It’s been three years since the city of Cincinnati has had an all-genre film festival — the Cincinnati Film Festival took place in 2015 — but local filmmaker and actress Allyson West will change that when the Cindependent Film Festival convenes Aug. 23-25 with screenings at sites in Over-the-Rhine. Though it’s brand new, it arrives with an impressive degree of planning and organization. It also debuts with a scoop — the premiere of Elizabeth Littlejohn’s 24-minute documentary Leelah’s Highway, about Leelah Alcorn, a Kings Mills transgender teen, who died by suicide in 2014.
West — who CityBeat readers named 2018’s Best Local Filmmaker in the Best Of Cincinnati issue — grew up in Texas, studied acting at the University of Cincinnati, moved to Brooklyn to hone her craft and then moved back to Cincy in 2014. Last year, she spent a chunk of the year traveling to fests with her short film Texican, which she wrote, directed, starred in and executive produced.
“What happened is, I would go to all these different cities, these film festivals, and I’d have these amazing experiences,” West says. “I kept coming back to Cincinnati and thinking, ‘I can’t believe we don’t have something like this here.’ And I tried to find a place to submit my movie, and there wasn’t anything. We have a lot of genre-specific film fests (like the annual Jewish & Israeli Film Festival), though we didn’t have one that was just showcasing work (where) it didn’t matter what the content was.”
Last November, when West was five-months pregnant with daughter Olive, she began to think about creating a festival. With the encouragement of her husband, Philip, in December she submitted to the IRS to become a nonprofit. In January she launched the fest’s website.
“It happened fast and furious,” she says.
When we think of Cincinnati film, we think about the big Hollywood films shot here. In fact, Kristen Schlotman, the executive director of Film Cincinnati — a nonprofit dedicated to attracting film and TV production to the area — will be one of three speakers at Saturday afternoon’s Masterclass: Cincy Makes Movies. However, West says, there needs to be more focus on the non-Hollywood film community.
“I do think Cincinnati needs a home for independent filmmakers,” she says. “I just think people need organization to know where they can go to see some of this stuff. I want people to be able connect and network through this and further their creative ideas.”
For a first-year festival, West was able to obtain an impressive array of sponsorship and grants, including from ArtsWave and the City of Cincinnati. She even formed a hospitality department — an unusual move for a fest.
“I knew for us hospitality was going to be a big deal,” she says. “With the hospitality team, I knew it was probably going to be me dealing with it if we didn’t specifically have somebody to manage it.”
She hired Abigail Horn and Frank Steele to answer the “thousand questions about the small details” and to give away some complimentary rooms at the 21c Museum Hotel to a select group of filmmakers. The hospitality team also alerts filmmakers on what events are happening and how to maneuver the city — kind of like a concierge.
The festival mainly takes place on Main Street in OTR — at the Mini Microcinema, MOTR Pub and former movie house and music venue Woodward Theater — but also at downtown’s new bar Aster, where Friday’s after party and Sunday’s awards ceremony take place. Cindependent will present awards for categories like Best Short, Best Short and Feature Screenplays and Best Actor and Actress.
West says the fest received a total of 356 submissions from all over the globe — both scripts and films — and 60 features. Over the course of the three days, the programming includes almost 100 shorts (programmed in thematic blocks, such as Family Films, Thinkers, Friendship Flicks, Party Mix Shorts and Student Shorts), three features, an opening night performance from band Ernie Johnson from Detroit (who are from Cincinnati) at the Woodward, a closing night dance party and nightly after parties.
The festival selected 44 scripts as official selections and local actors will read 29 of them — nine to 10 a day — at table reads held at MOTR. Free events include the table reads, MOTR’s daily morning coffee talks with directors (hosted by Women in Film Cincinnati) and each day’s 10 a.m. shorts blocks. Otherwise tickets are $10 per block.
Thursday’s opening night shorts block, held at the Woodward, consists of all Ohio films, including the music video for the song “Delusion” by local band Pocket, directed by then-high school student Sam W. Smith. West calls it “mind-blowingly good.” Friday night will see the debut of Leelah’s Highway.
West also recommends Josh Kaukl’s low-budget monster short What Comes Out, screening Friday night as part of the Off-Kilter shorts block.
“The way they created this monster is so effective for the story they are telling,” she says. “It really impressed me that they were DIY-ing it and were very clever about it.”
The Friday-screening feature Other Versions of You, directed by Motke Dapp, tells a story about parallel universes, and kid-friendly animated short Margaret and the Moon, directed by Trevor Morgan, is so “amazing” that West programmed it twice.
“We want to make sure any children coming to the festival see it,” she says.
“All of the blocks are strong, so no matter what time somebody comes to see something they would see amazing movies,” she continues.
In making some of the blocks free of charge, she wants to ensure that those who can’t afford a ticket “will still be able to see incredible work.”
The festival wants filmmakers to attend screenings, but also all Cincinnatians.
“It’s essential for this kind of thing to grow,” West says. “The festivals that were most rewarding for me were the ones that weren’t just filmmakers who wanted to talk about what I had done. I just hope people come. I just hope people buy tickets. Because if they don’t, it’s like, what?”
As for the future, West would at least like to see the Cindependent Film Festival continue to exist, grow and become profitable.
“We’re dreaming big,” she says. “One of my friends is a film fest programmer and I was telling him all my ideas for the festival and he said, ‘Keep it small.’ I was like, ‘Keep it small? Have you met me?’”
The Cindependent Film Festival runs Aug. 23-25 in Over-the-Rhine. Individual short blocks are $10; VIP passes are $250; a three-day pass is $70; and a one-day pass is $25. For more info and to purchase tickets, visit cindependentfilmfest.org.
This article appears in Aug 15-22, 2018.