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There’s a New Tampa Film Festival on Tap

By Judith M. Gallman

The Tampa Bay Area is home to a number of established film festivals, Gasparilla International Film Fest and Sunscreen Film Festival perhaps among the best-known. Is there room for a newbie?

Theodoric Wells, founder and director of the inaugural Wild Rover Film Festival, insists undoubtedly there is.

Wells is confident that WRFF, a festival for the wanderer, will fill a niche untouched and often overlooked by most local film festivals: mockumentaries and military veterans.

WRFF is set for Nov. 11-12, on Veterans Day weekend at Wild Rover Brewing Company. Wells’ parents, Linda and Derek Wells, own the brewery, and his brother, Ricky, is the brewmaster.

“What makes ours memorable is that we’re hosting the film festival in our brewery, which makes the atmosphere a little more ‘home-brewed’ and intimate,” Wells said. “We don’t have a massive theater, and we’re not renting out a place like the AMC or Regal.”

Wells has partnered with three veteran-related charities — Operation Code Vet, VETPAW, and Operation Song — to create a different kind of festival, one that he says won’t detract from the competitors since WRFF raises veteran awareness and screens in the fall.

This doesn’t mean all the films are by, for, or about veterans; just that the subject matter may take on issues familiar to veterans, such as transitioning from military life to everyday civilian life.

“We all love war movies, but we don’t always recognize the distance between the military and Hollywood,” Wells said. “The general sense in the movie industry and the military is that they are not the same people. They come from different walks of life, and they have different points of view. But the common thread between people in the military and in the industry is they love watching movies.”

A young actor and SAG-AFTRA member, Wells, 32, has been acting since his days at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa. He spent college at New York University’s theater program, where he fell in love with filmmaking as his “horizons broadened from acting for theater to TV/new media.” He also performed at the Peacock Performing Arts Center in Haysville, N.C., but then got into TV and new media. He is the creator of a pilot, Actor Prepares, an over-the-toppish mockumentary-style anthology about actors struggles in the entertainment industry. It riffs on the famous Konstantin Stanislavski method acting book An Actor Prepares.

Wells put the word out about the film festival on the popular and well-regarded screening platform FilmFreeway. Wells said he was happy with the number of submissions received.

“It’s a fair amount of films,” Wells said. “We were overwhelmed in a good way with the amount of responses and number of submissions we got for our inaugural event.”

Wells and a buddy-mentor, Josh Russell, also a fellow SAG-AFTRA member, a 15-year Army veteran, and festival coordinator, vetted the entries, selecting 23 films for screening. Details on which films will be shown when, depending on filmmakers’ schedules and commitments, are pending. Leah Burkett also is providing assistance as “programme & events director.”

“It’s a cool idea, and it has potential to turn into something really kind of unique and can have an interesting impact on the Tampa Bay Area and the film industry in the Tampa Bay Area,” Russell said. “It has been kind of inspiring to see the amount of attention we grabbed just by starting our one homegrown little film festival.”

Russell also said it was important to him for WRFF to provide an opportunity for filmmakers who “are finding the barrier of entry very difficult” on the festival circuit because of lack of acknowledgement for their creative efforts.

Wells recruited Fox 13 Tampa Bay’s Charley Belcher, an Emmy award-winning features reporter, to judge the films. Belcher is also a friend of the Wild Rover Brewing Company and family and an avid film lover, Wells said.

The competing filmmakers seem to include a mixed bag, with a handful coming from Tampa and the Tampa Bay Area.

“Primarily, they come from the United States, and maybe a fourth of them come from Florida, and then the rest come from other parts of the world. We have one from South Korea, two from England, one from Argentina, and one from Ukraine,” Wells said.

No discernible theme developed among the submissions, Wells said. Film enthusiasts can expect four mockumentaries, shorts (5 to 28 minutes) and features length (48 minutes and above).

One film that will premier at WFRR is Lemonade, a short detective thriller by Ruskin-based husband-and-wife team Marisol and Shawn Ray of production company Sol Ray Productions. The filmmakers are excited to debut the film in their hometown.

“I've been in Tampa since I was a child, and Shawn was born in Tampa,” Marisol Ray said. “Shawn and I setting out on this incredible adventure of writing and telling stories by way of filmmaking is in itself exciting, but then getting to share it with our hometown community almost feels like we are contributing to Tampa filmmaking history. … There's something to be said about being a local, filming with a local crew, at a locally owned diner, and releasing the film locally. It has a historical, original feel to it.”

The festival will name winners for Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best International Film, Best Mockumentary, and Best Director. One filmmaker will be named "The Wild Rover." Prizes-wise, one award winner will receive 25 percent of all submission fees, and 25 percent of the submission fees will be given to the veteran charity Operation Code Vet. It is a Hillsborough County nonprofit organization that partners with Hillsborough County Code Enforcement to identify veterans who need assistance to improve the conditions of their home and/or property.

At press time, notifications of acceptance had gone out, and judging was underway.

The brewery has a 13,000 square-foot warehouse with a cinema-grade sound system, a 120-inch screen, and room for 125 people, Wells said. The festival also will include panel discussions, afternoon teas, meet-and-greets with filmmakers, networking opportunities, and screenings throughout the weekend. Some films will be shown on continuous loops throughout the day, but specific screenings will be scheduled, too. Tickets will be $25 with ticketholders able to attend every screening as well as into workshops and panels.

Wild Rover Brewing Company, 13921 Lynmar Blvd, Tampa, 813-475-5995.

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BITES

There is no shortage of new restaurants coming to the Tampa Bay Area. Here’s a list of places. Some are now open; others are coming. Call ahead before visiting.

New Restaurant Openings

Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii: Wait, is it a gas station, taqueria, coffee shop, or convenience store? Yes to all four. The coffee and the cute winking ass (as in burro) logo are what brought us in, and the iced decaf latte was robust and refreshing full-bore Kona coffee with ice cubes made from frozen coffee. “Mana,” which packs caffeine from green coffee beans but lacks coffee flavor, plus lattes, hot and iced classics, cold brews, coffee koolers, lemonade, smoothies, and teas round out the beverages. Choose from baked goods or breakfast sandwiches on King bread for a meal. Pick up dashboard hula girls, coffee cups, and T-shirts if they move you. They’re all billed as “bad ass.” 25195 FL State Road 54, Lutz, 813-949-2482.

Amendment XXI, 204 Westshore Blvd., Tampa: “Prohibition-inspired cocktails and Chef Fabio Viviani’s culinary masterpieces” from Chef Fabio Vivani

Provisions Coffee and Kitchen, 3752 Windcrest Drive, Wesley Chapel, opening soon: lattes, including “cereal-infused” ones, plus pastries, breakfast sandwiches and many gluten-free options (other locations are 2816 E. Bearss Ave., Tampa, and 5862 Goldview Parkway, the KRATE, Wesley Chapel).

Flavas Chi-Town Wings, 4819 E Busch Blvd., Tampa: more than 20 kinds of chicken wings and 10 fresh-made lemonade choices plus burgers, dogs, and other odds and ends like “Walking Tacos”

UP, 1111 N. Westshore Blvd., Tampa: uber-pricey upscale lounge and entertainment venue with rooftop views and haute cuisine. That’s So Tampa

The Fold Pizza Shop, 1910 N. Ola Ave., Armature Works, Tampa: Pizza, pizza pizza. That’s So Tampa

Got restaurant news? Send it here.

WHAT HE SAID

ABOUT US

Editors: Judith M. Gallman and Stephen Buel

Contributing editors: The Navigator is seeking contributors

A New Tampa Film Festival, Bad Ass Coffee, and Fallout From the Latest GOP Debate

Wild Rover Film Festival will feature mockumentaries and honor military veterans.

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