Walking the Thin Line

There is much to see and hear at this year’s Thin Line Fest — Wed-Sun, Mar 18-22 — but the main attraction is, obviously, film. Thin Line is the longest-running documentary festival in Texas, showcasing both local and international auteurs. There is no cost to attend, but you’ll need to reserve your wristband at ThinLineFest.us.

With so much content to choose from, here’s a look at the North Texas topics and talent represented this year.

FILM FINDS

For the full list of feature-length films, check out our Film Shorts piece here. As for shorts, visit ThinLineFest.us. Among the movies in both lists, you will find several Texas connections.

On opening night, American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez will make its Texas premiere. This film directed by UNT alum David Alvarado follows Valdez from migrant farmworker to revolutionary artist. In the 1960s, Valdez’s El Teatro Campesino performed on flatbed trucks and helped mobilize workers to win the first farmworker union contract. Now in its 60th year, El Teatro continues to be a beacon for Latino/a creators. The screening is at Campus Theatre (214 W Hickory St, Denton) at 6:30pm today/Wed, Mar 18.

In his latest feature, The Last Picture Shows, Rustin Thompson journeys into the American West in search of traces of what was once a center of small-town life: the movie theater. Between the stops along the way, including 123 theaters in 10 states, Rustin poetically intersperses excerpts from Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 classic film The Last Picture Show — famously shot in Archer, Texas — with reflections on past and present hardships facing the film exhibition industry. The Last Picture Shows also screens at the Campus Theatre, on Thu, Mar 19, at 6pm.

Campus Theatre is also the location of the fest’s short film screenings on Sat, Mar 21. At 4:30pm is [Trans] Texan, in which two trans individuals, James and Evie, navigate their day-to-day lives while discussing the implications of the current social landscape amid the changing political environment in Texas. At 9:30pm, another Texas-centric short, God Bless Gatesville, will be screened. Director Chandler Gaydos’ mud- and humor-soaked expedition into the community, culture, and heart of an American small town as it slowly vanishes includes everything, from the lighthearted wreckage of the local rodeo to the hell-raising kids in the farm supply parking lot.

When the time came for the Coen Brothers to find the music for their uproarious 2000 Southern period piece, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they asked Fort Worth’s T Bone Burnett to handle the task. Down From the Mountain chronicles the concert that gathered the recordings for the movie, complete with backstage preparations and rehearsals. The documentary screens at Dan’s Silverleaf (103 Industrial St, Denton, 940-808-0008) on Sun, Mar 22, at 2pm.

CROSSTOWN SOUNDS

Thin Line Music serves as the festival’s soundtrack, offering a mix of styles, with regional and national acts performing on small stages in downtown Denton, including shows by many artists with Fort Worth ties like Phantomelo, Sheprador, Robyn Harrs, and Pretty Boy Aaron, as well as North Texas acts that regularly play clubs in The Fort like My Bad Sister and Troubled Minds. The best way to see who is playing where is to go to ThinLine.us, click Schedule, then use the Filters drop-down and click Music.

Several regional favorites that are always on our radar, like Brave Little Howl, Hen and the Cocks, RTB2, Sunny Disposition, and headliners Seryn will also play Thin Line this weekend.

Yes, that Seryn!

After much acclaim for 2011’s This Is Where We Are, released on the label of Fort Worth’s Spune Productions — an album we loved (“Killer or Filler?” May 11, 2011) — and 2015’s Shadow Shows, Americana favorites and native Dentonites Seryn stepped back for several years before returning to a sold-out crowd at Homegrown Fest 2019. That spark led to a new run of songs culminating with 2025’s In the Walls, a collection that gathers the band’s recent singles into one cohesive story. Seryn will perform at Dan’s Silverleaf (103 Industrial St, Denton, 940-808-0008) on Sat, Mar 21, at 10:15pm.

Besides Seryn, the music event I’m most looking forward to is O, Brother at Dan’s Silverleaf on Sun, Mar 22. After the 2pm screening of Down From the Mountain, stay put for a special concert at 4:15pm. Arranged by Denton native Scarlett Deering, this show features many talented North Texas artists covering the film’s material.

PHOTO FINISH

On the photography side of the festival, all three featured photographers are Texans. Work by Arthur Fields, Fort Worth’s Byrd Williams IV, and Angliee Wilkerson will be on display from Thu, Mar 19, to Sun, Mar 22, at three locations around Denton.

Bearded Monk (122 E McKinney St, Denton, 940-999-7238) is displaying work from Fields’ project, In-Between Places. Fields is known for his black-and-white imagery of everyday life. He often focuses on musicians, artists, and cultural communities, blending documentary realism with a strong sense of atmosphere and storytelling. In-Between Places explores the thin spaces that separate our homes — gangways, setbacks, and side yards. They form quiet, often overlooked zones that are neither public nor private. Fields thinks they reveal how we live beside one another with only a few feet of air between us, close enough to sense one another, distant enough to remain strangers.

“In documenting these spaces,” he says, “I consider what they say about separation, coexistence, and the quiet negotiations of urban life. Here, in the slivers between structures, distance becomes its own story.”

The exhibit is accessible during bar hours: noon-10pm Sun & Thu and noon-midnight Fri-Sat.

KERA Gallery, a pop-up in a free-standing building one block south of Campus Theatre, is featuring Williams’ work. The Fort Worth photog explores memory, place, and the passage of time through deeply personal visual storytelling. Continuing a multigenerational photographic legacy, Williams creates quiet, contemplative images that examine how landscapes and built environments hold emotional history. His photographs are equal parts documentary and artistic practice, inviting viewers to reflect on connection, loss, and continuity while revealing the subtle imprint people leave on the spaces they inhabit. The gallery is open noon-6pm Sun, noon-10pm Thu-Fri, and 10am-10pm Sat.

The UNT CoLab (207 N Elm St, Denton, @TheUNTCoLab), an event space that serves as a learning space for students in the College of Merchandising, Hospitality, and Tourism (CMHT), is showcasing the work of Wilkerson. This artist/photographer is exploring how personal experience shapes how we see and interpret the world, inviting viewers to reconsider familiar spaces through layered perspectives and thoughtful visual storytelling. UNT CoLab is open noon-6pm Sun, 7pm-10:30pm Wed, and 11am-8pm Thu-Sat.