Bass and Belle Wild West Film Fest kicks off Thursday

Cathy Spaulding, Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.
·2 min read
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Oct. 5—A western film festival honoring lawman Bass Reeves and outlaw Belle Starr begins Thursday and runs through Saturday.

"Bass and Belle are two iconic characters of that era," promoter Oscar Ray said. "One a lawman and the other an outlaw. So they cover a broad spectrum of that time."

The Bass and Belle Wild West Film Fest will show features, documentaries, shorts and videos, mostly with western themes. There also will be writers and musicians.

Ray said there will be several authors, including Sidney Thompson, who wrote a trilogy about Bass Reeves.

"Taylor Sheridan purchased the rights to his books to make a television series,'1883: The Bass Reeves Story,'" Ray said. "Thompson will act as a consultant on that."

Thompson will be part of an authors panel at 11 a.m. Friday. The panel will include documentary filmmaker Russ Fry, Muskogee historian Jonita Mullins and Rex Campbell, an antique collector who found Bass Reeves' death certificate and possible burial place.

"They'll be talking a little bit about everything, but a lot about the Old West and lots of questions about writing," Ray said.

Thompson also will speak at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Roxy. The speech will be followed by a screenwriters panel focusing on the western genre.

Ray said there is kind of a "resurgence of western movies being made."

"Some are very good, actually, and some are are kind of the same old thing," Ray said. "The panel will be talking about that. How do you take a story about an event that happened, let's say you're in the Muskogee area, and turn it into a film that people would want to see."

At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, area first responders are invited to reception featuring the film "A Dark Destiny." Muskogee County Domestic Violence Partners Network and Soroptimist International of Muskogee will host the event. The film is about a west Texas lawman who battles with mental fatigue.

Writer-director-producer Wendy Pennington will get a Domestic Violence Awareness Salute Award.

A feature film at 7 p.m. Friday, "Prospectors: The Forgiven," features Muskogee native Patty McCall.

A documentary about the Battle of Honey Springs will be shown around 3:45 p.m. Saturday.