Last Updated on May 21, 2023, 9:38 AM | Published: May 21, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — Following leadership shakeups, exploding submission numbers, and an overly ambitious expansion attempt, Oklahoma’s premier cinematic showcase, the deadCenter Film Festival is taking operations back to basics while presenting a larger slate of films than ever before June 8-11.
With the festival’s original Executive Director, Cacky Poarch, back to running things currently in an “interim” role, deadCenter has fixed its focus on creating a tightly programmed slate localized at familiar venues and built mostly around the staggering number of Oscar-qualifying shorts that were chosen.
It’s a considerable step back into the festival’s comfort zone after last year’s experimental scheduling spread out all over OKC, utilizing theater spaces everywhere from Downtown to Capitol Hill to the Stockyards and more.
“Last year was about trying out a lot of new things, and we realized that some of them we liked and some didn’t work quite as well,” said Sara Thompson, deadCenter’s Director of Programming. “So we’re really bringing back some of the old-school things to deadCenter to really celebrate independent film in Oklahoma and bring back the kind of crowds and the synergy we had going before COVID.”
Smaller Footprint
The most immediate and obvious change in this year’s festival planning compared to last year is the decision to reduce the number of participating theaters back to a more manageable and localized selection of venues.
“Last year, we screened films at the Yale Theater [in Capitol Hill], we screened films at Rodeo Cinema [in Stockyards City], we screened films at the First Americans Museum, and more,” Thompson said, “and the reasoning and the intention was really awesome, but the practical logistics of it all were really hard.”
It was a first-time experiment with expanding the festival’s reach further across the full sprawl of the city and its many cultural identities, but it resulted in festival-goers being spread too thin.
“It really made it hard for people to ‘theater jump’ and see movie after movie because they had to get back in their cars,” Thompson explained. “So this year, we’re really condensing it back down to our more traditional perimeter for the festival of Harkins, the Museum of Art, and also First Americans with some very intentional indigenous programming.”
Big on Shorts
Even as the festival is reducing the number of screening locations, there’s been no reduction in the number of films being showcased.
As deadCenter is now officially an Oscar-qualifying festival in the Live Action Short and Animated Short categories, submissions have skyrocketed and shorts are taking center stage with 130 short films gracing this year’s schedule.
“We’ve just built a really big short film audience at deadCenter over the past decade,” Thompson said. “When I started as the Shorts Programmer in 2012, we had like 11 or 12 short programs. This year, we have almost 20.”
That means being able to spotlight an especially diverse range of voices and creative perspectives and encourage a more adventurous audience to take a chance on newcomers.
“It’s interesting because audiences for the short programs are a little bit different,” Thompson said. “When you go into a short program, you never really know what you’re going to get. It’s kind of a mixed bag, so you have to be a little bit curious. I think you’re seeing a lot of really cutting-edge stuff because it’s some of the newest filmmakers coming in and doing things.”
Storytellers
With around 2,000 submissions to choose from this year, deadCenter organizers were able to create a slate of films highlighting the kind of cultural diversity and “outsider” sensibilities for which the festival has become known, but that also promises to be crowd-pleasing.
“I hesitate to say there’s something for everyone, because we’re way more nuanced than that, but without a doubt, there are so many intentional layers,” said Krystal Yoseph, Director of Marketing for deadCenter. “I love meeting filmmakers from around the world, and our local filmmakers, and getting to talk with them about their art.”
Thompson agrees, pointing to that desire to hear and experience a wide range of artistic styles and voices as the driving factor behind film selection.
“Our slate this year is one of the most diverse we’ve ever had,” she said. “But our main focus is always the stories. We’re always looking at what are these stories and who are these storytellers. Even our education program really is focused on how we can teach people and teach kids to tell a good story.”
The hope for 2023, then, is that by paring down the scale and physical area of the festival, deadCenter can recalibrate and put the focus back on those storytellers where it belongs.
“Of course on the programming side, we’re always going for bigger and better and more,” Thompson said, “but as far as the overall vibe of the festival, we’re really bringing it back to the old favorites.”
For more information, visit deadcenterfilm.org.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
