Ashland Independent Film Festival

The Ashland Independent Film Festival will be celebrating the highest quality of local independent films from Apr. 6-10. It is an event where over 7000 people come together in Southern Oregon for the sake of watching over 90 films within the span of 5 days,  including documentaries, features, and short films. The event takes place in the Historic Ashland Armory, but also extends to the art-deco Varsity Theatre, amongst other venues.
The event also offers a way for the filmmakers to interact with the audience after festivals are over and have previously included Ty Burrell, Albert Maysles, Barbara Kopple, Bruce Campbell, and Helen Hunt. The filmmakers engage with the audience at festivals which in the past have included Opening Night Bash, and Awards Celebration which include gourmet food where audience members can get a chance to interact with the filmmakers.
According to their website, the purpose of the event is, “celebrating the diversity of human experience through the art of independent film—enriching, educating and inspiring audiences of all ages.”
Critics had said multiple things reviewing the event, and a writer for the Oregonian newspaper, Shawn Levy, stated that the event “offers movie lovers that same sense of being in a magical place…. Southern Oregon doesn’t have anything else like it — nor, in fact, do most places on Earth.”
The entry fee is $13 for the general public, $12 for seniors, and $6 for students with a student ID shown. Last year’s showing included the movies Embers, Raspberry Galaxies, Thunder Road, and We Are All Human. This year, some movies being shown include Whose Streets?, When the mountains tremble, The Missing Sun, and Quest. The event mostly focuses around shorter films in order to show all of their movies desired, and to follow their tradition of celebrating independent films with a large crowd of people.