Festival Program

Opening Night Presentation (6:30pm-8:30pm) Film: Attack, Decay, Release

Filmmaker: H.P. Mendoza

A sci-fi musical chronicling the migration of humans to the moon after Earth is ravaged by a deadly pandemic, told in 18 songs across three split screens.

Opening Night Party (8:30pm-10:00pm)

Opening Night Sponsor + Host: 

Wonderland Pizzeria 

Come Mingle with filmmakers, artists and community members. 

FILM: Traces of Home (12:30pm-2:15pm)

Filmmaker: Colette Ghunim

Filmmaker Colette Ghunim takes her parents to find the ancestral homes in Mexico and Palestine that they had fled from decades earlier.

SHORTS: River Kweens (2:30pm-4pm)

Films: He Won't Belong, Betty St. Clair, Budget Paradise, Big Rhonda

Vibrant stories from the LGBTQ+ creative community.

SHORTS: Into the Woods (4:30pm-5:45pm)

Films: Mondegreen, Syncing Sinking, Meadowverses: A year in the meadow, Anwar 

Films about nature's ability to rejuvenate, inspire and terrify. 

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT (6pm-7pm)

Honoree: Steve Baxman

Join us as we celebrate Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman through a new short piece. 

FESTIVAL BONFIRE (7pm-8pm)

Monte Rio Riverfront, with support from the Monte Rio Fire Department

A ceremonial bonfire by the river.

CENTERPIECE PRESENTATION (8:30pm-10:30pm)

Film: Lady Champagne 

Filmmaker: D'Arcy Drollinger

Step into the provocative, outrageous, and absurd world of exotic dancer Champagne Horowitz Jones Dickerson White in this comedy by D'Arcy Drollinger.

FILM: Vivien's Wild Ride (11:00am-12:45pm)

Filmmaker: Vivien Hillgrove

When veteran film editor Vivien Hillgrove discovers that she is losing her sight, she embarks on an unconventional documentary memoir.

SHORTS: The Open Road (1:15pm-2:45pm)

Films: What'chu Mixed With?, Camino, Tracing History, The Sale

Get behind the wheel and follow these characters as they face their past, present and future.

SHORTS: Life, Interrupted (3:00pm-4:15pm)

Films: Light Me Up, Oscar's Return, Perm and Circumstance, The Second Life of Freddie Nole 

Films about nature's ability to rejuvenate, inspire and terrify. 

CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION (4:30pm-6pm)

Film: Running Fence (50th Anniversary Screening)

Filmmakers: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin

Post-Film Conversation Supporters:  Museum of Sonoma County + Christo and Jeanne Claude Foundation

An engrossing documentary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's efforts to build a 24 1/2-mile-long, 18-foot-high fence of white fabric across the hills of northern California.  Stay for a post-film conversation & audience Q&A with Jennifer Bethke, curator Museum of Sonoma Co; Johnathan Henery, Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation NYC; and Colin Mutchler, Russian River Historical Society.

[Fun Fact:  Our festival venue, Monte Rio Theater and Extravaganza, has one of the largest remaining sections of The Running Fence installed in its ceiling!]