Indigo Moon Film Fest Returns to Downtown Fayetteville, October 13-15

Whether you're a casual moviegoer, a seasoned film buff, or even an aspiring filmmaker, the 8th annual Indigo Moon Film Fest is the place for you! The festival will take over Hay Street in downtown Fayetteville all next weekend, running October 13-15. (Get your tickets here!)

I recently had the chance to sit down and chat with IMFF co-founders Pat Wright and Jan Johnson to learn more about the event. Being a moderate cinephile myself, I knew I wanted to learn more about this festival and what all it entails. Pat and Jan were both gracious enough to tell me everything about this labor of love to the Fayetteville community.

According to Pat, this year's Indigo Moon Film Festival will feature a vast array of film projects. "This year we’ve got films in from more than 22 countries," Pat says. "We have more than 80 films we’re screening." Several of those films are also made by North Carolina filmmakers as well, with an entire screening block dedicated to directors from the Tarheel State.

These screenings will take place at three different venues in Downtown Fayetteville: The Capitol Encore Academy, Cameo Art House Theater, and The Loge (Cameo's upstairs theatre). A full schedule of film screenings can be found on the IMFF website, so attendees can easily plan their viewing experience. 

Pat was also excited to talk about some standout features for this year's film festival, including the addition of the Movie Matchmaker on their website. "You can go through and pick out what emotions you feel like feeling, what topics you want to cover, which genres you want. And then Matchmaker curates a list of films that will match your preferences." 

Another new addition to this year's lineup includes "Dinner and a Movie (Director)." For only $10, attendants can enjoy dinner Saturday night and hear from accomplished director and IMFF alum Indy Saini. Using the knowledge and resources she gained from her time at Indigo Moon, Saini was able to hone her craft as a filmmaker, which led to tremendous career success. And this year she returns to the festival to share valuable insight to young filmmakers looking to learn the tools of the trade. (You can buy tickets for this separate event here.)

And in the end, as Jan detailed in our conversation, that's what the goal of Indigo Moon really is. "We feel like young filmmakers need to come," Jan said, "because the best way to hone your talent as a young filmmaker is to come and watch films, and get a better understanding of how it all happens."

The Indigo Moon Film Fest is a wonderful way to support the local art scene of Cumberland County. Pat, Jan and the rest of the IMFF board hope to see you there next weekend! For ticket information, click here.

After the WGA (Writers Guild of America) came to an agreement recently with new contracts, late-night television programs made their debut back on the air last night (October 2). Writers have been given cost of living increases, will be protected from Artificial Intelligence, and will receive better pay for streaming royalties. Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Fallon have all been off the air for five months. Each host made it clear that they were glad to be back.

Kimmel thanked his team of writers for returning in his 17-minute-long monologue. He then expressed that he wishes that striking actors, auto workers, and healthcare workers get the contracts they deserve, too. Meanwhile, Colbert had a two-part opening monologue upon his return to recap "a crazy summer," totaling around 17 minutes long as well. Meyers kept things short and sweet, primarily focusing on thanking his writers, staff, and audience members. Speaking about their joint podcast while their late-night shows were off the air, Fallon said Strike Force Five donated their earnings to their crew and staff who were striking. His monologue was the shortest, under four minutes long.

The WGA strike began on May 2. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) began its strike on July 14. (SAG-AFTRA is the union representing striking actors.) Both unions have shared reasons for striking. As reported by Deadline at the time, an anonymous studio executive was quoted about the WGA strike that the "endgame" is to allow things to "drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses." This statement rejuvenated the WGA’s energy around the strike. The Hollywood Reporter has been running “Anonymous Strike Diary,” and wrote, in part, "Thank you, whoever you are. Because those quotes turbocharged us. They reminded every writer why we’re doing this."

Take a look below at late-night hosts' first monologues after the writer's strike.

In Kimmel's 17-minute long opening, he is in a "therapy session" talking about the writer's strike going on for "so long." When he says he doesn't know if he'll be back, his "therapist" happened to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator alum assures him, "You'll be back." After their cute opening, Kimmel awkwardly made his way on set of his late-night show, which had a pickleball game going on. He said while the strikes were going on, that's what the set was used for. After one of his writers' parents apparently texted him to not make the monologue about Donald Trump, Kimmel guffawed and made fun of him for a majority of his opening.

Colbert said the crazy summer we had was packed full of events that would be "stupid to try to recap everything that happened over the last five months, so here we go." In part one of his two-part special monologue return, the late show host described New Jersey senator Bob Menendez's indictment for taking bribes in exchange for assisting the government of Egypt. Setting up the joke for this one, Colbert snatches his glasses off his face and says: "Prosecutors describe the bribes as... a pyramid scheme." So delighted, Colbert looks into the camera and yells: "We're back, baby!"

Meyers had a much shorter opening, almost five minutes long. Being away from his job for five months, Meyers expressed how much he loves his job. Besides shouting out his writers, Meyers also nodded to his fellow late-night show hosts, who made the hiatus much easier to deal with. Meyers closed his monologue by saying the entire staff is family.

Fallon had the shortest opening of the four, keeping it under four minutes. During his monologue, he centered it mainly around his fellow late-night hosts and their solidarity throughout the strikes and their podcast that helped their staff while they were striking and not working. Like Meyers, Fallon expressed how in his many months alone, he spent his time thinking about how grateful he is for the show.