Rural Route Film Festival’s ‘Very Best Of’ tour rolls into Cedar Rapids

Elkader native Alan Webber is back in Iowa for two presentations of his Rural Route Film Festival — tonight, April 19 at CSPS Hall in Cedar Rapids (tickets are $10) and Sunday, April 22 at Luther College in Decorah, as part of the Oneota Film Festival, which kicks off tonight with local success story Saving Brinton and runs through Sunday (tickets are $5-25).

Webber co-founded Rural Route in 2002 in New York City. The aim, the festival’s website says, was “to highlight works that deal with unique people and places outside of the bustle of the city.” The works on this year’s program include a sci-fi music video made for British electronic duo Plaid, a documentary set in the industrial sugar farms of the Florida Everglades (The Rabbit Hunt) and a delightfully animated and scored tale of the hunger of a rustic yogi (Hillbelly). The films originate from a wide variety of locales, including Arizona, Hungary and Ethiopia.

CSPS Legion Arts is presenting the Rural Route Film Festival in conjunction with the Coe College Marquis Series. Tickets are free to Coe students, faculty and staff. Webber graduated from Coe in 1998 before continuing to New School University in New York City for his master’s degree.