One of the things I love about the Renegade Film Festival is that it has the personality and sense of community of DragonCon, but on a much smaller scale. Don’t get me wrong- the cosplay on display every Labor Day is simply stunning, magnified when thousands of people are doing it, but when you are dealing with a film festival, it’s better to feel as though you’re getting together to watch a movie with friends. From the moment I stepped into the Strand Theatre in downtown Marietta on the last weekend of February in 2020, that’s what it felt like, whether it was the general audience, the filmmakers, the press, the jurors and the organizers; it’s a credit to co-founder Vanessa Wright that this festival, and community, survived being shut down in 2021, and came back in 2022, rebranded as its current name from the Women in Horror Film Festival, and didn’t miss a beat. Like DragonCon, this will be an annual pilgrimage moving forward.
The scheduling this year is a bit different- rather than being three full days of screenings it is two, with a special screening taking place downtown on Sunday which has me profoundly excited. I’ll get into that below. In addition to feature reviews here at Sonic Cinema, Patreon subscribers will get their exclusive short film block write-ups and looks at Q&As after some of the movies, while a Friday feature offering, and Sunday’s film, will be reviewed exclusively over at In Their Own League. Let’s breakdown what this year’s festival will look like.
Thursday, March 2
Usually, Thursday begins the screenings. This year, though, it just begins the networking and discussions with everyone attending the festival. Over at The Pub in the Atlanta/Marietta Hilton attendees with be able to mingle, share what they’re there for, as well just hanging out and having a good time.
Friday, March 3
At 10am at The Strand, the festival begins. Typically, the festival focuses primarily on short film blocks with only a handful of feature films, but this year, there is almost as many feature films as their are short film blocks. Beginning things on Friday morning is a collection of experimental shorts under the title, “We Are the Weirdos, Mister”, which is followed up by the first feature at 11:45am, “Retro Freaks”, a film starring Andre Gower (“The Monster Squad”) about a group of friends who must face off against a supernatural force. At 1:45pm, we head back to short films with a gory block titled, “There Will Be Blood” before the next feature at 4pm, “Stag”, about a loner who goes to her former BFF’s bachelorette party for a chance at redemption. At 6pm, we go to a horror comedy block called “Side Splitting”, which includes a short directed by award winner Nonie Shiverick, whom wrote last year’s “Scales” (and was interviewed on the podcast) before the movies finish with 8pm’s screening of “Give Me an A”, an anthology of genre films made in the wake of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, starring the likes of Alyssa Milano, Virginia Madsen, Gina Torres, Sean Gunn, Molly C. Quinn and more; my review for “Give Me an A” will be posted on In Their Own League. What a way to end the first day of screenings.
Saturday, March 4
Day 2 is going to be a bit longer than usual, but there are some interesting prospects. Up first is a short film block called “Apocalypse Nowish”, which is always a fun way to start a day. Then we go to a double feature of features, with “The Once and Future Smash” and its follow-up, “End Zone 2”, back-to-back starting at 11:30am. After that it’s a collection of short films at 2:45pm titled, “Let’s Make It a Blockbuster Night”, followed by a secret screening that will play at 5pm. The last set of screenings will be at 7pm with a short film block devoted to Southern Filmmakers called, “Southern Discomfort”, with the Awards Ceremony taking place at 9:30pm.
Sunday, March 5
Normally, the Awards Ceremony would round out the festival, and officially, it does. But Videodrome and Marietta’s The Pie Bar are sponsoring the world premiere of K/XI’s Director’s Cut of 2020’s “Black Lake”, which will be playing at The Plaza Atlanta at 1pm. My appreciation of “Black Lake”, K/XI’s Best Film Winner at last year’s Renegade, “Maya”, and the filmmaker in general- whom I profiled for In Their Own League here– are well established, so when she announced the debut of the Director’s Cut here, it just makes sense to tie it into Renegade. My review of the Director’s Cut will be over at the League.
I cannot wait to return to The Strand, and my horror loving family of filmmakers and friends.
Thanks for listening,
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
