The Big Texas Little Film Tour

The Big Texas Little Film Tour stops at The River Oaks Theatre on Wednesday, October 14, at 7 PM. It's a traveling showcase of work from emerging filmmakers across the state, and the Houston stop brings eight short films to one screen. The screening runs about 80 minutes, and it's followed by a talkback where the creators stay on stage to talk about making movies here in Texas.

The lineup for this stop includes El Bohemio Dorado (dir. Samantha Aldana), Cloud Maker (dir. Ricardo Enrique & Antonio Lasanta), Ballelujah (dir. Ori Matisse Evans), Esther (dir. Joey Hunt), Firewall (dir. Bita Ghassemi), shut the fuck up, when WE speak (dir. Ryan Darbonne), Help! (dir. Alex Chew), and Tito Ritmo (dir. Ulises Córdova). That's eight different directors in one night, so you'll see a wide range of styles and subjects rather than one single tone. The talkback comes after the films, which is the part that really makes this more than just a screening—you get to hear the people behind the work talk through their process.

There's a specific logic to how the tour works. It pairs that 80-minute block of shorts with the talkback, and then takes the whole thing on the road to rodeos, county fairs, historic theaters, and unconventional venues. The goal, as the organizers put it, is to make the state's film community as big and broad as Texas. The River Oaks Theatre is one of those historic stops on the circuit.

It all goes down at The River Oaks Theatre, 2009 W Gray St, Houston, TX 77019, on Wednesday, October 14, starting at 7 PM. The films run about 80 minutes, and the talkback follows.