As a high schooler in the late ‘80s, I distinctly remember filming taking place at Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate across the street from our house. Only months later did I learn that this was the shooting of the opening scene of Rain Man. The film’s famous “toothpick” scene was filmed at Pompilio’s, a Newport institution.
Back then, movies being filmed in Cincinnati was an uncommon occurrence. John Sayles cult classic
Eight Men Out also filmed around then, but serving as a feature-film location was still a rarity. Clearly, that’s no longer the case, with films such as
Traffic,
The Ides of March,
Little Man Tate, and many others being shot on location here. Cincinnati’s current candidacy as the future venue of the Sundance Film Festival speaks volumes of the growth of the local film industry.
The city’s aspiring filmmakers haven’t waited for Hollywood’s attention to grow the city’s celluloid bandwidth. Cincinnati’s small but rapidly evolving film community has organically developed opportunities for aspiring auteurs to make their mark. After graduating from University of Cincinnati’s drama department and a move to New York to further her career, Allyson West, a native Texan, returned and saw the city’s capacity to support a locally based film festival.
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Allyson West founded Cindependent Film Festival in 2018 through gumption, creativity, and relationship-building with local businesses and organizations.Allyson gained a trial-by-fire film education as a jack-of-all-trades including writer, producer, and actress behind the 2017 film
Texican, which generated buzz and 25 film-festival screenings. Inspired by her in-depth filmmaking experience, she became the driving force behind the formation of the Cindependent Film Festival, which will take place September 19-21 at Memorial Hall.
It premiered in 2018 with a showcase of six sold-out screenings of various lengths of films. West marshaled support from such diverse organizations as Heyman Talent, 21c Museum Hotel, SRO Prints, Drive Media House, ArtsWave and the City of Cincinnati. “It was a labor of love that required six months of fundraising,” Allyson said.
Now, thanks to its consortium of supporters,
Cindependent has grown into a showcase whose 2024 edition will feature screenings of 86 films and readings of 25 scripts. Memorial Hall serves as Cindependent’s home base, but complementary independent film screenings will also take place during September at Woodward Theater, the festival’s original location.
The introduction of script presentations provides a valuable tool for emerging writers.
“The readings provide a unique opportunity to present a script to audiences and get feedback that can help improve a film’s content,” West said.
After two years of emerging momentum, COVID-19 created an insurmountable roadblock to theater gatherings. But instead of staying sidelined, West rallied her network to create the Cindependent Mobile Cinema. Doug and Debbie Hall, owners of Eureka! Ranch and Brain Brew Distilling, donated the trailer, a local signshop provided the wrap, artist Nick Koehlke built the marquee and West and Koehlke collaborated on assembling the several trailer screens and projection system.
The mobile cinema brought an eclectic milieu of films, some of which dated to the silent era, to numerous locations where small groups (the trailer seated about 10 people max) could enjoy the show in socially distanced conditions at various outdoor sites, as well as a stint in the Cincinnati Art Museum. The Contemporary Art Center now maintains the Mobile Cinema trailer, and West is content with its second life helping present film content to diverse audiences.
Cindependent emerged from the pandemic ready to provide a signature event for Cincinnati cinema buffs. Its selection committee now includes 30 members of the local and regional film community. Every film (more than 220 hours of film submitted from more than a dozen countries were submitted) is screened by at least two jurists, with more reviewing submissions if it’s deemed to warrant further consideration. Personal tastes and the cultural zeitgeist are ever-changing, but the festival’s core criteria include uniqueness, originality, and technical proficiency. Jonny Shenk, who leads the festival’s adjudication team, facilitates the program’s curation.
The 2024 Cindependent program includes:- A Masterclass series that addresses thematic and technical issues, including such topics as “Unscripted Solutions: Creative Filmmaking On Set;” “Visualizing Intimacy: The Art of Storyboarding Intimate Scenes on Film and TV,” and “Cinematic Lighting on a Budget.”
- Ultimate Citizens (Thursday 9/19 at 3 p.m.), an 85-minute dissemination of three films that provide perspective on the immigrant experience within the U.S.
- Opening Night Shorts (Thursday 9/19 at 8 p.m.), which presents an 86-minute montage of nine brief films.
- Local Filmmaker Showcase (Friday 9/20 at 10 a.m.), which has been curated by the Cincinnati Black Film Collective, shows six films (total running time 114 minutes) that highlight the work of Cincinnati’s African American filmmakers.
- Date Night (Friday 9/20 at 8 p.m.), a 97-minute, eight-film compendium that examines numerous complex facets of relationships.
One Cindependent feature new this year is the festival’s
Expo, which will assemble local, regional, and national film-related organizations and companies such as Dodd Camera, Women in Film, Scene Support, and Sony, introducing attendees to support services, collaboration opportunities, and filmmaking equipment and gear. “Networking is such an important part of this business, and we want the festival to provide an opportunity for aspiring filmmakers to interact with those who can help bring their ideas to life,” West said.
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Crunchy and Bubs, Cindependent’s cartoon mascots, have made the rounds at various local events to provide a fun dose of event branding.
Another Cindependent addition is bringing the festival’s brand to the Queen City. Designed by Julijia Jakoleva, a connection West made online, Crunchy and Bubs are playful cartoon characters who anthropomorphize a popcorn tub and soda cap that evoke the “Let’s all go to the lobby” concession-promotion jingle from cinema’s Golden Age.
“Crunchy and Bubs bring the fun of the moviegoing experience that speaks to the kid in all of us,” West said.
Produced as mascot costumes, Crunchy and Bubs have made the rounds throughout Cincinnati promoting Cindependent, making appearances at a Reds game, Findlay Market, the Hyde Park Farmer’s Market, and many other local venues.
“Film festivals can be perceived as exclusive events only intended for hardcore cinema buffs,” West said. “We want the whole the city to feel welcome to join the fun.”
As Cindependent’s popularity has grown, it attracts approximately 3,000 attendees per day for the three-day festival. FIlmFreeway.com has rated Cindependent as one of the world’s Top 100 Best Reviewed Film Festivals. West hopes to grow this momentum into becoming an Academy Awards qualifying event (the next eligibility window is 2027), on par with the Toronto International Film Festival and other world-renowned events.
Movies can have divergent meanings for different people. Some go to movies for insight and inspiration, some seek escapist romps. But, when so many of our passions winnow us into narrow lanes, we can appreciate the common thread of gathering together to be entertained.
West pointed out other lessons that movies provide: “[It helps when] people embrace creative problem solving. Movies are really a metaphor representing hundreds of ways people have done that.”