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Inaugural VASHON ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL
August 12, 2022 @ 8:00 am - August 14, 2022 @ 5:00 pm MST
Vashon Film Institute Hosts Inaugural VASHON ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL August 12-14, 2022
With a focus on “putting the ‘independent’ back in ‘film festival,’” VIFF will showcase 10 feature films and 10 short films, all independently-produced, as well as a series of supplementary events in effort to raise funds for the iconic Vashon Theater
The Vashon Film Institute (VFI), a new non-profit organization dedicated to fostering independent filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest, has announced it will host the inaugural Vashon Island Film Festival (VIFF) on August 12-14, 2022, where it will screen 10 feature films and 10 short films that have distinguished themselves recently on the festival circuit, and present a variety of other film-centric events for festival patrons to experience, including its Opening Night Gala and Saturday Night Soiree, as well as a few seminars and lectures delivered by notable guests working in the film industry. One hundred percent of all profits generated by VIFF will go to the Vashon Theater, the island’s iconic and only cinema house that was constructed in 1947 and is family-operated.
“Our goal is to create a unique festival experience for the island and its neighboring communities, showcasing preeminent independent film content, while also helping preserve a local site of significant cultural and historical import” says prolific film producer and VFI President Mark Mathias Sayre. “Independent theaters were hit particularly hard during the pandemic, and most now require the assistance of their community to keep their doors open. The Vashon Theater is an historic, seminal institution that is largely responsible for my decision to pursue a career in film, so I feel a strong calling to support it and I am confident that VIFF can be a part of that solution.”
The inaugural festival will feature films curated by Sayre and the VFI team. “Due to the expedited nature of organizing our first outing, we decided to program the festival ourselves,” says Sayre. “But it offers the advantage of quality control. We’ve been able to identify—and seek out—a handful of varied and exceptional films that have resonated with audiences on the festival circuit.
“However, moving forward, our plan is to institute a submission process with more formal qualifying parameters, where we’ll focus on films that have yet to secure distribution and weren’t backed by major studios during the production process. This will distinguish VIFF from many of its contemporaries and continue to provide its patrons with extraordinary programs. We don’t want this experience to be one-and-done, so we’re placing the bar as high as we can. We want VIFF to be the kind of festival where independent filmmakers seek to hold their world premieres. Hence our motto: ‘Putting the independent back in film festival.’”
Although VFI intends to apply for grants and other funding opportunities available to non-profit organizations to cover operational expenditures, it also hopes to draw heavily on the support of local communities through charitable donations, sponsorships, and volunteerism. “It takes a village, and I’m over the moon that the village is Vashon,” adds Sayre. “Our little island in the Puget Sound holds a special place in my heart, and a big part of that is its residents’ ardent support for the arts. We’re very hopeful that the community will embrace the festival, and we’re actively seeking contributors and collaborators in a multitude of manners. Anyone interested in participating can find more information on the VIFF website or stop me in the aisle of Thriftway for a quick chat.”
VFI plans to announce VIFF’s formal line-up within the next several weeks, whereupon registration will open for festival badges. “We’ll make three different tiers of badges available for purchase,” says Sayre. “A 3-film, a 6-film, and a 10-film package for the most dutiful cinephiles. Patrons can purchase single day-of screening tickets if there aren’t enough badge holders to fill the theater to capacity.”
Other events to be held at VIFF include its Opening Night Gala, where badge holders can mingle with filmmakers, a Saturday Night Soiree, featuring live music, street food, and a beer garden, and a few seminars/lectures presented by industry professionals. “As we meet our goals at VIFF, we hope to expand the ancillary events offered during future festivals,” says Sayre. “In addition to celebrating independent cinema, we hope VIFF can also educate and empower. The best-case scenario is that our program helps motivate the creation of more art.”
Founded by local—and international—film producer and island resident Mark Mathias Sayre, “The Vashon Film Institute was originally founded to host a summer film intensive for youth, including scholarships for students who might not otherwise afford to attend,” he explains. “We’d originally hoped to create a community event that also supported the youth program, and this is how the Vashon Island Film Festival was born. However, our goal posts have shifted slightly for our inaugural year: 100% of the net profits will go to the family-operated Vashon Theatre, a cultural landmark built in 1947 which, like many other theatres in a post-pandemic world, has struggled to keep their doors open. We still plan to institute the youth program in 2023, but plan to finance that primarily through grants and donations.”
VIFF will screen an array of esteemed features, eight narratives and two documentaries, curated by Sayre and the VFI programming team. “Programing the festival ourselves offered us the advantage of quality control; we sought out a handful of varied and exceptional films that have resonated with audiences on the festival circuit. As such, we have some of the best performing films on the circuit this year, including the features that won SXSW and Tribeca, so in many ways this is a festival showcasing 2022’s crème de la crème.”
“We’ve got coming-of-age stories, a civil war epic, a 1950’s creature feature throwback, pandemic comedies, and a character study about grief, to name a few,” Sayre continues. “I think there’s something for everyone in this year’s program.”
All screenings are slated to take place in person. The narrative features include:
Nick Richey (Low, Low)’s 1-800-HOT NITE. follows 13-year-old Tommy (Dallas Dupree Young) after he loses his father to a drug raid and embarks upon an urban odyssey guided by a phone sex operator (Ali Richey) and with the help of his two best friends, O’Neill (Gerrison Machado) and Steve (Mylen Bradford). HOT NITE world-premiered at Santa Barbara and most recently captured the 2022 Dances with Films Audience Award for Fusion Features, and Filmocracy’s award for Best Narrative Feature.
Crabs! by Pierce Berilzheimer brings together Dylan Riley Snyder, Allie Jennings, and Jessica Morris, among others, in an astonishingly scary horror film featuring the invasion of a sleepy coastal town by murderous crab monsters during prom night. The film’s originality has fueled very positive reviews: described as “a film lover’s dream…a horror movie version of Power Rangers” (Nerdly); “literally blows up the screen…improbable but successful cross of Goonies vs. giant monsters” (Mulderville); and “outlandish, offbeat, and almost exhausting” (Heyuguys).
Brett Smith’s Freedom Path tells us the escape and the rescue of a Union soldier (Gerran Howell) helped by a brave Black man, (RJ Cyler) who takes him to his community of free slaves running a portion of the Underground Railroad, and tries to hide from a ruthless slave catcher (Ewen Bremner). A deeply moving and emotional film warmly praised by other festival audiences, with many describing it as a “must-watch” or even perceiving awards potential.
Winner of the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Good Girl Jane by Sarah Elizabeth Mintz features the award-winning actress Rain Spencer (Best Performance, Tribeca) as a lonely young girl who falls in love with a drug dealer in her desperate quest for intimacy, entangling her in his fellow LA teens’ meth ring. A “gritty character study” (We Got This Covered) beautifully directed by Mintz who manages to “chart her own singular path” (The Playlist). Richard Propes said, “The film should make Hollywood knock on Spencer’s door and pave the way for a brilliant acting career.”
Inspired by writer/director/star James Morosini’s true life experiences, I Love My Dadfollows Chuck (Patton Oswalt) who desperately wants to reconnect with his estranged, depressive son, Franklin (Morosini). Blocked on social media, Chuck impersonates a waitress (Claudia Sulewski) online and starts checking in with Franklin, who falls in love with this imaginary girl and yearns to meet her in person. The SXSW 2022 Grand Jury and Audience Award winner showcases “terrific performances” (Austin Chronicle) as “[Morosini] takes an embarrassing thing that happened to him and turns it into a squirm-inducing (albeit surprisingly accepting) father-son comedy” (Variety).
In Katherine Dudas’ Juniper Mack (Madison Lawlor) attempts to connect spiritually with her recently deceased sister by escaping to her family’s rustic cabin. But Mack’s type-A childhood bestie, Alex (Decker Sadowski), crashes her private grief retreat with her own offbeat friend, Dylan (Olivia Blue). Alex attempts to bond with an increasingly resentful Mack, and tensions mount as Dylan’s true feelings for Alex begin to show. Another Santa Barbara debut, Film Threat calls the film “a solid entry into the mumblecore genre…it is thoroughly a female-centered [and created] film.”
Set against the isolation of the first COVID lockdown, Traveling Light tells the story of Caddy (Tony Todd), an Uber driver in search of his son who has been missing on the streets. He crosses paths with Harry (Danny Huston), a cult leader holding a bizarre ceremony on Mulholland Drive where Todd (Stephen Dorff) and Mary (Olivia d’Abo) are serving as acolytes. Directed by Bernard Rose (Candyman, Immortal Beloved), and executive produced by Oscar nominee and Seattle native S. Leigh Savidge (Straight Outta Compton), this unique film is an equally funny and frightening satire of bourgeoisie life and the irreverent madness of the pandemic.
After learning that their best friend Wes Schlagenhauf is Dying, filmmakers Parker Seaman and Devin Das decide to document their journey to see Wes one last time…all in the name of Hollywood success. A mockumentary film about filmmaking set during the pandemic, whose “laugh-out-loud bluntness” (Hammer to Nail) has audiences in stitches: “Seaman and Das have made a feel-good buddy comedy that never tries to make itself self-important, and ends up having you believe in the power of friendship…Audiences are in for a short but hilarious and very gratifying road trip.”
The documentary features include:
The beautifully directed doc (Dru Holley) Buffalo Soldiers: Fighting on Two Frontsexplores the often-contradictory role played by Black soldiers throughout American history, with particular emphasis on the settling of the American West and colonialism abroad. Fresh off the heels of its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival, The Stranger’s Charles Mudede hails the documentary as “expertly edited and researched,” further confirmed by Film Threat’s Josiah Teal: “one cannot help but acknowledge its sheer historical value.”
When a wild tiger kills men who enter his territory in Warren Pereira’s Tiger 24: The Making of a Man-Eater, he is declared a man-eater and locked up in a zoo. This galvanizes massive social uproar and activists take their cause to the streets, online, and all the way to the Indian Supreme Court. Living between nature and true crime documentary, the film “…is a compelling and dramatic story for animal lovers and fans of crime procedurals” (Film Threat). “…Tiger 24 contains intimate, unguarded footage of large predators that would make David Attenborough green with envy” (Oregon Arts Watch).
At VIFF’s Opening Night Gala, badge holders can mingle with filmmakers, and its Saturday Night Soiree features live music, street food, and a beer/wine garden.
Finally, VIFF presents two seminars/lectures by industry professionals. “As we meet our goals at VIFF, we hope to expand the ancillary events offered during future festivals,” says Sayre. “In addition to celebrating independent cinema, we hope VIFF can also educate and empower. The best-case scenario is that our program helps motivate the creation of more art.” The seminars comprise:
From Script to Screen: The Evolution of an Edit
Born and bred on Vashon Island, director Anthony O’Brien explores the significant metamorphosis a film undergoes before it is presented to audiences. Drawing from real life experience during the filming of his epic Western The Timber, O’Brien deconstructs what can go right and what can go wrong during each stage of film production, and how to navigate the middle ground between.
An Introduction to the Motion Picture Industry
Presented by VFI President and veteran film producer Mark Mathias Sayre, An Introduction to the Motion Picture Industry is a crash course in the business of filmmaking designed for any layperson who has ever wondered: “What does a film producer actually do?” Covering development through distribution, film fans and future filmmakers are offered an insider’s look behind the magic of the movies.
Festival registration is now open to the public with three tiers of badges available for purchase through VIFF’s website: a three-film, a six-film, and a ten-film package for the most dutiful cinephiles. Patrons can purchase single day-of screening tickets if there aren’t enough badge holders to fill the theater to capacity.
In conclusion, Sayre says, “Our motto is that we’re ‘putting the independent back in film festival.’ Whether good or bad, a lot of festivals have moved away from showcasing independent films, instead preferring content produced and/or distributed by major studios or streamers. Our goal is to focus on programming a high-quality line-up of truly independently-produced films. We also think our visiting guests and patrons will find something residents already know: that the island is one-of-a-kind. Vashon is one of the most beautiful settings in the country, if not the world.
About Vashon Island Institute
Founded by veteran independent film producer Mark Mathias Sayre, the Vashon Film Institute (VFI) is dedicated to fostering independent filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest, including the launch of two unique programs: the Vashon Island Film Festival and Vashon Scholars, a multi-week summer film intensive education program it plans to host for youth on the island starting in 2023. Its Board of Directors presently includes three individuals with island roots: Maura Little, Isaac Mann, and Peter Serko.
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