For the past six years, Toni Staniewicz has put cowboys and cowgirls on center stage in Vacaville. This year, her festival has grown into a family weekend affair.
The Wild West Family Festival, held Oct. 12-13, will feature movie screenings Saturday and Sunday, as well as chili cooking showdowns, pie-eating contests, line dancing and more.
However, the festival didn’t start out so grandly.
Stanjewicz launched the original festival just six years ago after a flash of inspiration.
“I went to the Cannes Film Festival and saw the documentary and was really surprised,” says Stanevich. “I fell in love with them, so I said I wanted to do a documentary when I got back to California.”
“I loved cowboy stories, and I loved untold stories,” Staniewicz says. At first I wasn’t sure what I wanted my first documentary to be about. But after learning about black cowboys in the American West, she found her feature film.
Staniewicz began filming the documentary with a crew of about 20 people.
“We went around and listened to stories,” Stanivich says. She spoke with actors who live on the farm, including James Pickens Jr. from the hit TV show “Grey’s Anatomy.”
After filming the documentary, Staniewicz had just one question. “What should we do with this?”
“I looked at everyone and said, ‘Hey, we should start our own western festival,'” Stanevich says.
I mean, that’s what she did.
Staniewicz said after coming up with the name for the festival, the next step was handing out the awards.
“For me, I can’t be satisfied with just a small award. It has to go big. Everything has to be grand,” says Stanewicz.
This year’s awards include the Westie Award, which recognizes the best film in each category, and the True Grit Award, which recognizes first responders, military personnel, and civilians who have exhibited extraordinary behavior.
This year’s festival will premiere Staniewicz’s latest documentary, “John Payne the One-Armed Bandit.” This feature is based on Payne, an experienced rodeo entertainer and rancher who lost his right arm in a 1973 electrical accident. Since then, Payne has won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Specialty Act of the Year award 15 times.
“He’s a modern-day Wild Bill Hickok,” Stanivich said. “He’s a living legend.”
The documentary will be available in short form at the festival on Saturday, and the full-length documentary is still in production and will premiere on April 5th. Just over a week before this year’s festival, Stanjewicz was preparing to shoot the final leg. A documentary about the rodeo at Payne’s house.
But documentaries aren’t the only thing Staniewicz is working on for the festival. This year’s theme is “Women of the Wild West,” and Stanjevic said it was inspired by the women who volunteered to help with the festival.
“They are all women between the ages of 50 and 80, and they spend their time doing this: being good doers, being the unsung heroes. You may not know their names, but all of them It looks like the work is done and it’s just beautiful,” Stanewicz said.
Over the past six years, the Wild West Film Festival has continued to grow.
“We’re making good progress,” Stanevich said. “Even through COVID-19, we continue to persevere. Even if only 100 people showed up, we just kept doing what we had to do.”
If you go
What — Wild West Family Festival When — Oct. 12, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Oct. 13, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Where — 308 Main St., Vacaville
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