Sy Gomberg, who headed the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the time, visited Hot Springs in 1991. Like so many other visitors to the Spa City through the decades, he fell in love with the place. Gomberg urged business and civic leaders to start a documentary film festival.

"In 1992, a small group of arts enthusiasts in the area initiated the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival," writes historian Nancy Hendricks. "A special attraction that year was award-winning actor James Whitmore. Ten documentary films that had been nominated for Academy Awards were shown with Whitmore commenting that Hot Springs could be 'the documentary capital of the world.'

"By 1993, the number of entries quadrupled, with 44 documentary films being screened. Actor James Ea

See Full Page