Harry Dean Stanton Fest highlights films with fellow Kentuckians, Hollywood’s Brat Pack

The Harry Dean Stanton Fest was conceived to pay tribute to Kentucky native and legendary character actor Harry Dean Stanton.

Since 2011, the movie festival has done just that, bringing in a variety of Stanton’s collaborators both on screen and behind the scenes and once, before his death in 2017, the Irvine native himself. But there have not been too many opportunities to highlight Stanton’s work with fellow Kentuckians.

Stanton’s most prominent collaboration with another Kentucky native was also one of his most enduring on- and off-screen relationships: Depoy native Warren Oates who worked with Stanton in movies like “Two-Lane Blacktop” (1971), “Dillinger” (1973), and “Cockfighter” (1974).

“I just love the idea of these two Kentucky boys randomly finding each other in Hollywood,” says Harry Dean Stanton Fest co-founder and director Lucy Jones. “They were born a few hours apart a couple of years apart, and yet they stumbled upon each other.”

Since Oates died decades before the festival was founded, he was never able to come, though the event has welcomed his biographer and brother over the years.

Kentucky ties to Harry Dean Stanton

But this year, the Fest is highlighting two Kentuckians who crossed paths with Stanton on film: Director Allison Anders, an Ashland native whose credits include “Gas Food Lodging” (1992) and “Grace of My Heart” (1996) and Will Oldham, a Louisville musician also known as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who co-wrote songs for the 2012 movie “This Must Be the Place” with David Byrne. Stanton has a brief role in the Sean Penn film about a rock star turned Nazi hunter — you read that correctly.

“It becomes a road movie, and it’s in the road movie part of the film where Sean Penn comes up against Harry,” Jones says. “It’s a very brief role, but a very pivotal role, as Harry Dean Stanton roles tend to be, where he becomes sort of the heart of the film.”

Oldham, who is also an actor, is a Stanton fan, Jones says, and has crossed-paths with him in some other ways, including having his song “I See A Darkness,” as covered by Johnny Cash, in Stanton’s final movie, “Lucky” (2017).

“Lucky” was only Stanton’s second starring role, and Anders encountered him in the other, the 1984 Palme d’Or winner “Paris, Texas.” She was a production assistant on the Wim Wenders film, which was written by long-time Kentucky resident Sam Shepard.

HDS Fest has screened the film before but won’t be able to this time because a 40th Anniversary 4K restoration of the movie is being readied for release. Anders will appear in a panel discussion with the Texas band Mydolls, which performed in a bar scene in the movie, Saturday afternoon at the Central Library’s Farish Theatre. That night, Mydolls will play with former Replacements and Guns N’ Roses member Tommy Stinson at the Green Lantern Bar. At the panel discussion, Anders will talk about her experiences working on “Paris,” including a key way she helped Stanton understand his character.

Former Guns N’ Roses bassist playing a solo Lexington gig to honor ‘Harry Dean’

“One of my very favorite things about working with Kentuckians is the utter lack of pretension or ego,” Jones said. “Both Allison and Will have been incredibly easy guests who are motivated solely by their desire to honor another artist. This festival is going to feel like a family reunion!”

Harry Dean Stanton: ‘Spiritual father’ of the Brat Pack

While the fest won’t be screening “Paris, Texas,” it will be showing two films that highlight Stanton’s connection to a pop culture phenomenon that finds itself back in the spotlight: The Brat Pack. The group of young actors in the 1980s is highlighted in a new Hulu documentary from one of those actors, Andrew McCarthy. The film grapples with whether the label placed on the group by a 1985 New York Magazine article hindered some of their careers.

In the piece, Stanton was identified as the “spiritual father” of the Brat Pack, advising them and partying with young actors such as Emilio Estevez until dawn. This year’s fest opens with Estevez and Stanton in “Repo Man” (1984), screened at the Bluegrass Memorial Gardens, where Stanton is buried. Saturday afternoon, Fest goers can catch McCarthy, Molly Ringwald, John Cryer, and Stanton in “Pretty in Pink,” a 1986 classic that gets a lot of discussion in “Brats.”

Jones says that Stanton told her he was a particularly big fan of a scene in the movie, in which he plays Ringwald’s father, where Cryer lip-syncs Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” in a record store — we must note that in the scene, Kentuckian Annie Potts drops the needle on that record.

Most of the movies being shown this year are soundtrack centered, and Jones says, “I’m just so excited that we’re able to honor Harry’s love of music. That’s been a theme that we wanted to explore for quite a while. And we’re so happy that it’s finally come together this year.

“If you love music, then you will have a great time this weekend.”

Harry Dean Stanton Festival

The Harry Dean Stanton Festival is July 12 to 14 with the following events in Lexington:

• “Repo Man” (1984), Bluegrass Memorial Gardens; gates at 8 p.m. July 12, movie at dusk.

• “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), Central Library Farish Theatre, noon July 13

• Panel discussion about the making of “Paris, Texas” with Production Assistant Allison Anders and band Mydolls, Farish Theatre, 2:30 p.m. July 13

• “Pretty in Pink” (1986), Farish Theatre, 3:15 p.m. July 13

• Tommy Stinson and Mydolls, The Green Lantern Bar, 8 p.m. July 13, $18 advance, $25 door

• “Cisco Pike” (1971), Farish Theatre, 1 p.m. July 14

• “The Rose” (1979), Farish Theatre, 2:50 p.m.

• “This Must Be the Place” (2012) with pre-show Q&A with Will Oldham, Kentucky Theatre, 7 p.m. July 14, $10

All events free, unless otherwise noted. For more information visit harrydeanstantonfest.org.