Slow Drift Film Festival 2023

Inaugural Female-Produced Film Festival Coming to The Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center

The Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center will host the inaugural film festival of Slow Drift Productions on Thursday, Jan. 5, at 7 p.m.

Ten shorts, curated by Zoe Xandra, founder of Pittsburgh-based Slow Drift Productions, share thriller, horror and sci fi works of women in Pennsylvania and New York.

“Horror and thriller films have been long affiliated with the region because of the work of the late George Romero, yet in the five decades since Romero first released his films, women have not been widely recognized for their work in these genres,” Xandra says. “This festival seeks to change that and encourage women’s artistic development.”

Admission to the festival is free, but seating is limited, so reservations are requested at the Theater’s website. Given the themes, the festival is recommended for mature audiences.

Xandra, a Mount Lebanon native now living in The Strip District, created Slow Drift as a collective before graduating from Point Park University’s Cinema Arts program in 2020. As a Teaching Assistant in the Theater’s youth career readiness program this past summer, she learned that the Theater makes its screening room available to local filmmakers for free and decided to launch the festival in Sewickley.

The Theater’s Emerging Filmmakers Showcase supports local artists, builds their audiences and more closely engages the community in the creative process, says Theater CEO Carolina Pais-Barreto Thor. “Response from the community has been tremendous,” Thor shares.

The two hours of festival films will be followed by award presentations in the Theater’s Community Room.

Festival films, listed in order of screenings, are:

• Camp Moose Tracks: A boy shipped off to summer camp slowly realizes that he’s the last ingredient for the camp cult. Director, Leia Devin.
• The Herbalist: A grief-filled woman uses herbalism to revive her lover. Director, Audrey Medrano.
• A Leaf: An Artificial Intelligence companion searches for her existence. Director, Rui Wang.
• Be a Fish: A young Black girl seeks guidance from a fish after her mother forces her to go underwater. Director, Aisha Ford.
• A Mermaid in a Summer’s Night: A 7-year-old girl who believes in mermaids drifts into her secret fantasy world as she watches her mother pining over wasted love. Director, Ke Liu.
• A Little Glass of Rum<: After grieving over the murder of his wife and son, a prison guard dines with the killer at his last meal. Director, Carah Chafin.
• Oink: A young girl follows in her mother’s footsteps of a strict beauty routine until her mother has an unexpected surgery. Director, Milky Tran.
• Good Taste: An Asian woman goes home with an attractive white couple to have a hot threesome, only to discover that they have very dark tastes. Director, Seonjae Kim.
• Tansy: A woman reflects on her choices as she attempts an herbal abortion. Director, Zoe Xandra
• What’s in the Forest: Three best friends examine their changing relationship while trying hallucinogens—then realize that their forest cabin is surrounded by threatening creatures. Director, Xandra.