The Truth In This Art: Stories That Matter

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Rob Lee: Welcome to The Truth In This Art, your source for conversations connecting arts, culture, and community. These are stories that matter and I am your host Rob Lee. Today I'm excited to welcome back a returning guest on to the program. My guest is a professional film curator and educator with over three decades of experience in art house cinemas, festivals, museums, community-based, and educational organizations.

She is currently the director of the Maryland Film Festival and annual film programming at Baltimore's SNF Parkway Theater. So please welcome back to the program, KJ Moore. Welcome back to the podcast.

KJ Mohr: Thanks, Rob. It's great to be here.

Rob Lee: It's great to have you on and as I'm one to do, I don't recall if it was the same way last year, but I have minds on. So I thank you for wearing your glasses.

KJ Mohr: It's a running thing that I like to do. Would not be seen you otherwise.

Rob Lee: Look, here's the thing. I had to change. I need to, I grossly need to get new glasses and I had a doctor's appointment this morning to get glasses and then add to move it. And so I'm like, all right. So when we're wearing glasses and we're able to do our stuff and being able to see, I'm very happy that we're able to chat and see each other. Otherwise, we're kind of just not having the conversation. We're not doing the real thing.

It could just be a phone call. So to start off with the sort of introductory question, who is KJ Moore? Like, what is central to your work as a curator, educator? Give us the story, your own words, please.

KJ Mohr: I have to say the first part of your question made me laugh to myself, but I appreciate it. That's very kind of you to, to indulge me to be able to talk about that. I think that the driving thing and sometimes to my detriment is just, you know, empathy, wanting to understand other people and caring about other people and, and wanting people to be well.

In terms of curating and programming, it's always been a little selfish. I think I talked about that last year because I've always brought things to audiences that are things that I want to see. You know, how can I see this? And if I want to see it, I'm sure that there are other people who want to see it, things that we don't get to see as easily or that aren't as ubiquitous. I mean, things are so much more available and accessible now, but a lot of the things that I want to see aren't necessarily.

So if I weren't planning screenings or events around some of those things, then I wouldn't get to see them either. So it's both selfish and wanting for the people around me and for my communities to be able to, to see that work. But it's also a little bit of a sense of adventure, I think, around besides that accessibility, but I get bored pretty easily. And so I'm always looking for new things and kind of what, what excites me, you know, and, and that drives what I'm looking for. Sure.

Rob Lee: That tracks. And, you know, the way you were describing it there, I was like, I want to indulge as well. Like, yeah, man, I want to program this. These are the things that I like to see these. And, you know, I realized the work, you know, some of the work that goes into it. I did a sort of series of films that I did some of the duration around or what have it was a monthly series and just something that's sort of like low hanging fruit is that a lot of work for like, oh, this is not a weekend. This is not a festival.

This is me once a month trying to figure it out. But really at the root of it was like, I think these movies are cool. I think these movies have a Baltimore connection. I think you all should see these. Come watch them with me. Right.

KJ Mohr: Cool. I'm curious what you programmed.

Rob Lee: Well, we can talk off like about that. We'll talk off like that. So that's enough Parkway theaters evolving, right? It's like in that station North Arts District, and I've worked on a few different projects, sort of like inviting light and just more attention back in that area.

And it's a dynamic center that really aligns with what I do. Frankly, the podcast was born across the street at Big & Prop. This podcast was born there. But, you know, the Parkway Theater is a center for like media arts creativity and community connection. I see more of this sort of programming and the work oriented very specifically and directly around that. So could you speak a bit about that and what the sort of 2025 into 2026 looks like for audiences and artists?

KJ Mohr: Yeah. I mean, we are, feels like we've been in a place of transition since we opened in 2017 because, you know, we're open for three years and then the pandemic hit and then I had to close the doors and then we had to regroup because it's a big beautiful building, but it takes a lot to keep that going. And, you know, so we've transitioned out of being a 365 movie theater and with the reevaluation that happened last year in 2023, really looking at, we surveyed more than 500 people locally, you know, in our community and just asked, what do people want here? You know, what is this going to be? How will this be useful?

And what we came up with were four specific areas. Like film will always be the heart of it. Film will always be the center of it.

It's the home of the Maryland Film Festival. So film plus, meaning not just showing films and leaving it at that, but having conversations around the film, having events around the film, bringing people to talk about them, encouraging audience to talk about them. Doing things beyond the screening is a big part of that. And along with that, filmmaker services, finding ways to serve filmmakers and be a hub, a point of connection for filmmakers in the area. I really see us as a hub for filmmaking in the Mid-Atlantic in how I want to function at the Parkway and at Maryland Film Festival. Another of the areas that we are just starting to get into is live arts. So we're going to be putting in a screen that will be retractable screen and expanding the stage so that it'll be more conducive to live arts, to music, to theater, spoken word dance. We'll be doing a lot more of that going forward.

So I think in the next year we'll be seeing a lot more of that after those renovations happen in January, February. Education, both with film education and school groups, students, but also workshops for people of all ages. Education is also something that we'll be doing more and more of. And then the fourth thing is what we call the festival synatech, but emerging media. We've been doing a meetup called Dev Mode for game developers. And gamers were doing more with gaming. In the festival last year we had our synatech and we're doing that again this year with immersive experiences and gaming and virtual reality, alternate reality, XR in general, really looking at what the future of the moving image is in terms of technology too. So we're kind of like firmly based in the film and have our grounding with the emerging media too, but we'll be doing more and more with live arts going forward.

Rob Lee: That's wonderful. It's bold, it's innovative, it's exciting. I have conversations with folks because of doing this, the sort of vantage point, and I have ideas and I think like sort of listening to what those bold plans are.

I'm like, yeah, I need to be on the ground floor. Let's talk further. Let's spit balls and things, but also I've talked to different people who would say, hey, we want to maybe be bold and innovative and it's just like, you're kind of falling short, it's just a reprise of the same thing, but what you're describing, I think keys in on certain things that I think are missing from the community base, like more than just the film plus or what have you. So that leads into the potential for third space and people are feeling less connected and it's bringing these different things that I think we do well.

Like naturally, and it's still rooted in film, but also being able to extend out and see things re-imagining in some ways. We have technology being a bigger industry here. I know that more of the state has sort of game developers and these different things that are around us. So it's having a being aware and being really grounded in the foundational side of like film and sort of the film festival, but being able to be open and build out. I think that's, and I go back to a conversation I had earlier in the season with Chef Neil Howell, he was just talking about from Corner Pantry and he was just talking about being innovative, being able to be agile, that's what keeps one around.

KJ Mohr: Yeah, and it's really listening to the folks who, you know, our community, to our neighborhood, to our city and what do we need, what do we want, what's lacking. Our main theater is a 400-seat theater, which is, you know, sort of an in-between number.

There are a lot of things that are a lot smaller, a lot of things that are a lot bigger, but there aren't really spaces like that that can hold, you know, around 400 people or anywhere over 200 and it feels good in there. But it's really about listening to the folks that we work with and making that happen from the ground up. So that's my return to you.

Rob Lee: That's what we want to hear. And again, you know, one of the things about the parkway that I, it's an imprinting thing for me. Like, I remember, like, you'll see a film and like, where did I see that at? Whereas every film that I've seen at the parkway definitely sticks. So it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

KJ Mohr: And whether it be a revival, whether it be like, sort of a documentary, it's like, this is the off chance that I saw this. I remember the last thing that I saw there was it was about house music in Chicago.

And I was like, this is fire. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we're going to be doing a run of that in February for four days. Excited about that. And, you know, Elegant Bratton is a local filmmaker. And Chester Gordon lives right, you know, like a few blocks south.

Rob Lee: So I'll probably have to come back for February because I had a really good time and I liked the little shade that was in there. It's like, this person wasn't great. I was like, this is wonderful. So I want to move in if you touched on the film festival and we're on a horizon, so it would make sense to kind of explore that part of the conversation. And I believe the festival is one of those places where sort of media creativity and community is the intersection point. So if you will, could you give us the pitch like, what's planned for MDSF 2025? And what are two to three themes that are guiding like this year's programming?

KJ Mohr: I mean, we're bookending, we're five days this year. Last year we were four days. And this year we're five, largely two accommodates. We're just trying to do more with students.

There are so many great film programs in the area and there's nowhere for those students to come together. And it's student filmmakers and young filmmakers who are making the work that tomorrow is going to be what we're seeing on bigger screens. And Maryland Film Festival has always been a discovery festival and the place where those filmmakers come together and at the beginning of their careers. So we really wanted to focus on student filmmakers and make that possible.

So that's one big change this year. There are student works in most of the programs. There's local work in most of the programs.

And we're bookending, opening and closing programs are both short programs this year, which we've never done before. But that's also just to highlight how important that is in a filmmaker's career. You know, that's where you start out. And so many filmmakers have come to Maryland Film Festival with shorts that later on we just see them really blow up.

So that's an important part of it. It's really themes of community, of joy. I really thought we need some joy this year. So I think there's a special, there's a particularly a focus on joyful work, work that makes us feel good, that doesn't happen at us on sort of trite. Like we're only going to show happy stuff because there's certainly a lot of difficult work, you know, too, there's challenging.

You have to show the whole spectrum. But there's a focus on stuff that makes you feel hopeful, I think, and just resistance. Because I think those are all things that we're just really needing right now. That's where we can find, you know, just some grounding and some inspiration because it all feels so unbelievable right now. Yes.

Rob Lee: Yes. Heavy over not overwhelming, but there is a degree of stoicism, I suppose, but also a degree of like, yeah, I'm going to choose otherwise. I'm going to choose to be joyous.

I'm going to choose to kind of cultivate in that. Perhaps hope at least, you know. Exactly.

Exactly. And I'll be remiss of before I move into this next question, if I didn't mention this, because I see it behind you as we're talking the poster for the film festival and the website. Also, those look really, really cool.

So bravo and kudos to the designer there. It really sticks out. It keys in on a lot of the things I like, like, you know, sort of the color, sort of the type of design. It just really hits. It's like work that one in there and it's like super fresh.

KJ Mohr: I like it. We're lucky to have a really awesome marketing department. Qrag sales, our director of marketing, and he's just a visionary. He's also a Sinetech curator and just he's on it with everything. I treasure him as a collaborator and he really, he brings in great people too. So I know that I can always count on Q to make it all really fresh and beautiful and awesome and to keep me on my toes.

Rob Lee: Shout out to Q the Trekkie, I've ever called.

KJ Mohr: So I saw this on the website on the website for the Merrill Film Festival. It's a film for everyone. That's aligned with the mission. It's inclusive, community rooted and globally engaged. And I know that we were kind of touching on that at a scotch there, but more directly, why is that so crucial now specifically with, you know, sort of moving picture and sort of having the mission of film for everyone? I think now especially we have to rely on one another. You know, community is more important than ever when, you know, I have friends who work for the federal government who don't have paychecks now and how folks are being affected with the social programs and everything.

We really have to help each other out right now. And I think that film for everyone is more true than ever in terms of, you know, what's going to bring us together, what's going to be art for solidarity. And I think also things are really born out of scarcity too, you know, when resources are less. Real creativity has to happen. And it's, I don't know, that's sort of the silver lining, I guess, is that that really forces some creativity in ways that we don't see otherwise. And I think it's just important to that film is, it's a tool for social uplift, you know, it can bring us all up and bring us all together and coming out of our homes and being together and experiencing something together is seems more important now than ever. And we've gotten so used to just watching things at home or watching things on our phones or whatever, and being able to come together and to talk with the creators and to talk with one another is really important.

Rob Lee: Super, super, super important. I read something or maybe I saw a video which is weird that I'm conflating the two reading and watching the video, but as you remember, consuming this this this conversation is discourse around film is being written sort of like the big Hollywood films are being written with sort of secondary screen in mind. Like people are going to be distracted. And so I used that and thinking that stuff is going to be made in that way potentially moving forward or even currently, but the theater experience, it's in some ways spiritual in that you told that to you, you saw that we all came together at the same time, we're not engaged in our phones because you know, you can't have your phone on, you shouldn't have your phone on.

And you know, when I'm at home watching something who's this random person that's in this movie, it's like find out later, look at but being able to be engaged in watching a film and somehow watching like films that have like a local connection or you might see a friend in there, all of these different things. I remember it was a film that I'm blanking on the name of it, but it was a film is last year. It was a film I watched at that Parkway.

It was things called for the very first time. And it was mecca Verdell was in it. And I got the chat with the director beforehand, just randomly, and we were talking about Robocop for some reason, just random conversation.

And his dad was Peter Welles movement coach. So I had to interview them and getting that sort of piece, but I got the sort of story about Robocop, which is one of my favorite movies. I wasn't expecting to get and then Beanie, with to go in there and watch the film and see people who were there seeing like, you know, nothing's on the screen.

And just people like losing it when she comes on the screen. That's an experience that you get from being at the theater and seeing sort of our local talent like showcased in film.

KJ Mohr: Absolutely. And about a third of the films this year have locally made or have local connections. And yeah, that's always a big part of it. I mean, our Brawl to Swords program is one of the most popular in the festival for exactly that reason. But there are several films this year, those features and shorts, every short program has at least one local short in it. And that is so important to everything.

Rob Lee: I want to get this from you as far as like policy process and like God rails, if you will, what's the policy process or a coroutorial guard rail that you rely on to protect inclusive storytelling when it's challenged because, you know, as we were touching on earlier, ah, we can't have this in there, the, you know, DI film and all that different stuff. And that's not how the world works. Oh my God.

KJ Mohr: Yeah, it's with last two in terms of, yeah. I mean, for me, it has always been important. And thankfully, I learned this, you know, programming my very first festival years ago, that it's just so important to have many voices in the curatorial process. And, and, and having people involved from the ground up who are part of the communities that you're creating the programs for so that it's authentic and, um, And that's, I mean, what we do is we've been on the screening committee. We have a screening committee of 40 volunteers who are mostly local, who just really represent many voices in the area, and who all, you know, all of those reviews and conversations are all really taken into account with making the decisions. And I think that that's really important because that so shapes the program completely. And those voices are involved from the ground up. So it's not like, here, we made this for you.

Do you like it? It's, we made this together and that is what is reflected in the program. So I think that is the main thing for me is having a plurality of voices as part of the process from the start.

Rob Lee: I like the way that you described that. So like here, you know, it's like, no, no, no, you're involved. This is sort of, we're building this together. And in many ways, that's how I've grown into or backdoor it into how I view this series, this living archive, if you will.

I think it's not just me. It's like to a degree, it's me looking at who I think is interesting and so on and what conversations I'm curious about. But, you know, when folks reach out, well, this, this makes sense. Yeah, we're all doing this, you know, we're, we're dance partners in many ways of if someone comes in with sort of not the right energy, then the conversation is not going to go in a certain way. So we're building this together and it really is sort of more input as the podcast has grown, as the series has grown, it's more input from the community.

I was instead of me purely, here's the five people, here's the 10 people I want to talk to being more open to those suggestions, more open to those, those connections. Yeah. How long have you been doing it? We're coming up on 900 episodes. Yeah.

The 900 probably in two weeks and six years started in, you know, yeah, about six years started July of 2019. Wow. That's a lot.

Yes. But it's definitely grown and developing. Part of it is listening to the community of the people that ultimately making it as a service. It's not an income generator.

It's not a commercial thing. It's an independent thing that I spend a lot of time and energy doing. We appreciate it.

Thank you. So this is this is this next part is the two part question and it kind of touches back on to the shorts a little bit. So again, like leading off with the shorts and the shorts having sort of, you know, exploring the legacy love, transformation, these really great things, these great, almost, you know, connected to this joyous feeling. What are the conversations that you're hoping to to spark? You know, I think resilience is there. And what short are you really excited for the audience to experience?

KJ Mohr: That's like asking someone to choose between their babies. So we've had that conversation before too. But I do have an answer. But I would say that we're looking at those themes and the reason that they're coming up a lot is that when you're watching a movie, it's like you escape into that story. You know, it's like you get to leave all the crap behind and just walk in someone else's shoes and someone else's story for us. Sometimes that can be stressful. But more often than not, it's just gives you a perspective that you wouldn't have otherwise. And that's so useful for us right now and so important. And I think that that's what I want people to leave the theater thinking about, you know, and then people from all different backgrounds are conversing and connecting about what we just watched. But one short that I am especially excited about and I'm really psyched that we got it. It's a film that I saw at Black Star Festival and then again at a symposium in at the National Gallery and it's Colleen Smith's Deep West Assembly.

It's part of our Diverging Forms program. And Colleen Smith has been making work since the early 90s. She made a feature film called Dry Long So that was about Black men in her community disappearing. So she was going around and taking polaroids of men in her neighborhood to pull onto them. And then she delves more into more experimental work and more art studio based work and but always with moving image.

And Deep West Assembly is part of a larger work called the Volcano Manifesto that she created. But I won't give it away but it ends with just this scene that's like maybe 10 minutes long that is for individuals outdoors signing the words to Nina Simone Song that I hadn't heard before called 22nd Century. And it just I get chills just thinking about it like watching it. I was just like tears of joy. It's like I need this so bad right now. It's so good and I can't wait to share that. That'll be showing twice and it closes out the Diverging Forms program. But beautiful.

Rob Lee: Great. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Showing that that experience is, you know, I think like in it too often, you know, it's just question and answer question and answer. But being able to sort of paint an experience and share that, you know, it's storytelling. It actually leans into the experiential thing and sort of the power of film, you know, and sort of how these stories are out there and the importance of these different stories.

KJ Mohr: And that's I mean, I am a fan of experimental work. And Colleen Smith is largely an experimental filmmaker. So I'm partial to that. But no one can deny the power of that scene in particular. And yeah. Thank you.

Rob Lee: One of the things I came across, I was on the site, like I said, I was playing with the site. I was on there. I was like, oh, look at these colors. This is done very well. But one of the things that I couldn't help but notice and really build up some curiosity around was the festival journeys, curated pathways by identity, genre and perspective that audiences can mix and match, which is unique. It's interesting. So could you talk a bit about these journeys? How would they build? How would how would they design? Could you walk us through an example and sort of conversations where we're looking at coming from these?

KJ Mohr: Yeah, I'm so glad that that spoke to you. That's another of Q. Ragsdale's ideas. And he came to me and was like, you know, we want to, he always says that we don't want to, we don't want everyone to come to the festival. We don't expect everyone to come to the festival. But there are people who are intimidated by a festival or don't know where to start with that, who would probably really love this.

So how do we find those people who haven't experienced the festival or don't usually come to things like this, aren't like indie film fans necessarily, but who would really appreciate this. So he thought up the journeys as a way to try to do that, to give people an entry point. You know, because when you look at the website and when you look at the whole program, it's overwhelming. I mean, it's overwhelming for me. Every time I go to a festival, it's like, okay, all right, I'm going to sit down for a whole day.

I'm going to try to figure out this program and what am I going to see? And it's like, ah, sometimes I end up just going and winging it, you know, the journeys provide just more of a path to there are four of them. So he came to me and he's like, you know, we definitely have something with MDF of pride. We have always had in my tenure a focus on Q plus work and queer work and raising trans voices. And so that was going to be an obvious one. We knew that we would have a pride section and sort of could guide people through these other films that would fit in an MDF pride journey.

And he was like, what are the other ones? And I was like, well, we have, you know, really great black filmmakers and black storytelling. So like we'll do a black voices journey. Great films by women and non-binary directors. She, I said, and then a staple of Maryland Film Festival always is the WTF, the weird Baltimore, you know, the stuff that makes you leave the theater going.

So what was it? And that is all, you know, so all of that is very much part of who we are as Maryland Film Festival now. So kind of picking out those four journeys was pretty easy. Because it's, there's a clear group of films that fit into each of those categories. So we've on the website just sort of, you know, if it's all too much for you, you can kind of pick, this is kind of where I want to focus. And these are the films that fall in that category and that gives you a place to start. There's a journey's path that, you know, you could just stick within one area, but you can also grow outside of it. And it includes closing night, but then four other regular screenings that if you want to stick kind of within one area, you can pick four films within that journey.

Rob Lee: It feels like choose your own adventure in some ways. It almost feels like having, you have a sneaky, you have a sneaky here. It's almost like two to three festivals built into the larger umbrella.

KJ Mohr: Sneaky or stupid because like right now I'm like, what is the, there I'm the student film summit within the festival. That's like a whole festival onto itself. CineTech is the whole thing. It's many, it is many festivals within one.

Rob Lee: But I think that, but again, I think that's going with the bold thing and sort of, you know, fortune favors the bold as it were. And it's really, it's really cool and sort of looking through the idea and having the types of journeys. It feels very reflective of the city, the dynamics of the city. I find at times there are entities here that they're not sure which city they're in. So I remember a very big institution that suddenly they wanted to have Baltimore Club music. And I was like, oh, hey, you've got club music here for a while. Oh, you guys are just realizing it.

Wow, you're not happening at all. Or realizing there are black people in the city or folks of the two plus community, all of these different things. And it's just like the sort of journeys voting out just shows like you all are tapped in and you're listening to the community and to the folks that are there and voting out something that's bold and dynamic.

KJ Mohr: So that's really, really great. Fundamental, yes, fundamental.

Rob Lee: So here's the last question before I get into the rapid fire because those are coming. I've added two more actually because we've been talking. So more than 25 years then, what is your guiding approach to honoring the Maryland Film Festival's legacy while evolving for contemporary audiences? I think we touched on that a bit early on as far as some of the things moving forward, but sort of in that building while still having that foundation in the legacy of building towards the future, what are the values? What values are non-negotiables and what are you willing to reinvent?

KJ Mohr: That's a good question and I'll be honest, I didn't get that far. I can't really think about it. We have a new executive director, thankfully, Nancy Proctor, who is really great. She's a visionary. She brought the peel back and I think that she fits just really well with us.

And I think that together we are, she pushes me a little bit to do more of the things that might be scary otherwise, that it'll be okay. But I think it's really just listening to the community, listening and partnering. And that is something that has always been part of it.

But I think that it is central to it now. Like that's really key and just working with partners to let them guide us instead of, like, no, we got to stay within these parameters. Because we've tried a lot of things at this point and we want to keep going. And we plan on keeping going but that's going to involve working with the folks that we want to serve.

And it's really, again, that doing things from the ground up with the folks we want to serve. So for me, that is, I'm a little bit of a control freak. So for me, that is the challenge to be like, okay, you want to do this thing that I don't understand and scares me a little bit, like just being like, okay, let's see what happens. I think we're in an experimental stage that feels really positive. And that's great to hear.

Rob Lee: And I'm looking forward to seeing what's next. So, festival coming soon, coming very soon. I was going to ask you, what is the energy level right now? And it's like, I'm burned through.

I've just been drinking coffee or whatever it is to keep myself standing up. That's sort of the real questions. That's four rapid fire questions for you. You don't want to overthink these?

So here's the first one. Pretorially speaking, what's one habit that you've dropped from perhaps maybe a few years ago when you're like, I approach, I look at films this way, I do this and do that to now? Like what's the one thing you've dropped and one thing you'll never drop when you're curating film when you're looking at programming things about nature?

KJ Mohr: How am I supposed to answer that rapid fire without thinking about it? I mean, I think that I have, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that, like I said, I've always worked with a lot of screeners and a lot of opinions and groups of people. And I think that's really important. And perhaps I've become a little bit more listening to my own instincts. Like really listening to instincts because I've made some decisions in favor of being all inclusive where it wasn't necessarily the right decision curatorially. So, you know, taking responsibility for what is being shown and not necessarily just showing just anything.

Rob Lee: I like that. I have been engaged in that a bit more. There are collaborative opportunities that present themselves that don't feel equally yoked and I might in the past, oh, maybe, you know, ride the wave, just keep doing the things. And now I'm more oriented around this feels like low carb exploitation. I'm not really with it. And I'll cut bait and part of it is sort of trusting one's gut. Maybe it's sort of bad now.

KJ Mohr: It's the low-picking. Picking and choosing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Rob Lee: What's the first film that made you fall in love with cinema? Giving you the hard ones.

KJ Mohr: I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is Teri Gilliams, Brazil. That was the film that was just like, wow, what is this world? This is something that can't happen outside of cinema.

But there are a lot of things around that because that I saw in high school and I know that there were things before that. But that's the first thing that comes to mind if you want to rapid fire it.

Rob Lee: That's a good one. That actually has come up in a conversation recently. So it's like the sort of rule with the white rabbit of it all. I've now heard it in two different conversations. So now I have to dive in and watch the movie.

Let's see. What's a surprising film that you've checked out for, I guess, in the programming or in the prep for this year's festival that you want to tease? Like something you're like, wow, all of these are great, but this one hits in this particular way or this one is very WTF to really allude to that part of the journey?

KJ Mohr: I mean, this is not a WTF film, but the first part of your question makes me think immediately of Coutévois, which is this French Guyanese film that I just fell in love with, that is somewhere between documentary and narrative and really fresh that way.

And I just fell in love with that film. In terms of WTF, I mean, Fuck Toys is amazing. I hope I can say that here. Like I've been on a couple of radio and TV things recently where it's like, I know I can't say Fuck Toys or Butthole Purr Purr. But those are great films. And Anna Purna, you're on Fuck Toys is singular and fantastic.

Rob Lee: And you can say whatever you want on here. I don't support anyone to say. Fuck Toys! Yeah. So here's the last one of you. You referenced in, that's great. You referenced Black Star, Philadelphia, right? And so I had some work with them in the past as well, which is really great. Interviewed, Mayory, and a few of the filmmakers who have premieres, actually, world premieres. So festival programming and curation has traveled as an element. I've worked with a number of film festivals, DC Film Festival, it comes to mind as well. And the sort of year long, I'm traveling here, I was at Toronto, I was doing this. So what's a city or location that comes to mind that you've traveled to or a festival? Like what's your one of your your favorites, I guess?

KJ Mohr: Havana, for the Havana Film Festival. When I was at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, I was specifically looking for Latin American film and Havana is the best festival to see Latin American film. That and the Festival de Huo in Rio de Janeiro. But Havana is really special because you see things there that you won't see anywhere else. And but you know, then of course, I think of the Penn African Film Festival in LA that is also a really singular experience, just see things that don't get to see otherwise. I saw some things there that I haven't seen anywhere else that could go on and on with that one.

Rob Lee: That's amazing. Being able to have sort of this, just like going to where it's like one of my dreams, if I can hitch my wagon, it's like, all right, you need somebody to kind of go along with you. I'm good with snacks. I don't know a lot about film, but I like watching film.

KJ Mohr: I love traveling more than just about anything, movies and traveling and my kids, I guess, I should say. But I love traveling, but I don't like like tourism traveling. So I love to have a reason to go somewhere and it's usually a film festival. That's great. I can use O2. You got to come along.

Rob Lee: That's great. That's great. And just being able to travel within to from what you were describing, like very different places like that was Brazil and Cuba. And just like that's, you know, I'm thinking, oh, I want to Philadelphia. I'm doing something. It's like, no, I'm not in the country.

KJ Mohr: I mean, Black stars like that too. It is kind of like traveling and that's the beauty of movies too. I learned so much, you know, with all of you and I never tire of watching submissions in particular because you never know what you're going to get. It's just like, okay, what's this? Oh, right. I'm going to Thailand now. And, you know, just experiences you would never have or have any insight into otherwise.

Rob Lee: Film is a portal. I've joked before that graphic novels is a gateway drug to reading more film as a portal to shortchange like travel. Like I can travel through film. I'm here now. I'm in, you know, just take me back. Take me. It's time travel. It's travel travel.

And that's one of the joys and one of the things I really appreciate about film and diverse voices or like a large swath of different voices and different stories. So that's kind of it for the main pod and all the rapid fire questions. So there's two things I would like to do if we close out here. One, I want to thank you for coming back on. This is a treat to have you back on and these run it back episodes. So the season I kind of split half of it is former guests returning with that intention.

And the other half is sort of new guests. I keep it fresh, but also I'm checking up on folks. Thank you for including me.

Absolutely. And the second part, sort of the shameless plug, soft pitch, hard pitch, however you want to frame it, let folks know film festival dates, all of that good stuff, just final thoughts and the floor is yours.

KJ Mohr: Thank you. Thanks for having me again. I always enjoy talking with you. It's a good time. Maryland Film Festival happened November 5th through 9th this year and opening night on the 5th. Student films throughout local work throughout. We have our live scored film, which is a 1915 film from Lois Weber this year.

The Hippocrates, which is the same year as the Parkway was built. So I think that's kind of cool. And Jesse Jing from Peabody is going to be doing a live score for that. We're showing a 16 millimeter print of John Waters Molesomaniacs that hasn't been seen in this century. It's the pre-final cut version of the film that is rarely been seen at all. David Simon is going to be presenting a film, Path of Glory, Stanley Kubrick's 57 films. The Sun Ra film that Elisa Buntmorehead is going to be presenting is one of those joyous, wonderful experiences. And we have some special guests talking about that. I'm super excited about Born This Way.

It's about a Baltimorean Carl Bean and is just another delightful film. And there are going to be a lot of folks who are locally connected to that. The Shorts programs are one of the things that I just get most excited about.

And that's what you really won't have a chance to see past the festival at all. So I will always plug the Shorts. But there are free programs, as always. We have two free and all ages Shorts program and the Maryland marvels with four stories about extraordinary Marylanders. Both of those have free programs, one on Saturday morning, one on Sunday morning. Our Cinetech is free with registration. There are two Cinetech demos this year, one on gaming and one interactive, sort of two-zero and adventure. So there's two great panels too.

Alexandra Queen Snead is doing a crew call panel, sort of looking at the crew who, beyond the director, who makes the film happen. And parties every night, great food, great DJs. There will be a parkway and a lot of events on Saturday and a lot of programs down at current space on Howard Street. So I just look forward to seeing everyone out at the festival.

Rob Lee: I can find out all the details on SNF Parkway. You can do that.

KJ Mohr: Yep, www.SNFParkway .org or mdfilmfest.com.

Rob Lee: And there you have it folks. I want to again thank KJ Mohr for coming back onto the podcast and giving us a bit of the story behind this year's Maryland film festival. And for KJ Morse, I am Rob Lee saying that there's arts, culture and community in and around your neck of the woods. You just have to look for it.