DCFF will present three in-person and one virtual event throughout the 2022 festival! These are open to the public and ticketed. More on ticketing can be found on our Ticketing & Streaming page.
COVID SAFETY
DCFF will require all festival patrons, guests, partners, employees and staff entering DCFF’s partnering venues show either proof of a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours prior to the event or proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 with an FDA or WHO-approved vaccine. Face coverings will also be required, regardless of vaccination or test status, for all guests (ages 2 and up) entering partnering venues, except when actively eating and/or drinking.
Led by filmmaker, festival programmer and journalist Bears Rebecca Fonté, this free panel is designed to share tricks of the trade when it comes to writing horror. Join us (online) on February 27 at 1pm PST to hear our special guests’ unique insights on the lucrative world of genre filmmaking. Panelists include Brinna Kelly, Leah McKendrick, Chris Bavota and Lee Paula Springer.
Bears Rebecca is a transgender filmmaker, festival programmer, and journalist. She founded Other Worlds Film Festival after two years as the Director of Programming for Austin Film Festival. She covers genre and LGBTQ films for Hammer to Nail. In 2021, she was named Artistic Director of aGLIFF, Austin’s Queer festival and the oldest film fest in Austin. She is on the Board of Directors of the Film Festival Alliance.
Brinna Kelly started her film career in front of the camera at the age of 10 in China, when her ballet training and unique ethnic mix caught the eye of casting directors. As a child she performed in various television shows and films including for Oscar-nominated director Zhou Sun. She then relocated to Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA’s prestigious school of Theatre, Film, and Television where she studied under Tony award-winning director Mel Shapiro. In 2016, her feature writing debut The Midnight Man, starring William Forsythe, Vinnie Jones, and Brent Spiner, was released in North America and around the world to positive reviews. Further critical acclaim followed in 2019 with the release of sci-fi fantasy The Fare which she wrote, produced, and starred in. For The Fare she was nominated and won several awards for her work as a writer and actor. 2022 will see the World Premiere of her relationship-based horror-thriller Have.Hold.Take, which she wrote, produced and stars in. Later this year, she will begin production on her most recent script, the religious horror film, Sin.
Chris was raised on a steady diet of B-movie action and psychological horror. Beginning his career as a screenwriter, he collaborated with multiple directors on commercial and narrative projects.
With a background in literary and film translation, Lee has adapted several French-language film scripts (The Sinner, The Tempest), as well as the Spanish-language novel Baile con serpientes into English. After appearing in the short films Even the Darkness has Arms and Zomboni, she moved behind the camera.
Leah McKendrick is a Nicaraguan/Scottish/Irish multi-hyphenate from San Francisco. She created and starred in the critically acclaimed musical series, “Destroy the Alpha Gammas” which made her a Webby Award Honoree and a Streamy Award Nominee. “M.F.A.”, the vigilante thriller which she wrote/produced/starred in alongside Francesca Eastwood was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at SXSW. M.F.A. was dubbed “the first horror movie to speak to the #MeToo era” by The New York Times and was released theatrically by Dark Sky Films in 2017. Her 2019 feature “Deviant Love” was directed by Michael Feifer. Leah has been featured on the Black List, the Hit List and on Tracking Board’s Young and Hungry list of Hollywood’s Top New Writers. In 2019 she boarded the highly-anticipated “Grease” prequel “Summer Lovin'” for Paramount Pictures, penning the script with John August.
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Join us for a special in-person screening of THE SOUND OF US, the award-winning documentary Harper’s Bazaar calls a “rousing ode to the healing power of music.” Featuring interviews with Patti Smith, Bettye LaVette, Jason Mraz, Sarah McLachlan and more, THE SOUND OF US weaves inspirational stories about the beauty and goodness of music, showing how music heals us, gives us hope for the future through our children, keeps our legacy and history alive, allows us to have the hardest conversations, sheds light on current struggles and continues to invite us to return to the thing that unites us all.
DCFF loves local, and you should too! Fall in love with local films at our March 4th Common Ground screening at the Blue Mouse Theatre. That’s right – in person! We’ll be showcasing our carefully-curated selection of nine Evergreen (locally-produced) short films. Come discover new talent, make new connections and celebrate the achievements of local filmmakers. See the film lineup here.
At DCFF, we aim to engage our community and ignite conversations that extend beyond the world of film. This year, in partnership with SHARE, Pongo Poetry Project, and Underground Writing, DCFF is honored a host to screening of the short film IN BETWEEN. The event will also feature poetry readings and a panel conversation by community members involved in programs that support King and Pierce counties’ incarcerated and other underserved communities.
Panelists include Chanel Rhymes, Director of Advocacy at Northwest Community Bail Fund, Felice Upton (Davis) – Assistant Secretary for Juvenile Rehabilitation for WA Department of Children, Youth and Families and Pongo Poetry Project board members.
In addition to our in-person event, IN BETWEEN will be available to stream for free on our virtual cinema platform here. Written by a student in the Screenwriting Program at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, IN BETWEEN (directed by Lindy Boustedt) is based on a true story. Through the lens of a what-if.
It’s the late-1980s and Lisa, a biracial teenager having just moved to Seattle from London, is forced into a new world when she is segregated to a different school from her white sister. But when she meets a welcoming student at orientation, everything changes.