Dan Kofoed was first drawn to Charlotte by movies. A Lansing-based filmmaker, he was compelled to visit Windwalker Underground Gallery last summer to take in the Freakshow Film Festival, which was created by a few Charlotte residents to appeal to true horror and grindhouse film fans.
Kofoed fell in the love with the atmosphere, and the people running the festival. From that moment, a new idea was born — the Threadbare Mitten Film Festival.
“Everything kind of fell into place,” Kofoed said. “I just love what they are doing and how it has become the heart of the creative movement. Without Windwalker this wouldn’t happen.”
The Threadbare Mitten Film Festival takes place in downtown Charlotte Friday, June 23 and Saturday, June 24, showing more than 40 premier films from filmmakers around the globe.
“Our long-shot goal was to get to 100 films in hopes we’d have enough to justify a two-day festival,” Kofoed said. “We blew past that number and they are all fantastic.”
Entries have come from filmmakers throughout the United States, and also include a number of international submissions. The festival will include films from Iran, Russia, China, United Kingdom, Germany, Thailand and Spain. Kofoed said the event is a genre film festival, which means screenings will be blocked together according to genre.
“We’ll have a block of absurd comedies, a block of crime thrillers, a block of bloody horror movies, and a block of Michigan filmmakers from the area,” he said.
Films range anywhere from a one-minute short to a 90-minute feature film. Attendees will also have a chance for Q&A sessions with the filmmakers themselves, who will set up shop at Fay’s Evelyn Bay throughout the day on Saturday, June 24.
The event kicks off Friday, June 23 with a VIP party at Windwalker Underground Gallery at 7 p.m. The action shifts to Eaton Theatre at 10 p.m. for the opening night premiere, which features nine short films. Saturday genre screenings begin at noon at Windwalker with the Michigan Student Showcase (noon to 1:30 p.m.), followed by the Experimental Cinema Lab (1:50 to 3:30 p.m.), Mixed Effects (3:50 to 5:40 p.m.), Life is Short and Absurd (6 to 7:05 p.m.), Life on the Run (7:25 to 9:25 p.m.), and a Bloody Good Time (9:45 to 11:45 p.m.). Each block features several films.
“We received so many good movies that we can’t show all we wanted,” Kofoed said. “The feature films we have are the best of the best.”
For more information, find ThreadbareMittenFilmFest on Facebook or visit
exposurefilmfoundry.com.
