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Bag&Baggage to Host the Inaugural Hillsboro Film Festival

Post Date:03/28/2024

Get your popcorn ready for something new in Hillsboro's Cultural Arts District.

Bag&Baggage Productions is bringing the first Hillsboro Film Festival to The Vault Theater & Event Space in May. Charmed by its history and character, filmmaker and event producer Christi Dodge knows Downtown Hillsboro is the perfect place to gather community.

Hillsboro Film Festival
Friday, May 3: 6:30 – 10 pm | Saturday, May 4: 6:30 – 9pm
The Vault Theater & Event Space
Tickets on Sale Now

Christi - Hillsboro Film Festival In 2017, Christi debuted her first film at The Venetian for her capstone project as part of her studies at Portland State University. The experience and memory of community coming together to celebrate art and culture stuck with Christi. Life went on, but Christi always dreamt of holding a film festival in Downtown Hillsboro.

After joining the Bag&Baggage Board of Directors in 2023, Christi became aware of the need for additional funding. “The arts were hit hard by COVID. Most arts organizations are still struggling to get back to where they were,” Christi shared.

While contemplating what a fundraiser could look like, Christi knew this was her chance to bring a film festival to Hillsboro. “As Oprah says, ‘Luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity’ — the timing was just right,” Christi explained.

A film festival also met Bag&Baggage’s mission to “unpack the stories we carry with us and use these as the groundwork to create transformative experience and explore our share humanity.”

Created by Community

The Hillsboro Film Festival — which will also serve as a fundraiser for Bag&Baggage — solidifies Downtown Hillsboro as a cultural arts destination.

“We are eager to be a space for community gathering in all forms, and also know that we have a responsibility to be a driver of economic prosperity for the area,” said Nik Whitcomb, Producing Artistic Director of Bag&Baggage Productions.

For 2024, the inaugural Hillsboro Film Festival drew 57 film submissions in two short-film categories:

Micro-Short: 3 – 5 minutes in length
Traditional Short: 5 – 15 minutes in length

The Hillsboro Film Festival aims to create spaces for voices often underrepresented in the media landscape – embracing filmmakers of all ages, from class projects to lifelong passion endeavors.

An Emphasis on Local Artists

Film submissions came in from around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Canada, and Malaysia. However, most submissions came from Washington County, including quite a few from Hillsboro.

“We have beautiful storytellers here in Washington County,” Christi shared. “We received submissions from filmmakers of all ages and all walks of life. This film festival is for the community that wants to see different types of films and different types of stories being told.”

In early April, filmmakers will be notified if they are selected as semifinalists. Up to 20 of the submissions will be screened for judges, who will choose a gold, silver, and bronze winner in each category. The winning films will be shown at the film festival, along with a special screening of Moon Blood, a short film by Hollywood writer Mark A. Burley.

Moon Blood Still

The team at Bag&Baggage is especially proud of the judges they have assembled — most of whom are local. Those judges include an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, professors from local universities, a development producer for LAIKA Studios, and former a Production Manager at Dreamworks and Pixar.

One extra touch: A local artist, Kalib Bybee, will be creating the awards.

“The more we can bring in the community and use local artisans, the more we can uplift and support what we have here in Washington County,” Christi said.

In the not-so-distant future, Bag&Baggage hopes the festival will span an entire weekend, engaging venues across Downtown Hillsboro in the festivities.

“Major film festivals like Sundance, Tribeca, and South by Southwest (SXSW) all started out as ideas that led to small convenings – and now bring some of the top talent around the globe to local areas in a small window of time that provides a major economic boost to all of the businesses in the area,” Nik said. “This is our eventual goal with the Hillsboro Film Festival, and we are thankful to all of the community partners that see the vision and want to help us bring it to life.”