Buster’s back.
The Buster Keaton Celebration will return to Iola in September after a four-year hiatus.
Starting in 1993, annual festivals honored the legendary screen actor and innovator who was born in Piqua. When a grant that funded the program ended in 2017, the festival moved to Kansas City for a year.
The committee planned to bring the event back to Iola in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to rethink those plans.
Turns out, that delay gave the committee an extra year to plan, member Bruce Symes said. As a result, the festival will be a rebirth of sorts.
It will pay tribute to the evolving nature of life and art.
The celebration itself will morph into a hybrid of in-person and virtual, in recognition of technology that allows us to share special moments while separated by distance. Such a concept may not have been considered if not for the pandemic.
And the theme of the celebration, “Buster Keaton in Changing Times,” will recognize the many iterations of the artist, from his early years (including is birth in Piqua), through the vaudeville years, the silent film era, the transition to sound, his experience in television, his final films, and the last years of his life.
Dan Kays, executive director of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, says he hopes the festival’s return will introduce Keaton to a younger generation.
He sees many parallels between Keaton and today’s youth.
“He inspires the imagination,” Kays said. “He was so innovative in terms of how he filmed things.
“Even in this digital world, look at what kids are doing today in terms of TikTok. They are doing very innovative things that would have appealed to Buster Keaton.”
Symes agreed.
“Part of Buster’s charm is a childlike meekness. An innocence. Good vs. bad. Or the underdog who always comes out on top,” Symes said. “I think those are universal things that appeal to all ages.”
THE FESTIVAL will offer two days of movies and discussion at the Bowlus, along with tours at Piqua on Sept. 24 and 25. Feature films will be presented each night.
