

From Ground Zero: Stories from Gazais an anthology of 22 separate short films, each 3-6 minutes long, from Palestinian directors living in Gaza during the war. The film has been short-listed for an Oscar for Best International Feature.

Some of the shorts feel like documentaries, others feel like created stories, but all show the brutal impacts - both physical and psychological - inside Palestine during the war. Almost all of the films have their subjects navigating the rubble of bombed-out buildings, and many of them depict the vast tent cities that have popped up to house the displaced citizens, while war drones buzz overhead.

The stories of the shorts vary from simple to relatively complex. Multiple films feature an individual person describing his or her daily life, although the filmmakers use different techniques to embellish the relatively basic idea. Some pack in a lot of narrative into a small amount of time; one titled “School Day,” which shows a young boy preparing himself for a version of school, has a gut punch of an ending.

The most memorable segment is “Soft Skin,” in which a woman helps a group of children compose stop motion animations using characters created from construction paper. It contains a haunting detail of kids showing that their mothers have written their names on their arms to be able to identify them if they become victims of a bombing. The animated sequences depicting such a scenario are both beautiful and tragic at the same time.

The films are about evenly split between those that focus solely on adults and those that use children. Naturally, those that do feature kids have heightened emotions. But that innocence cuts both ways, as some of the films show the kids still finding a way to have fun, a small measure of joy in otherwise joyless surroundings.

In fact, despite all of the devastation, some hope remains among a handful of filmmakers. One depicts a comedian continuing to perform so that he can bring some laughter to people’s days. Another has a director actively seeking out stories about happy things, which she finds in a group of people who play music together. One lyric from a song they sing - “It’s certain the happy days will return” - indicates that they refuse to let the war take away their expectation that life will be normal again someday.

All of the films combine for a crucial, if excruciating, account of this period of time in the war-torn region. As a viewer, you don’t want there to be more stories, but you also can’t look away as each of the filmmakers lay out intensely personal narratives. If nothing else, it gives people with little other means a chance to have their voices be exposed to the world at large.

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From Ground Zero: Stories of Gaza is now playing in select theaters.

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