‘Saving Magic 11th Street’ slated for East Texas Film Festival

Sep. 2, 2016

The new Garland-based documentary, “Saving Magic 11th Street,” will be featured at the 2016 DRIVEN Festival sponsored by the Franklin County Arts Alliance Saturday, Sept. 10, in Mount Vernon in East Texas.

The film festival celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Bankhead Highway, which ran through Garland as well as by the Mount Vernon Town Square. “Saving Magic 11th Street” made its debut during Garland’s recent Heritage Celebration at which the Bankhead Highway anniversary was observed.

The DRIVEN Festival is being sponsored in an alliance with the Texas Historical Commission. Several “Faces and Places Submissions” from the Texas Bankhead Video Competition will be viewed and a winning entry announced.

“Saving Magic 11th Street,” a 25-minute, privately produced documentary, follows the plight of the two-block Travis College Hill neighborhood in Garland, as its residents begin the battle to reclaim their community. It shows the restoration efforts on the Garland Square as well as the in-tandem reclamation of the 11th Street residential area. The film will be shown between 2-3 p.m. at the

Cultural Arts Center, 120 Rusk in Mount. Vernon.

Besides the Garland video and the Bankhead Video Competition, the DRIVEN Festival also will feature a display of the “General Lee,” one of the cars used on the “Dukes of Hazzard” television series, and a presentation by film director Brad Maule. Maule is an award-winning “General Hospital” television personality now residing in East Texas. All of these events occur Saturday beginning at 2 p.m.

The early transcontinental Bankhead Highway traversed 850 miles across Texas from Texarkana to El Paso.

The video was produced by MJM Advertising. For more information about the festival, contact 903-305-8023, or franklincountyarts@gmail.com.

Archives