Wyo Film Friday Night Features

Friday evening of the Wyo Film Festival opened with a pre-screening cocktail hour, which allowed attendees to mingle with some of the creators, cast, and crew of the films being shown. The double feature screening started with the short film “Wading for Change,” Directed by Sofia Jaramillo and Jr Rodriguez and produced by Faith E. Briggs.

“Wading for Change” documents the story of Latino conservationist and angler Jr Rodriguez as he chases his dreams of becoming a fly fisherman and his efforts to make the sport more inclusive to other cultures and races. We see Rodriguez move away from his loving family in Houston, Texas, as he journeys to the renowned fly fishing territory of Jackson, Wyoming. The film emphasizes Rodriguez’s loving family and the toll it took to depart from them to chase his passions.

The second screening for the evening was the documentary, “Storm Lake” directed by Beth Levison and Jerry Risius. This feature film follows the journey of Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist Art Cullen and his family’s news writing and reporting company, Storm Lake Times Pilot.

The film highlights the importance of local journalism, community, and the unfortunate concept of news deserts. We get to see how their business operates during different climates, such as the 2020 presidential election, and even how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their company and the town of Storm Lake.

Once the film had concluded, a media panel followed, as Art Cullen and Beth Levison were in attendance and shared their background on the film and were ecstatic to take questions requested by the audience. Members of local media and news outlets were also present on the panel: Floyd Whiting with Sheridan Media, Bryce Jacobson with the Sheridan Press, and Kamila Kudelska with Wyoming Public Media. They, too, picked the filmmakers’ brains and expressed their takes on the topic of local media and community.

The Wyo Film Festival continues all weekend, with an immense amount of films being shown and more Q&As with some of the filmmakers following the screenings. For the full list of films being shown and the schedule throughout Saturday and Sunday, visit their website here.