Aksarben Cinema hosted the Omaha Film Festival on March 3-8, showcasing 100 different films, including movies from across the globe.
The 15-year-old festival is an event for independent filmmakers to present their work to a large audience. This opportunity attracts people who have never been to Omaha before, like Alec Mouhibian.
Mouhibian came to the film festival to show, “I Am Not Alone,” a documentary he produced about the 2018 Armenian revolution.
“It’s a story about a lone activist who goes on this hopeless march across his country with the hope of inspiring the people to rise up and topple an all-powerful regime,” said Mouhibian describing the film.
Kourosh Ahari also made his first visit to Omaha to show the Iranian psychological thriller “The Night,” which he wrote and produced.
“[The Night] is about this Iranian couple and their one-year-old daughter who are leaving from their friend’s house. They decide to spend the night in a hotel,” said Ahari. “It’s the night that they have to face the secrets they’ve been keeping from each other.”
American actor Randy J. Goodwin also made an appearance to show his film, “The Job,” a faith-based film that he wrote, directed and starred in.
“I did ninety-nine percent of all post,” said Goodwin. “It took 6 years to finish this film”
Although the Omaha Film Festival has an average of a thousand entries submitted across the world every year, the event had humble beginnings.
Fifteen years ago, co-founder Jason Levering and his friends attended a film festival in Kearney, NE and they wondered why Omaha didn’t have something similar.
“No one even knew what a film festival was in Omaha,” said Levering.
Film festivals are a major part of the film industry, and Levering said he feels there’s still room for the festival to grow in Omaha.
“Omaha is still kind of playing catch-up with the film festival world a little bit,” he said.
Levering and the filmmakers believe that the importance of having international film festivals cannot be overstated.
“What we show here are films that you’re not going to probably get to see unless you come to the film festival,” said Levering.
“Film festivals are important for discovering movies that you’re just otherwise not going to see,” said Mouhibian.
Ahari said that festivals serve as a good trial to see how people connect to the film.
Goodwin expressed similar sentiments when he said, “Your best supporters are people you’ve never known.”
The Omaha Film Festival continues to grow in size every year and Levering is looking to continue that trend next year.
