Jackson Free Press

With the amount of filming in Jackson in the past few years, you can't blame anyone for hoping a homegrown Hollywood is in Mississippi's future. While some focus only on the opportunities ahead, Edward Saint Pe', founder and director of the Mississippi International Film Festival, is paving the way for emerging moviemakers right now. This year's festival offers 12 hours of nonstop movie screenings that otherwise might slip by viewers.

"We try to bring in films that would probably not ever be seen around here, mainly because they're independent international and domestic films," Saint Pe' says.

The festival will feature workshops for acting and screenwriting and present movies from a wide variety of genres, including documentaries, student films, narrative features, short films and the newest category, action-adventure, which includes extreme-sports footage. While the event has spanned two to three full days in the past, a majority of this year's festival takes place on Saturday, Nov. 8. Two free films will be shown Friday, Nov. 7, at the Courtyard Marriott: director Rob Florence's "Zach and Addie," a documentary about the famous French Quarter murder-suicide, and director Tom Stout's southern drama, "L.A. Dirt."

Saint Pe' says the shortened duration gives his team a chance to adjust to the new location, the renovated Cinemark Tinseltown in Pearl. But it meant a more rigorous process for film selection.

Over the festival's five-year existence, Saint Pe' has built an artistic atmosphere around it, which makes it a perfect venue for timely, thought-provoking movies. In 2011, Danny Glover (of "Lethal Weapon" and "The Color Purple" fame) appeared and spoke at the festival to promote his 2010 civil-rights drama "Freedom Song." Two of this year's biggest films are producer Robbie Fisher's "Mississippi Love Story" and "Mississippi I Am" from special guest Lance Bass. The State of Mississippi will give him a homecoming award.

Saint Pe' brings passion and a wealth of experience to the Mississippi International Film Festival, gained from a turbulent yet fortuitous career in entertainment. At age 20, he moved from Louisiana to New York City to pursue an acting career. Soon after, he took his first TV job in broadcast operation control at NBC headquarters. In 1980, Saint Pe' moved back to Louisiana, hoping to nab a local TV spot in New Orleans. After a few months of unemployment, he took a delivery job at Jackson's WLBT, hoping it could lead to writing opportunities.

In 1981, Saint Pe' wrote and appeared regularly on "Our Playmates," a local children's show, as a rotund cattle-roper named Cowboy Bill. A short time later, Saint Pe' became WLBT's weekend weatherman. In 1991, Saint Pe' founded WeatherVision, a syndicated forecast company that serves TV stations and networks around the nation.

He now owns WLEZ Radio, teaches as an adjunct professor of broadcast meteorology at Jackson State University's e-Center and hosts JSUTV's new nightly interview show, "Nightique," on Comcast Channel 14.

Although Jacksonians won't find big-budget hits filming around every street corner just yet, the Mississippi International Film Festival builds up our city's movie community, allowing up-and-coming artists to learn from one another and share their visions on film.

The Mississippi International Film Festival is 11 a.m. to midnight Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Cinemark Tinseltown (411 Riverwind Drive, Pearl; 601-936-5856). The pre-festival screening is 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7 at the Courtyard Marriott (415 Riverwind Drive, Pearl). All-day tickets are $6, and acting and screenwriting workshops are $10 each. For more information, visit msfilm.org.