This weekend, Garland will host the "It Came from Texas" film festival. This is the festival's fourth year.
This year, the festival is celebrating 60 years of Star Trek. Organizers will show the "Space Seed" episode of "Star Trek", "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", and the 2009 film directed by J.J. Abrams.
It Came From Texas typically runs films made in Texas. The Star Trek films may not have been produced in Texas, but Gene Roddenberry was from El Paso.
"We feel like there's a connection," says Amy Rosenthal, Garland's cultural arts director. "What I love about Kelly, she has really curated a fun, quirky, authentic, little unusual type of film festival. We felt this was in the spirit of 'It Came from Texas.'"
Kelly Kitchens is the director of the festival.
"A huge part of why I love this festival is taking things, 'Let's talk about why this is important,' why they did things this way," Kitchens says.
By focusing on the anniversary of "Star Trek", Kitchens says It Came from Texas can look at how the television show fit into the social environment of its time.
"(Diversity) was a really big deal in the civil rights era and the Cold War," she says.
Nancy Churnin will serve as event moderator. She says the "Twilight Zone" was able to start a dialogue about issues censors might not have allowed by placing them in an alternate universe. She says "Star Trek" followed that by setting the discussions in outer space.
"I believe Gene Roddenberry was a similar kind of visionary. He said in interviews, by going to space, he was able to do what Rod Serling did," she says. "He was able to bring up ideas, thoughts and questions that might have been censored if the people didn't look like aliens."
Churnin says Uhura's kiss with Captain Kirk might have been controversial, but she says Nichelle Nichols wanted to leave the series after the first season.
"The reason she stayed was because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr told her what that meant to him. That was the only show he let his kids stay up to see," Churnin says. "It meant so much to him and so many others to see her on the stage as a lieutenant, as an important member of the Enterprise."
"She was equal and included," Kitchens says.
Garland City Councilman Chris Ott says the city already has a connection to the TV series and films. Garland's road network includes a "Celestial Street" area with names like "Star Trek Lane." He says Garland has also signed an "intergalactic proclamation" with Riverside, Iowa, the town where Captain Kirk was born.
Ott says Garland has also signed a proclamation with Ticonderoga, New York. Actor James Cawley, who has portrayed Captain Kirk in a fan film series, has recreated the original set.
"We look at cultural arts as economic development and also just culture," he says. "We have a wide variety of cultural arts in the City of Garland. We are big believers. It helps drive people to restaurants and other events we have here."
As the Metroplex grows, he says events like this weekend's festival can show people a "new Garland."
"That's something we've been working on for so long. Our downtown is part of the fruit of that," he says. "These are some of the things we find absolutely essential to be able to bump into our neighbors, tell our story, to do it in a little bit different way."
The film industry is also growing across Texas. The University of Texas at Arlington has been adding options for students interested in film and television as productions have moved from California.
"As the film and media industries continue to grow across North Texas, this is an important moment for UTA to invest in the future of creative education," Elizabeth Newman, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, wrote in a statement.
This fall, Dr. Rachel Raimist joined the faculty as the Morgan Woodward Distinguished Professor of Film and Video in the Department of Art and Art History. She has directed episodes of Bel-Air; Elsbeth; Nancy Drew; Roswell, New Mexico and other shows.
"There's been a shift in television and the quieting, in certain ways, in the L.A. market," she says. "I thought it's a great time to come to a place that is booming in terms of filmmaking. In North Texas, there's a lot happening in the television space, the indie film space. I thought, 'Why not come and help shape the next generation of filmmakers in a place where there's incredible locations, really talented people and an industry that's really growing."
Raimist says she works with students to help them find the right venue for their work. With so many options available from major studios to self-publishing material on YouTube or TikTok, she says students can work in different media and learn whether they find more interest in longer pieces or short work. Despite a change in how people consume video, she says people who will succeed long-term must focus on the story.
"The challenge is how do you find an audience?" she asks. "You've got to make good content, great films that make people lean in. We can really inspire students here on campus and local filmmakers to really dig into story. What are you trying to say? How are you going to say it? What's the right format, whether it's a short film, a feature film or a vertical series, which is the new web series."
Raimist says the ability for people to shoot high-quality video with phones and devices they already own have eliminated barriers to enter the industry.
"You don't always need big crews. I love Taylor Sheridan is shooting in Fort Worth with big crews, but not all of us are going to direct those kinds of shows or work on that scale of projects," she says.
Raimist says students now have so many options to make a living with filmmaking. Even outside of independent avenues like TikTok, she says some might find they are passionate about a cause and can make documentaries or produce promotional movies for use by non-profits.
She says students now learn the film industry, but the program at UT Arlington helps them learn the business of filmmaking. She says concepts they learn in class will help them regardless what career they choose.
"We're not just training them to work in television, but we're preparing them for life," she says. "We're helping them learn problem-solving, creative decision making, creative collaboration, working together. I always hear, 'Film, it's so fun!' Yes, it is fun, but it's incredibly challenging because you have to write it, you have to plan it, you have to do shot lists then record it, edit it. It's very labor and time intensive."
The Star Trek episode, Space Seed, and films will be shown at Plaza Theater, 521 W. State Street in Garland. The theater was built in 1941 and was restored in 2001.
Barney Burman, a makeup artist who started working with his father at "Star Trek III" and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for his work on "Star Trek" in 2010, will be attending.
"For 'Star Trek,' I worked on it every single day for six months averaging about four hours of sleep per night," he says. "My first day on 'Star Trek' started the day before my first day of shooting. I got up, I worked all day managing a crew. My crew got things to a certain point then I started working. I started painting aliens until three or four in the morning. I let them dry for an hour, drove them to set and was ten minutes late."
Burman's other credits include "Mission Impossible III," "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny" and "Tropic Thunder."
"With 'Star Trek,' J.J.'s actual words to me were, 'I don't know what these aliens need to look like, I just know they need to be right," Burman says. "He followed that up with, 'I know that's tantamount to finding the woman you're going to marry over and over and over again, but that's what we need to do."
Burman started his own shop and says he keeps most supplies he needs in his studio, but each project is different and may need something unique.
"You might send somebody out for a day or two days of shopping for the things you don't have that you're going to need," he says. "A lot of times, you don't even know what you're going to need until you get there. For 'Grimm', we had to make this head-to-toe monster that had to glow from the inside out like a lava man."
For young people who might be considering a career, he says the industry is constantly changing.
"The advice is do it. Don't find the way in, don't find the person, start doing it. There's never been more ability to create and display your work than there is right now," he says. "If you don't have an Instagram, TikTok or something where you are creating work and putting it up--if you don't have a YouTube channel where you're putting your work up, you're just delaying your own success."
He says artificial intelligence is also playing a greater role in the industry, but he says
"I'm always saying, 'How do I get down to the person underneath it?' I don't want a mask, I want to get down to the person underneath it," he says.
Tickets for "It Came from Texas" cost $50. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Plaza Theater. Details are available at GarlandArts.com. Also Saturday, the Garland Central Library will have a free display including collectibles, fan films and blooper reels. Visitors can also make their own tribbles, write a captain's log and join a science fiction writing session. The library is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
