Event at the university’s Music Recital Hall is free and open to public
Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
Film enthusiasts in the Rogue Valley should keep Wednesday evening, Sept. 18, open: The Ashland Independent Film Festival will unveil its full lineup of films for this year’s festival.
The festival, which this year will be held Oct. 3-6, is the first full-fledged film festival in Ashland since 2019. It will coincide with Ashland’s Pride Parade.
The event previewing the festival lineup starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the SOU Music Recital Hall. It is free and open to the public.
Some perennial themes, and some surprises
Films will center on perennial themes of the arts, activism, and the environment, with a few surprises in between, according to organizers.
“Year after year, without needing to advertise, that’s just what comes,” Aura Johnson, director of programming (submissions), said of the themes.
“And then there are special themes that different years we decide to give emphasis,” said Richard Herskowitz, who also serves as director of programming at AIFF. He will share specifics on Wednesday evening.
“There are some special themes unique to this year that we’re going to announce,” he added.
AIFF holds an open call every year where filmmakers can submit their films for consideration to the nonprofit film festival. This year, the festival, its first year being held in October (AIFF has held foreign film weeks in October in the past), received more than 200 submissions, Herskowitz said. Although that number is significantly lower than its usual 800 to 1,000-plus submissions, organizers are excited about the quality of films.
Small but powerful
“This was relatively a small number of submissions,” said Johnson. “I don’t think we really publicized our open call this year, but the incredible thing was the caliber of films that we received. Even though it was a smaller number, it was pretty surprising but I think it was due to our history and the respect that filmmakers have for this little regional festival that’s always had a strong program and treated the filmmakers really well. We were just incredibly fortunate.”
Johnson has overseen a group of individuals this summer serving as pre-screeners and programmers or higher-level screeners who have reviewed and judged the films chosen for the lineup.
“Every film is looked at at least twice,” Herskowitz said.
Films are judged by cinematography, sound, as well as the originality of the story, and they are ranked.
Johnson, who came aboard AIFF this summer in the middle of the film submission review process, noted that it was important for her to know what made each film memorable for judges.
“Are you still going to be thinking about it in a couple of days, or is it forgettable, and why?”
That was a key question for Johnson that was used to weigh each film submission.
The SOU Music Recital Hall is at 450 S. Mountain Ave., Ashland.
The nonprofit is still looking for volunteers. To learn more about the festival or how to volunteer, go online at ashlandfilm.org.
Ashland.news leases an office space from the Ashland Independent Film Festival.
Email Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.
