Craig Renaud
Documentary Filmmaker and Co-founder of the Little Rock Film Festival
Little Rock | Downtown

Cannes. Sundance. Tribeca. Little Rock.

That’s right. While not commonly listed alongside these film festival heavyweights, Little Rock Film Festival co-founder Craig Renaud plans to change that and hopes his hometown will soon hold their company.

Craig founded the festival with his brother, Brent Renaud, who he also makes award-winning documentary films with. Together, the Renaud Brothers take credit for acclaimed titles like “Bridge to Baghdad,” Dope Sick Love,” “Taking the Hill” and “Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later.” All have received critical acclaim, and several earned them awards and additional nominations.

The duo travels the world for work – filming in Haiti, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Bolivia, Kenya, Mexico, Armenia, Kuwait, Venezuela, Nepal and Cuba (to name a few) – but call New York City home base. Brent also resides there, but Craig recently returned to Little Rock (he’d moved away 20 years ago) to plant roots with his family and to focus on growing the Little Rock Film Festival.

“We felt Little Rock was the perfect city for a festival,” Craig said. “The city has a strong love for the arts, a beautiful downtown, lots of companies who support community events, and locals that love to have a good time.

“I can’t remember how many films we showed the first year, but I remember being shocked by the crowds and the enthusiasm,” he said. “With so much community support, we felt like we didn’t have a choice but to make it an annual event. We’ve now been ranked as a top 25 festival in the country — twice.”

How does Little Rock’s film scene compare to other cities? Well, come this winter, the movie scene in Little Rock will get even better. The Arcade Theater will be open by January 2014, and I’m really excited about what it has to offer people. The Little Rock Film Festival will be showing movies there year-round, and will host a number of film festivals there throughout the year, in addition to the big festival in May.

What do you love most about living in Little Rock again? I spend most of my time in Little Rock, but still work a lot in New York with my brother. For us, moving back to Little Rock from New York and living downtown in the River Market Tower (RMT) is the best of both worlds.

So Little rock’s downtown lifestyle won you over? Downtown is actually very family friendly. We’ve become very close friends with a lot of people in our building. In fact, the entire building has gotten to know our son Tai, and look out for my wife and son when I’m out of town. Also, I love the fact that we only need one car. I work downtown and walk to the office; and because I travel a lot for work, I don’t have the headaches of home upkeep.

Craig’s Favorites

  • Best bets for dinner: Taziki’s, South on Main, Copper Grill, Local Lime, Big Orange, The Root Café, ZAZA, The Fold
  • Favorite brunch spot: YaYa’s Euro Bistro
  • When you have a hankering for barbeque: Whole Hog Café
  • Best place to wind down with a glass of wine: Crush Wine Bar, Zin Urban Wine & Beer Bar
  • Favorite Family Hangouts: Little Rock Zoo, Movies in the Park, Hillary Clinton Children’s Library, Museum of Discovery