A multitude of new films never before seen by audiences in Caldwell and Hays counties will soon grace the screens of historic, downtown county-seat buildings: at Lost River Film Fest the weekend of Oct. 17-20 in the elegant Price Center in San Marcos and Endora Film Fest on Sunday, Nov. 3 in the century-old Gaslight Baker Theater in Lockhart.

Endora, now in its 5th year, is free of charge. The 8th annual Lost River festival is among the most affordable in Texas, but Examiner readers nonetheless can enjoy a 50% discount on admission by using the code “CHExaminer” at TheLostRiverFilmFest.org.

As reported in last month’s cover story on Ku Klux Klan history in San Marcos, when Frank Zimmerman opened the Palace Theatre in the 1920s, he singled out the fervidly pro-KKK film “Birth of a Nation” as his fount of inspiration. 

In cinema’s early days in Hays County, moving pictures at times were accompanied by black face performances — white actors in dark makeup mocking and devaluing African Americans. One such racist thespian was Billy Kersand, who stuffed billiard balls in his mouth to the delight of whites-only audiences. A character named Divine, played by DeWitt Taylor, preached sermons that “always brought down the house,” per San Marcos Record back then.

The San Marcos Elks Club sponsored annual minstrel shows, too, in the early 20th century, such as Henry Roquemore’s; the San Marcos Baptist Academy orchestra furnished the music.

Today, Lost River Film Fest — the unwitting heir of Zimmerman’s legacy of film exhibition in San Marcos — strikes a distinctly different tone.

The short documentary How to Sue the Klan, playing Saturday morning, provides an immediate glimpse into the flavor of the festival’s programming. The day contains film blocs devoted to LGBTQIA narratives, trans- and drag-themed storytelling, immigration-oriented short films, and The Strike, an award-winning chronicle of triumphant organizing in California’s prison system that helped end solitary confinement practices.

Organizers from Free Battered Texas Women, both of whom endured solitary confinement in Texas prisons, will speak after that screening. Upon hearing about the panel, the documentary’s co-director, JoeBill Muñoz, opted to buy a plane ticket from California to attend the viewing.

Indeed, over 20 filmmakers have RSVPed to attend Lost River and Endora, coming from Europe, New York, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and all over Texas in order to experience local audiences’ response to their work and to enrich screenings by way of Q&A afterward.

Sunday during Lost River is dedicated to new Texas-made cinema, with 46 films – ranging from comedic shorts to insightful documentaries to horrifying features – playing at both the Price Center and Live Oak Hall, the recently constructed studio space for Texas State University’s burgeoning film program.

The one-day free festival in Lockhart – called “Endora” to match Lockhart’s fictitious name in the classic film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, which was shot in town when Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio were young men – also features beaucoup Texas-made films.

As the day of no-cost screenings will transpire the Sunday before Election Day, when marijuana decriminalization is on the Lockhart ballot, organizers have programmed a 4:20 p.m. showing of American Pot Story: Oaksterdam, a documentary on inspiring cannabis activism in Oakland, California. The film won the Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival.

Dazed and Confused, yet another marijuana-laced flick, from Texas director Richard Linklater will close the night. Local lore maintains that wardrobe for that film – which was released in theaters 30 years ago – was partly procured from Lucy’s Thrift Shop on the fringe of Lockhart.

The Examiner is a proud sponsor of both festivals, and you will see our team there, munching on popcorn, enjoying the fine fare on screen. See you there!

BY JORDAN BUCKLEY