Florida Film Festival to hold free deafblind event online
The Florida Film Festival, which kicks off Aug. 7, will host a free virtual deafblind event and has revealed the lineup for its free filmmaker forums.
“The Feeling Through Experience” will livestream at 7 p.m. Aug. 13 at youtube.com/feelingthrough. It’s a threepart, fully accessible screening event, which includes the first film (“Feeling Through”) to star a deafblind actor in a lead role (Robert Tarango), followed by the documentary “Connecting the Dots” and a panel discussion with the deafblind community.
The program — created by Doug
Roland in partnership with the Helen Keller National Center and presented by Full Sail University — aims to promote deafblind awareness and representation in media.
“The Feeling Through Experience” is free, but participants must register at feelingthrough.com/register.
In addition to this special virtual event, the film fest will also host several free online filmmaker forums, which can be viewed at youtube.com/user/FloridaFilmFestival/videos.
“By collecting over 40 of our filmmakers together through these Zoom sessions, we have the opportunity not only to talk about their work, but to give them the chance to comment on each other’s films without the usual 10-minute Q&A inperson time limits,” said Tim Anderson, the festival’s programming director, in a press release. “I think these Filmmaker Forums provide a really unique opportunity this year to allow these artists to even further showcase their projects and provide our audience with an expanded understanding of the filmmaking process.”
The 2020 virtual filmmaker forums are as follows.
■ Aug. 9: Shorts #1 — Featuring Zachary Grady and Jenn Harris (”Island Queen”), Doug Roland (”Feeling Though”), Yi Tang (”Black Goat”), Brook Trantor and Kate Morgan Chadwick (”Oh, Baby!”) and Adam Meeks (”Union County”)
■ Aug. 10: Shorts #2 — Featuring Quinn
Else (”Fort Irwin”), Talia Osteen (”The Shabbos Goy”), Bridget Moloney (”Blocks”) and Beck Kitsis (”The Three Men You Meet at Night”)
■ Aug. 13: Animated Shorts — Featuring Anna Samo and Lisa LaBracio (”The Opposites Game”), Anca Valsan (”Lizard Queen”), Grier Dill (”The Message From Space”), Ethan Wellin (”Destination: Unknown”), Frank Volk (”Things Happen Because”), Greg Yagolnitzer (”Walt”), Jake Fried (”Brain Wave”), Zandria Ross (”Doll Story”) and Bernardo Britto (”Hudson Geese”)
■ Aug. 16: Shorts #3 — Featuring Nicole Delaney (”Thirsty”), Alex Kavutskiy (”Ear Ache”), Jessie Kahnweiler (”He’s the One”), Jennifer LaFleur (”Baby Kate”) and Matthew Bonifacio and Julianna Gelinas Bonifacio (”Master Maggie”)
■ Aug. 17: Shorts #4 — Featuring Moira Fett (”Practice”), Jacob Halpren (”Claire at Seven Months”), Betsy Kenney and
Dara Katz (”Tapes”), Rachel Harrison Gordon (”Broken Bird”) and Michael Vukadinovich (”The Priest”)
■ Aug. 17: Filmmaker Spotlight — Featuring a discussion with actress turned writer/director Ashley Williams (”Something Borrowed,” “How I Met Your Mother”) about her short film “Meats”
■ Aug. 18: Shorts #5 — Featuring Devon Diffenderfer (”Love You Tyler”), Tomas Gomez Bustillo and Gewan Brown (”Museum of Fleeting Wonders”), Kyle C. Mumford (”The Door”), Tyler Macri (”Pond”), Kevin P. Alexander (”Boys & Toys”), Michael Shumway & Lex Hogan (”The Last Queen on Earth”) and April Nations (”Gilt”)
The Florida Film Festival takes place Aug. 7-20 at Enzian Theater, 1300 S. Orlando Ave. in Maitland. The virtual festival runs Aug. 8-21. Tickets, passes and packages are on sale now. For more information, go to floridafilmfestival.com or enzian.org.