Each year, the deadCENTER Film Festival honors Oklahoma ICONS in the film industry. Over the past few years, names like James Marsden (X-Men), Gray Frederickson (The Godfather II) and Hunt Lowry (The Last of the Mohicans). This year, the deadCENTER Film Festival is honoring four ICONS.
Fritz Kiersch
The first man the deadCENTER Film Festival is honoring is Fritz Kiersch. This man has a pretty special place in my heart, with me being a Stephen King dollar baby filmmaker. Kiersch directed the Stephen King adaptation Children of the Corn) and then went on to create the first comprehensive Oklahoma-based college film program at Oklahoma City Community College and then launched the Moving Image Arts Program at Oklahoma City University.
The 30th Anniversary screening of Children of the Corn will screen at 9 p.m. on Friday, June 13 at Harkins Bricktown, during the deadCENTER Film Festival.
Matthew Mungle
Matthew Mungle is a special effects artist who has earned four Academy Award nominations for his work, winning once for his work on Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. He has also worked on movies such as Michael Mann’s Collateral, Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List.
Mungle will lead a class and demonstration on special effects make-up at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 14 at the Oklahoma History Center.
Jill Simpson
Jill Simpson worked in Hollywood for 18 years before she returned to Oklahoma and began directing the Oklahoma Film and Music Office. She has done everything in her power to foster the film community even as the Oklahoma state government did everything in their power to kill it.
Simpson will lead a panel discussion about making movies in Oklahoma with the writers of Rudderless and the director of The Veil at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 13 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Wes Studi
Wes Studi is one of the most recognizable Native American character actors working in Hollywood today. He has been seen in movies as varied as Avatar, Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves, The New World, Heat and Mystery Men.
Studi will lead a conversation about his career with Breaking Bad’s Steven Michael Quezada at noon on Saturday, June 14 at the Oklahoma History Center, and will join a discussion about Native American Cinema later that evening, at 6:45 p.m. at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
The 14th annual deadCENTER Film Festival (DCFF) will take place Wednesday, June 11 through Sunday, June 15 at five locations in downtown Oklahoma City. Learn more about deadCENTER Film Festival at www.deadcenterfilm.org.
