Faces and Places of the Bankhead Highway Video Contest

The Faces and Places of the Bankhead Highway video contest aims to promote the cultural and architectural heritage of the Historic Bankhead Highway in Texas. Developed and administered by the Texas Historical Commission heritage tourism program, we invite filmmakers—from the novice to the seasoned professional—to adventure along the route of the Bankhead Highway across Texas and capture travel experiences that embody Texas’ earliest infatuation with car culture and the romance of the open road. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Bankhead Highway. Known as the Broadway of America, the Bankhead Highway was the first interstate highway to span the southern United States, leading westward from Washington D.C. to its termination in San Diego. The route covers more than 850 miles of Texas between Texarkana and El Paso, and is characterized by a rich legacy of early to mid-1990s modern architecture, providing filmmakers a diverse palette of historic structures and community lore. Submissions should showcase the highlights of your Bankhead Highway adventure in social media style videos of five minutes in length or less. Visit the restored courthouses and historic downtowns that make Texas proud. Talk with business owners, waitresses, mechanics, and people of the everyday. Seek out and record the real stories of the Bankhead Highway, show us how to have a road-trip adventure, and contribute to the way Texans remember this historic route. Production quality may vary widely—from cell phones and hand-helds, to boom mounts and drones—let your creativity guide you! Filmmakers may navigate their road trip along this historic route using the web version of the Texas Historical Commission’s Historic Bankhead Highway mobile tour found online at the following link: http://texastimetravel.toursphere.com/en/historic-bankhead-highway-77064.html —or— you may download the app directly to your iOS or Android device: http://texastimetravel.com/travel-themes/main-bankhead-highway Selected submissions will be circulated on the Texas Historical Commission’s social media channels, and winning submissions will be screened at the DRIVEN film festival in Mount Vernon, Texas, September 9–11, 2016.