Historical documentaries rarely get top billing. Savannah’s Hindsight Festival hopes to change that

Award-winning filmmaker Pat Longstreth is no stranger to screening his work at film festivals. But a few years ago, he noticed that certain films often didn’t get the same attention.

While many festivals include documentaries about the past, Longstreth says those films often make up only a small part of the lineup.

Now, he's aiming to change that.

The inaugural Hindsight Film Festival, which kicked off this week in Savannah, is devoted entirely to historical documentaries. 

As founder and director of the festival, Longstreth says the goal is to give historical storytelling a larger stage and a chance for audiences to experience these films together on the big screen.

In total, the program includes 15 feature films, 30 shorts, panel discussions, and history tours.

GPB’s Pamela Kirkland spoke with Longstreth about launching the festival and why Savannah felt like the right place to host it.

Transcript:

Pamela Kirkland: It's Morning Edition. I'm Pamela Kirkland. This week kicks off the inaugural Hindsight Film Festival in Savannah. It's America's first major film festival for historical documentaries. Pat Longstreth is the festival's founding director. He's also a filmmaker and he joins me now. Pat, thanks for being on Morning Edition.

Pat Longstreth: Fantastic.

Pamela Kirkland: For listeners who don't know, what is the Hindsight Film Festival?

Pat Longstreth: The Hindsight Film Festival is America's first major film festival for historical documentaries. So there are a lot of great festivals that include historical documentaries and have them as part of the program, but usually it's only a small portion and usually the films don't play in the prime time spots. But we've decided to give every slot in the festival devoted to a historical documentary. That's everything from films that were in the Ken Burns Prize for Film in the last few years, as well as open submissions, films about American history and international subjects as well.

Pamela Kirkland: Like you said, historical documentaries don't usually get top billing at other film festivals. This is the inaugural Hindsight Film Festival in Savannah. What are you most excited about in showcasing some of these films?

Pat Longstreth: Well, I'm excited for people to see films that they might normally watch on a Monday night from their couch by themselves. And instead here, they're gonna watch them on the big screen with a whole crowd and with a discussion afterwards. So for almost every film, we have the director or the subject of the film here to talk about it and engage with the audience afterward.

Pamela Kirkland: As a filmmaker, you have screened films across the country. I'm curious why you decided Savannah was the right place for this one.

Pat Longstreth: Well, for one, I live in Savannah, but I also know that we have a lot of great venues here. For one, we were shortlisted as a potential spot for Sundance to move their festival here. And that was actually a sign to me that got the wheels turning that we had a good geography here for getting around. Our festival is completely walkable. We've got a great cultural arts center here that's the hub of the festival. It has a theater that seats 330 people, stadium seating and a big screen. We're doing screenings at the Civil Rights Museum, at the local high school, at Savannah Arts Academy, as well as the local HBCU, Savannah State University. So we've really been able to make use of all the great venues around town. And then Savannah is just rich with history. And we have a lot of people here who love to talk about history and engage with history, whether it's through our walking tours or —or just through a lot of groups that, that get together on a regular basis to talk about history.

Pamela Kirkland: So what can festival goers expect to see?

Pat Longstreth: We've got a film called True North straight out of Montreal and the Toronto Film Festival. We've the runner-up for the Ken Burns Prize for Film, Diamond Diplomacy, which is about America's relationship with Japan through baseball from before World War II up until today. It's really fascinating. We got the filmmaker here for that. They're on the fence still after hearing all that, I would say just go on the website because there's something for everybody in this program, you know, from sports, to military, to art and music, we've really got it all. And entertainment, there's a really wide, diverse creative selection of films that I couldn't be happier with.

Pamela Kirkland: Pat Longstreth is the director of the Hindsight Film Festival. The festival runs through March 8. Pat, thanks so much for speaking with me on Morning Edition.

Pat Longstreth: We'll see you there.

Pamela Kirkland: This is GPB.