On Nov. 14, Paul Harrill, a faculty member at The University of Tennessee’s School of Art, hosted producer Kelly Williams in Hodges Library to speak on his experiences in the film industry, offering valuable insights for students.
Williams shared several tips on script development, selecting locations and the importance of building strong professional networks. He also showcased scenes from his own films, including “All That We Love” and “Long Dumb Road.”
For students interested in pursuing careers in movie production, Williams emphasized the importance of assessing whether a script is strong enough to move forward.
“Number one rule, is this something you can live with for the rest of your life and is this doing something narratively different?” Williams said.
William initiated his passion for media and screenwriting when he grew up in Austin, Texas. He worked for several film festivals as a theater manager and indulged in the Sundance Festival as a screener.
Williams was offered a position at the Austin Film Festival which ignited his interest to produce his own films.
The 2024 Film Fest Knox begins on Nov. 14 and will go through Nov. 17, featuring many films at the Regal Riviera.
Harrill is the Dee & Jimmy Haslam Chair in Cinema Studies and co-chair of UT’s Cinema Studies program. He also co-founded the public cinema as a screening cohort that has evolved into several films.
Harrill was inspired to pursue filmmaking and engage with public cinema to bring greater recognition to his own films — as well as others — within the film festival circuit that often overlooked Knoxville.
“We started this thing with my friend Darren because we wanted to bring those movies to town and this is an extension of that basically after the Knoxville Film Festival when it closed in 2022,” Harrill said.
“I believe when it stopped, we saw an opportunity to start a new festival and to do something bigger and better with that kind of stuff.”
The two main reasons Harrill believes Knoxville films receive less attention in comparison to larger cities, he says, are the lack of screens and the tendency of distributors to overlook smaller cities.
“We’re really lucky that Regal is based here for a city of our size,” Harrill said. “A lot of cities don’t get the kinds of movies that we do.”
One of the films “All That We Love” will premiere at Film Fest Knox on Nov. 15, which was directed by Yen Tan and produced by Williams.
Yen Tan, originally from Malaysia, made his way to Austin, Texas where he previously worked with Willams on other films such as “Pit Stop.” He now serves the title as an award-winning Chinese American writer and director.
“All That We Love” is a bittersweet representation of how several characters deal with loss and grief in their own ways, exploring the themes of healing and self-discovery.
“I think I really want people to take away what they want to take away from it,” Williams said. “There’s kind of a character for everyone in it all the time, it’s an ensemble piece.”
One of the key moments that fueled the creation of the film came when Williams and Tan were working together on a gig producing for Dell Computers, and Yen received the news that his dog had been diagnosed with cancer.
Though the loss of a pet is perceived differently by many, Tan felt the death of his dog was as painful as losing a close family member. Struggling to find a movie that addressed his feelings, he turned his experience into the premise for “All That We Love.”
“He’s (Yen Tan) a true collaborator and as a result, he’s a great friend,” Williams said. “He tells great interpersonal stories and you know, things you don’t often see on screen.”
