Eastern Oregon Film Festival is excited to announce the cohort for the 2023 Eastern Oregon Filmmaker Residency Program, taking place April 30-May 26 in La Grande. 

The selected attendees will be hosted at The Lodge at Hot Lake Springs, and will engage with the community, Eastern Oregon University Students and Faculty, local businesses and more as they focus on writing screenplays that are informed and enriched by their time in the Grande Ronde Valley.

The nearly month-long stay will provide a tranquil retreat for our residents, as a means to develop and tune their screenplay, as well as to explore logistics around its potential to be produced in Eastern Oregon. “One of the festival’s primary goals has been and will continue to be building industry interest in our area while nurturing local projects and professional career pathways.” says Festival Director Christopher Jennings. “Over the past 13 years, Eastern Oregon Film Festival has brought hundreds of filmmakers to La Grande for our annual flagship event each October and nearly every one of them has expressed a desire to visit again.” 

Listed below, this year’s cohort brings a variety of professional experience, award winning talent, unique perspectives and a passion for bringing stories to life that will energize creation and collaboration in the development of their projects.

Through planned adventures and engagement opportunities, EOFF’s goal is to build a connection between the artists and our community, laying the groundwork for more production in the future. The 2021 Residency resulted in the recent filming of Breakup Season, a feature narrative shot entirely in La Grande, from Writer and Director H. Nelson Tracey.  Explorations of The Grande Ronde Valley and its outstanding locations, both scenic and historic are planned. A public-facing event will be held in the final week of the residency program at HQ, located at 112 Depot Street (EOFF Headquarters). Information on attending the public events and details about the program can be found on the EOFF website at www.eofilmfest.com/filmmaker-residency or by emailing director@eofilmfest.com.

Special support and funding for this project has been provided by the Roundhouse Foundation, Eastern Oregon University, Oregon Film, Praise Photography and many individual donations via our Feed a Filmmaker fundraising campaign. You can support these Filmmakers during their stay by donating at the EOFF website. Eastern Oregon Film Festival wishes to express gratitude for the ongoing support and investment in this program from our community. 

2023 Eastern Oregon Filmmaker(s) in Residence are: 

Anna Baumgarten

Los Angeles, CA

Projects

Inspired by Hayao Miyazaki, Guillermo Del Toro, Sera Gamble 

I’m looking forward to knocking loose some creative energy in such a beautiful place! I was born and raised in Metro Detroit and shot my debut feature film Disfluency in my hometown. As a filmmaker, I love drawing inspiration from the natural world and making locations feel like characters in my work.

Alex Bush

Los Angeles, CA

Projects

  • Thaw
  • Exit Interview #5

Inspired by Luca Guadanigno, Douglas Sirk, Agnes Varda
A huge goal of mine during the residency is to learn about the different natural ecosystems in Eastern Oregon and the types of farming practices that exist, as well as how the land itself informs the values and sensibility of people who have made La Grande home.

I am a very curious and frequent domestic traveler, and I am fascinated by how our homes inform what we care about. I also love to talk about creativity and what people look for in the art they consume. I like to pour all these ideas into my films, which usually explore creativity and intimacy.

Garrett Detrixhe

Atlanta, GA

Projects

Inspired by The Coen Brothers, Kelly Reichardt, Mike Leigh

Time away to focus on writing and creating. Making new filmmaker friends and collaborating with them to elevate the work. On top of filmmaking, I love the outdoors and meeting new people. La Grande seems like the right place to be for that.

Linda Mai Green

San Francisco, CA

Projects

Inspired by, Claire Denis. Kelly Reichardt. Anything featuring Isabelle Huppert.

I hope to come away with a more deeply felt and imagined screenplay, and new friends and allies in the endurance sport that is filmmaking. I can’t wait to explore Eastern Oregon’s nature and culture and do some location scouting. When I’m not writing or making films, you may find me thrifting, eating fermented foods, crocheting, reading Historical Fiction/Fantasy, bouldering, or bowling.

Kat Hunt

Woodstock, NY

Projects

Inspired by Varda, Chaplin, Kubrick 

Writing, feeling, dreaming. A film to shoot in Eastern Oregon. I believe in cinema’s ability to open our unconscious minds & bodies. I think La Grande will be an amazing place to work with this, and I am so glad to have a month to spend there.

Max McGillivray

Los Angeles, CA

Projects

  • Choke Hold
  • Bag Lady

Inspired by Lynn Ramsey, Paul Thomas Anderson, Stanley Kubrick

I’d like to have a complete second draft of my feature The West Cure. I’m a Boston native and very dedicated to my sports teams (sorry)! I enjoy running, though I haven’t had much time in a while to get out there. I’d like to do lots of running in La Grande!