Rex Sikes' Movie Beat

Rick Vaicius is director and founder of Flyway Film Festival, Wisconsin's bluff premier destination for independent film as noted by Emmy award-winning blogger Scott W. Smith “ … a festival that should be on your radar” . Founded in 2008 it evolved from the monthly film programming and semi-annual filmmaker events Vaicius proposed and curated at the Lake Pepin Art & Design Center in Pepin. Vaicius has created a standout, intimate and high-quality annual festival. Over the past four years, Flyway has brought over 80 filmmakers into the local community. In addition to screening remarkable films, it has become a unique venue for filmmakers to network and discuss projects and the "state of the industry" in the film world. Vaicius has already persuaded some top film industry talent to appear including Brian Newman (former CEO of Robert DeNiro's Tribeca Film Festival), director Kelley Baker (former Hollywood sound designer known as the “Angry Filmmaker"); director/author John Reiss (Bomb It, “Think Outside the