GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids is hosting a special Halloween edition of Open Projector Night Wednesday.
The event will start at 7 p.m. and will feature nine locally-made horror films. The host of the show, Wealthy Theatre Operations and Film Coordinator Nicholas Hartman, explained it’s a good opportunity to celebrate a genre they see a lot during the general Open Projector Nights.
“With open projection in general we try to play a whole variety of films, from experimental to animation to documentary … a lot of filmmakers that make horror movies get rejected because we can’t just play nothing but horror,” he said. “So we feel like this was really appropriate to celebrate horror movies, spooky stuff and all the filmmakers that are making all this stuff.”
The nine filmmakers showcased at Wednesday night’s event are:
- Arie Antonakis, “Riccar500”
- Pete Johnston, “GRBBR”
- Joshua Martin, “Sisters”
- Bret Miller, “Devils”
- Dan Paris, “What’s In Our Son’s Room?”
- Griffin Pettyes, “Blind”
- Joe Nicholas Post, “Thrashed”
- Hannah Scout Dunaway, “Gorge”
- Devan Shulman, “Hypnosis Psychosis”
Following the films, the filmmakers will come out for a discussion and take questions from the audience. Audience members will get a chance to vote on their favorite, and the winner will be announced Thursday.
The first-place winner will get $100, a written interview, a social media spotlight and a membership at the Grand Rapids Community Media Center.
“It’s a way to give back,” Hartman said. “Making a film costs a lot of money. It takes a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears.”
Hartman said Open Projector Night is an opportunity to build a community of filmmakers and film lovers. After graduating, many local filmmakers leave for cities like Los Angeles or New York, he said.
“The thing is, we have a scene here,” he said. “We just need to nurture it. We need to build it, and we bring filmmakers together, then we bring the community together. They work together and they build the film scene.”
He said it also gives filmmakers a chance to showcase their work on the big screen.
Hartman said they’re working to expand Open Projector Night, and he’d like to host one soon that focuses on music videos.
The next Open Projector Night will take place on Nov. 29. Submissions are still open.
