The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival wrapped up last weekend. And the winners? Drum roll please…
The Spa City Best Documentary Feature went to “American Promise,” directed by Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster. Shot over 13 years, the film chronicles the story of Stephenson and Brewster’s own son and his best friend, as they navigate their way through Dalton, a prestigious prep school (the two boys are black, Dalton is predominantly white). The Spa City Audience Award was a tie between Linda Bloodworth Thomason’s “Bridegroom,” the moving story of a same-sex couple struck by tragedy and “Getting Back to Abnormal,” a fascinating and character-rich look at politics and race in post-Katrina New Orleans from Peter Stekler, Peter Odabashian, Andy Kolker, and Louis Alvarez.
Other winners — Spa City Best Documentary Short: Kerry Kolbe’s “The German Who Came to Tea”; Special Jury Mention: Katrine W. Kjaer’s “Mercy Mercy: A Portrait of True Adoption”; Spa City Lifetime Career Achievement: Peter Coyote; Spa City Moxie Award: Bill McAdams, Jr.’s “Jose Canseco: The Truth Hurts”; The Clyde Scott Award for Best Sports Feature (Tie): Mike Looney’s “The Big Shootout: Life and Times of 1969” and Lukas Korver’s “The Medicine Game”; 103.7 The Buzz Audience Favorite: Matthew Wolfe’s “The Identity Theft of Mitch Mustain”; Hope Award for Impact on Humanitarianism: “Bridegroom.”