Hollywood producer to appear at Tri-City film festival
Hollywood filmmaker Sarah Fitzpatrick will be among this year’s guests at the Tri-Cities International Film Festival in Richland.
The ninth-annual TriFi is a venue for movie producers, creators and enthusiasts to come together. They screen several short films and discuss ideas in workshops throughout the weekend.
This year’s event Oct. 13-16 will highlight short independent films put together on low budgets.
Sarah and her husband John, who have worked on TV shows such as Supernatural and Gotham, have strong ties to Washington state. The couple grew up in Gig Harbor, and her dad, Matthew Simek is from Richland.
At the Tri-City festival, Sarah plans a workshop with Kelly Hughes, a filmmaker from Seattle, on making a web-based film series. Fitzpatrick said the projects they are showing at TRIFI are their short film Brentwood Strangler and web series Scary Endings.
The session is noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Uptown Theatre in Richland. Admission is free with a ticket to any of the TriFi events.
A short film to me is like a short story. If you don’t like the film, go out, come back 15 minutes later and there’s another new story.
Nat Saenz
Tri-Cities International Film FestivalGary Wolcott, who reviews films as Mr. Movie for the Herald, will also emcee events Oct. 14-15.
The festival takes about 10 months to gather films from producers, directors and filmmakers around the world, said Nat Saenz, executive director of TriFi.
He described many of the films as “out of this world” productions that are still fairly new and can’t be found online.
He said he’s fond of short films, which often only last for minutes.
“A short film to me is like a short story,” Saenz said. “If you don’t like the film, go out, come back 15 minutes later, and there’s another new story.”
The festival also will screen fan films that pay tribute to popular movies like Star Wars, Saenz said.
He was impressed with the production quality of this year’s entries, some local and some not.
The main festival begins with a free film night from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the HAPO Community Stage in John Dam Plaza in Richland. There will be showings of family friendly short films.
The Uptown Theatre in Richland will show several short sci-fi and fantasy films from 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 14 and from 1 to 10 p.m. Oct. 15.
More sci-fi, fantasy films and animations will be shown from 2 to 8 p.m. Oct. 15 and 1 to 6 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Confluent Space at the Richland Community Center, 1300 Jadwin Ave.
Day passes are $10 and weekend passes are $15.
For more information or tickets, go to trifi.org.
Sean Bassinger: 509-582-1556, @Seandood
Tri-Cities International Film Festival
Oct. 13
▪ Free Film Festival, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., HAPO Community Stage in Richland
Oct. 14
▪ Horror and sci-fi and fantasy shorts and features, from 6 to 10 p.m., Uptown Theatre in Richland
Oct. 15
▪ Web series workshop with Kelly Hughes and John and Sarah Fitzpatrick, from noon to 2 p.m., Uptown Theatre in Richland
▪ Horror and sci-fi and fantasy shorts and features, 1 to 10 p.m., Uptown Theatre in Richland
▪ Sci-fi and fantasy and animation, 2 to 8 p.m., Richland Community Center
Oct. 16
Sci-fi and fantasy and animation, 1 to 6 p.m., Richland Community Center
This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Hollywood producer to appear at Tri-City film festival."