Tipton Hosts Hardacre Film Fest

Independent film lovers from across the Midwest are headed for the tiny eastern Iowa town of Tipton for today’s (Friday) start of the Hardacre Film Festival. Fest director Troy Peters says they have a wide selection of entertainment this year. There are 40 films that’ll be shown over the two-day festival, including documentaries, animation, shorts, features, experimental and student productions — ranging from three-minutes to 104-minutes in length. Some of the cinematic submissions come from as far away as Switzerland, Ireland and Israel, while Peters says a couple of them are from just down the road. Two entries are from Iowans: a feature about four people stuck in the routine of life called “University Heights,” directed by Scott Beck, a University of Iowa student, and “God Hates Fags,” another U-of-I student project documenting a “homophobic hate group” that arrives in town to protest a gay-themed play. The movie fest starts this afternoon at 3:30 and runs into the night. The showings start again Saturday morning at 9:15 and run until 10 PM. Peters says some film fanatics will be there for -all- of them. The venue is the Hardacre Theatre in downtown Tipton, built as an opera house in 1916 and fully modernized a few years ago. For more details, call (563) 886-2175 or surf to: “www.hardacrefilmfestival.com”.