This year, the celebrated acting-directing-producing couple Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield will present their new film at The Beloit International Film Festival and present a free Saturday workshop on filmmaking, open to the public.
The film, a PG-13 narrative feature, One Smart Fellow, stars the couple and is co-directed by Busfield. It is set during a weekend holiday on the coast of North Carolina where a not so smart fellow turns his family’s life upside down.
Their workshop will take place in Richardson Auditorium at Beloit College on Saturday morning, Feb. 27, from 10 to noon and is of particular interest to students of the art and craft of filmmaking. The award-winning duo will talk about getting started in filmmaking, making films on a tight budget, and turning a story into a screenplay and will answer questions. Seating is limited.
Ms. Gilbert played Laura Ingalls Wilder for ten years in the television series Little House on the Prairie. Since then she has appeared in scores of films for television and the big screen, and toured on stage as “Ma” Wilder in a musical version of Little House. In 2012 she was a contestant on Dancing With the Stars. Beyond her acting and directing, she served five years as president of the Screen Actors Guild and is currently a candidate for Congress in Michigan.
An Emmy Award-winning actor for his work on Thirtysomething, Timothy Busfield has been a regular or recurring character on 11 television series including The West Wing, Ed and Without a Trace. He has appeared in over 30 feature films and television movies, has directed more than 90 television episodes and has appeared in over 50 plays, including the Broadway productions of Neil Simon‘s Brighton Beach Memoirs and Aaron Sorkin‘s A Few Good Men.
One Smart Fellow will be screened on Feb 26 at the Hendricks Center for the Arts, at 7:30 p.m. Gilbert and Busfield will introduce the film and answer questions. Tickets are currently available online at BeloitFilmFest.org and at the BIFF Box Office at Gallery Abba at 437 East Grand Ave.
