The mastermind behind the It Came From Texas Film Festival, Dallas-area media relations and publicity veteran Kelly Kitchens, has returned with a six-shooter on her hip and astride her prized pony to deliver the third annual iteration of her celebration of movies made wholly or primarily in the Lone Star State.
This year’s theme, True Texas Tales, brings with it a slate of pictures that delve into infamous folk heroes, our state’s most iconic location, and stories of quirky and determined characters making their mark in a place known the world over. ICFT 2025 returns to the Plaza Theatre September 12-14 in beautiful downtown Garland for three days of Texas movie magic.
The festivities will begin Friday night, September 12, with a screening of the 1967 Oscar winning film that arguably kicked off the New Hollywood movement, which flourished in the 1970s and changed cinema forever. Directed by Arthur Penn and starring the fresh-faced Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde tells the infamous story of two lovers who also rob banks.
Facing nation-wide deprivation brought on by the Great Depression, the two folk heroes committed my favorite kind of crime, those targeting the wealthy in our society. The ethos of the movie is summed up in an early scene when the naïve young lovers tell a farmer and his family, who are being kicked off their land by the banksters, that they aim to settle the score for the little guy.
On a personal note, my last film school project, in which a group of students produced a short film from start to finish for presentation alongside the work of our fellow classmates, was a western. One of the locations of the shoot was a bank robbed by Bonnie and Clyde in Ponder, Texas.
Festival Director Kitchens is mixing up the format slightly this year. For the first two years of her fest, comedy troupe Mocky Horror Picture Show closed the event with a live-riffing of a Texas-made film ripe for mockery. This year, the group, comprised of comedians Danny Gallagher, Liz Barksdale and Albie Robles, will do their thing on the opening night of the fest.
And there’s another twist. In previous years, the MHPS crew – who skewer bad movies with live jokes in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000 – announced in advance the movies to which they would be giving the business. First up was The Giant Gila Monster, followed in year two by Rock Baby – Rock It.
This year, the Texas-made movie getting the MHPS treatment is a mystery. All we know for sure is that the secret screening is of a movie from schlockmeister Larry Buchanan. One of my favorite ways to experience a movie during film festivals is to walk into the theater without knowing anything about what I’m about to see. In that regard, ICFT arranged a special treat specifically for me. MHPS always leaves me in stitches, so I’m confident that I’ll laugh heartily no matter their target.
It's possible that we’ll get a primer on the mystery movie that night from Gordon K. Smith, ICFT’s resident Texas-made movie historian and expert. Smith has provided valuable insight into the production and exhibition of films screened at ICFT in years past. He has a gargantuan task ahead of him in introducing this year’s centerpiece screening, the Sunday afternoon presentation of the 1960 western The Alamo.
The film, directed by John Wayne – who also stars as the legendary Davy Crockett – offers a slice of Texas history from a very specific point of view. Smith promised, during the media roundtable discussion held in anticipation of the fest, that he would confront the whitewashed history of the events portrayed in The Alamo, which are cemented in the popular culture.
I recently finished reading Howard Zinn’s incendiary A People’s History of the United States. While his references to the actual Alamo episode are fleeting, Zinn dedicates an entire chapter of his book to the events that led to the United States “acquiring” what is now known as Texas from the country of Mexico. And by “acquiring,” I mean stealing.
President James K. Polk, who was thirsty to add land to the nation, basically decided to march the US Army into the territory and dare anyone to do anything about it. As the soldiers encountered Mexicans living in the area, they basically told them to screw off; the land now belonged to the United States. They did this until they met resistance, which was then used as an excuse for war with our southern neighbor.
Events at the Alamo precipitated this history, and I’m interested to hear Smith’s take on the topic. Scheduled to be in attendance at The Alamo screening is Anita La Cava Swift, John Wayne’s Granddaughter, as well as Frank Thompson, a historian and author of four books about The Alamo and the 2004 remake starring Dennis Quaid.
In a nod to not keeping things too serious, The Alamo screening will be followed up by a swingin’ ‘60s comedy called Viva Max!, starring Peter Ustinov, Jonathan Winters, and John Astin. As described in the ICFT press release, Viva Max! concerns a “misguided Mexican General [who leads] his troops into Texas to take back the Alamo in 1969, more than 133 years after the original infamous battle for the mission.” The fest press notes mentions that the actual Alamo was a location for the movie, at least until the filmmakers got kicked out. I had never even heard of this movie before learning it would close out It Came From Texas 2025. I’m looking forward to catching up with it.
In addition to all of the above opening and closing day festivities, Saturday at ICFT will feature a full day of screenings. First up is Bernie, a dark comedy from Dazed and Confused director (and Texas native) Richard Linklater. The movie stars Jack Black as a small-town mortician who becomes entangled with a wealthy widow, played by Shirley MacLaine. Skip Hollandsworth, who cowrote the screenplay with Linklater – and whose original Texas Monthly piece inspired Linklater to turn this true Texas tale into a movie – is scheduled to be in attendance.
Later in the day, representatives from the G. William Jones Film Archives at the SMU Libraries and the JFK Archives at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza will offer up deep dives into Texas news footage of local and national significance.
Saturday evening will close out with a double feature. The first half of the double bill will be The Great Debaters, a 2007 film directed by and starring Denzel Washington as the professor and debate coach at Wiley College, an all-Black Texas school. In 1935, the debate team at Wiley faced the formidable Harvard debate team at the National Debate Championships. The film chronicles the trials and tribulations of the Wiley students leading up to that event.
Paired with The Great Debaters is The Real Great Debaters, a 2008 documentary on the same subject. I’ve never seen either of these titles, and I’m looking forward to catching up with both. The current debate coach at Wiley, Professor Ernest Mack, and the director of The Real Great Debaters, Brad Osborne, are both scheduled to be in attendance.
As stated above, It Came From Texas 2025 will be held September 12-14, at the Plaza Theatre on the Downtown Square of Garland, 521 W. State Street. Festival passes are currently $75, with individual tickets ranging from $10 to $15 each. Festival pass perks include: limited availability, early admission, a commemorative poster, and discounts from participating businesses and restaurants. Both passes and individual tickets are available for purchase here.
I’ll be there all weekend, so come on down and watch some homespun true Texas tales with me!