Orlando Film Fest spotlights variety

Of the more than 400 films to screen this year at the Orlando Film Festival, three with Central Florida connections reflect the wide variety at the 12th annual event.

Winter Park filmmaker Jon Anderson is delivering “WASP: A Wartime Experiment in Womanpower,” a documentary about female pilots during World War II. The Valencia College teacher, 47, started on the project in 2004 and completed it this year.

The original title was “Broads and Bombers,” which doesn’t reflect the current film, Anderson said. This past summer, a pilot in California shared color home movies, and Anderson added footage of what speakers had described.

After the festival, which runs through Thursday, Anderson will submit the movie to more festivals and possibly a streaming service.

“This is a passion project,” he said. “I’m very happy with the result. A lot of people in Orlando do films for the love of film.”

Filmmaker MarQ Morrison, who grew up in Maitland, will present “Florida Bush League Wrestling.” He directed the mockumentary with Ren Morrison, his brother who lives in New Smyrna Beach. “I went to school with the ‘Blair Witch [Project]’ guys,” said MarQ Morrison, 48. “I’m a fan of the found-footage genre. It’s been overused, but for a comedy, it works.”

The opening scene unfolds in Bithlo, and 95 percent of the film was shot in Central Florida. The loopy comedy focuses on manager Golden Graham and a wrestler called Big Thing!

Morrison hopes the film next moves online, but he’s overjoyed about the Orlando screening. “It’s awesome to come back home and screen this film the way we wanted it be screened,” he said. “Just to get it out there and be seen I think will be exciting.”

His “E Ala E – Wailuku River,” a 12-minute short, also will play the festival. It focuses on Maui, where Morrison lives.

Writer-director Tamlin Hall, who used to live in Orlando, will screen “Holden On.” The harrowing drama is based on the true story of Holden Layfield, a high school classmate in Georgia. Early on, Holden (Matthew Fahey) hints at a personal secret and a dire outcome.

“Holden's secret just happened to be an undiagnosed mental disorder,” said Hall, 36, of Los Angeles. “I think it was part of my responsibility as the filmmaker to show why Holden kept this secret hidden. As a society, we ‘other’ individuals with a mental disorder.”

Hall described Holden, a couple of years older, as a friend. “I was bullied a lot growing up because I was very obese, and Holden was one of the only students who accepted me for who I was,” Hall said. “His humanity saved me, and I wanted to pay it forward to show the person behind the illness in ‘Holden On.’”

Holden took his life, and Hall said he hopes the film starts a dialogue about mental health and suicide. “A lot of people feel alone in this world. They need to feel understood,” he said.

The film was shot in LaGrange, Ga., Holden's hometown, and at the high school where he played football. Hall asked the permission of Holden’s parents to tell the story and said they were “110 percent behind the film.”

Hall is looking for distribution and hopes to make the film available internationally. The filmmakers have formed a nonprofit to promote screenings at schools and in communities.

Hall, who has family in Winter Park and Cocoa Beach, was thrilled to be in the Orlando Film Festival. “It's an honor to be officially selected by an up-and-coming, nationally recognized festival,” he said.

Documentary maker Anderson said the screening of “WASP” would be a reunion for local people who worked on the film, which shot re-enactments at the Orlando Executive Airport.

“The Orlando Film Festival really supports Orlando filmmakers,” he said. “It’s great.”