When Heather Waters started the Richmond International Film Festival (RIFF) twelve years ago, it was a small festival with only 16 or 17 short films and a few special live music events.
Fast forward to this year and you could call Waters a bit of an overachiever. This year’s festival runs Sept. 26 through Oct. 1, bringing 195 film premieres from the United States and 20 other countries, including Spain, Israel, Germany, and Japan, plus 30 national and international bands. To round out the event, organizers have added the first annual Global Visionary Summit Cinema and Panel series, signature community events, and, fittingly, the red carpet at various venues across Richmond.
The theme of togetherness was chosen to celebrate Richmond’s connectedness as a community and to bring people together through film and music by creating meaningful dialogue. Waters points to how much is going on in the world right now, including significant change, growth, new possibilities in technology and other areas, yet also with rising division in others. “In the midst of that, and in light of what our country has faced over the last few years, we felt it was the perfect time to celebrate our togetherness,” she explains. “There’s a lot of amazing energy in our city, and I think many of us share a similar vision for shepherding the creativity taking place in our vibrant community.”
It took time to build it, but RIFF has found its footing over the last few years. The festival brings in over 300 filmmakers and musicians each year, aiming for diverse programming that offers something that appeals to virtually anyone. “Like many festivals, we were relieved to make it through the pandemic years. People really started rooting for us then, which kept us going,” she recalls. “We’re now thriving and have grown to be one of the largest film festivals in this part of the country.”
Each year, the festival has live music nightly at partnering venues such as Vagabond, New York Deli, Hardywood, and In Your Ear Studios, but they also do one big day of music. This year, the timing was perfect for RIFF to join forces with another team in town called HeartStrings, which is run by Jason Farlow, Jon Russell of the Head and the Heart, and the folks at SHOWX. John Russell will headline the event.
Licks, Flicks and Love will feature a lineup of 16 bands that for a full day at Hardywood downtown on Friday, Sept. 29 with indoor and outdoor stages running from 11 a.m. through 10 p.m., along with a film premiere of “Art Dealers,” featuring Adam Weiner of Low Cut Connie. “This guy is incredible, and everyone will get the chance to see him perform that evening as well,” Waters says. “Many acts are traveling in for the show, plus there’ll be tattoo, yoga, and drum stations.”
Part of the goal of Licks, Flicks and Love is bringing film and music together, which is one of the RIFF’s continuing focuses, but this year’s event also supports mental health charities and those without homes. Says Waters: “It’s a way for us all to come together to enjoy the day while lending support to others wherever we can.”
One of the fun things about festivals like RIFF or Sundance, Tribeca and many others is that the audience gets to see the films before they hit the theatres. That makes it exciting, but so is the opportunity to meet filmmakers and hear directly from them about their inspiration and, in some cases, the challenges they went through to get to the final cut. “It’s a very cool thing to see the film and experience the opportunity to engage in person with filmmakers from the West and East Coast, and in our case, also 20 other countries,” she says. “It’s important for the filmmakers as well, in that it provides them laurels and other accolades when they get into festivals, and this often helps build their audiences and get better distribution deals.”
So how’s the average Joe supposed to sift through a schedule offering 195 films and 30 bands to decide where to be when? “That’s a tough one, but most larger festivals have multiple things going on around various venues at once,” Waters says. “Ours is no exception, so part of the fun is going through the online schedule and digging through all the options, then choosing that one or two each day that you feel you just can’t miss.”
And if you’re looking for a feel-good reason to attend, it could be as simple as how RIFF helps Richmond. The six-day festival brings tourism to the city every year. They also do a lot of work behind the scenes year-round, helping to build the city’s film and music industries, and develop local artists through the RIFF Arts Institute.
“Building these industries was one of the festival’s starting objectives. We wanted to grow the arts and get folks working together in the community around a shared vision for the city,” Waters adds. “The festival provides the perfect exhibition platform for that building up of Richmond and churning out great local talent that we can share with the rest of the world.”
The 12th Annual Richmond International Film Festival runs Sept. 26 – through Oct. 1 at various venues. For schedule, tickets and information: https://riff.eventive.org.
