deadCenter Film Festival 2023

Arts and Entertainment

June 8, 2023

FILM FESTIVAL

deadCenter is Oklahoma's largest film festival and welcomes 20,000-plus film enthusiasts and industry professionals every June. OSCAR®-qualifying in two short film categories, the festival draws in unique, groundbreaking films from around the world while showcasing the best from the state. Founded by filmmakers, deadCenter prides itself on making the filmmaker experience its top priority and creating community at the festival enjoyed by filmmakers and attendees alike.

SCHEDULE

Thursday, June 8th

Thursday, June 8, 11 AM - 6:30 PM @ deadCenter HQ

Stop by dCHQ to pick up your passes (and swag bag!) at registration, where our friendly and AWESOME deadCenter volunteers will be ready to answer all of your 'how to fest' questions.

OF+MO Filmmaker Lounge & Press Room

Thursday, June 8, 11 AM - 5 PM @ OF+MO Filmmaker Lounge & Press Room

Attention Official dCFF23 Filmmakers!! Plan a time to stop by our Press Room & Filmmaker Lounge, presented by the Oklahoma Film + Music Office ! This will be your hub during the festival for water, wifi, snacks, and possibly an interview! It’s conveniently located adjacent to our central screening location, Harkins Bricktown.

Poolside Welcome Sningle

Thursday, June 8, 4 - 5 PM @ 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City

After you check in at 21c, join us at POOL BAR to connect-slash-collab with fellow filmmakers in town for dCFF23 at our Poolside Welcome Sningle! If you like snacks and mingling – and who doesn't? – you'll LOVE our "sningle"!

Opening Night Party on the Rooftop!

Thursday, June 8, 5 - 8 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

In the '60s, the Drifters crooned that "everything's all right up on the roof," and that's where we'll gather to celebrate all things dCFF23. Join us on the OKCMOA ROOFTOP for good times, good friends, and a great view of Oklahoma City.

What Rhymes with Reason

Thursday, June 8, 6:30 - 8:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

Tragedy ignites a group of teens on a quest to find a legendary landmark hidden in the wilderness. Together, they navigate the quest while confronting the darkness within themselves.

Comedy Shorts

Thursday, June 8, 7 - 9 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Get ready to laugh 'til it hurts—or helps! | A pedantic mother-to-be hires a stranger to role-play as her unborn daughter. | A Native man finds the image of Jesus Christ on a piece of frybread. | In Flatbush, Brooklyn, four friends are stuck in their car after it breaks down on the way to the beach on the last day of the summer. | An unemployed young woman meets an older man for a candle-lit dinner. All is going well - that is until the check comes. | STAR VEHICLE is a love letter to...

Black Barbie: A Documentary

Thursday, June 8, 7 - 9 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Love her or hate her, almost everyone has a Barbie story. For filmmaker Lagueria Davis, it all started with her 83-year-old Aunt Beulah Mae asking a seemingly simple question, "Why not make a Barbie that looks like me?" Black Barbie is a personal exploration that tells a richly archival, thought-provoking story that voices the insights and experiences of Beulah Mae Mitchell, who spent 45 years working at Mattel. Discussing how the absence of Black images in the "social mirror" left Black gi...

Hell Hath No Fury

Thursday, June 8, 9 - 11 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

A husband and wife separately and unknowingly plot to murder each other on the same fateful night.

Opening Night Afterparty Presented by Freestyle Creative

Thursday, June 8, 9 - 11 PM @ Jones Assembly

After you see our uh-mazing opening night film, Black Barbie , make plans for the opening night afterparty on the JONES ASSEMBLY PATIO . dCFF's opening night parties are legendary for a reason – don't miss this! Big thanks to presenting sponsor Freestyle Creative for sprinkling all the magic party dust. .

Midnight Shorts

Thursday, June 8, 9:30 - 11:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Hope you're not prone to the heebie-jeebies. | Food and felonies are inseparable in Hardboiled, a stop-motion animated satire of the classic urban American crime drama. Gritty, noirish, and absurd, the story follows the exploits of tough-talking detectives Harry and Callaham (an egg and a slice of ham) as they frustrate their boss, an irascible knish, shake down a sleazy bacon pimp, and tangle with a megalomaniacal strawberry. | A disaffected gas station clerk finds out why they call it the...

Friday, June 9th

Friday, June 9, 11 AM - 6 PM @ JDM Place

The Future of Film is a collection of immersive films and experiences created by audacious storytellers navigating cutting-edge technology to expand how stories are told: motion capture, drones, digital animation, augmented reality, and fully immersive 360 virtual reality. Experience what’s next. We're thrilled to partner with McDaniel Entertainment, Thunderbird Drone Festival, Boiling Point Media, and the Cherokee Nation Film Office to highlight these emerging technologies. | Immerse y...

Friday, June 9, 11 AM - 5 PM @ OF+MO Filmmaker Lounge & Press Room

Friday, June 9, 4 - 6 PM @ JDM Place

Celebrate an inspiring day of the latest in film technology with cold one at the Future of Film + Innovation District Happy Hour!

Music Videos

Friday, June 9, 5 - 7 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

Mic check, one two...let's get loud. | While witnessing the economic and social changes ushered in by the pandemic, eight Early Era dancers inspect the systems we abide by, and the sameness required of average people to operate within those systems. Featuring Austin-based hip-hop duet Magna Carda, our artists must decide whether to stay within the boxes that confine them or break free. | A 2D experimental animation accompanied by the music “Pulse at the Centre of Being” composed by Max Coop...

Avant-Garde Shorts

Friday, June 9, 5:30 - 7:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

deadCenter...but make it Dalí . | Young Sasha loves and hates his sister at the same time. She is a troublemaker. He carefully avoids mentioning her, even in an ordinary conversation with a policeman on the street. Sasha has his own life. He tries to win the girl from his authoritative classmate in Olympic reserve school. The conflict turns from a trifle into a disaster – a trap for everyone involved. | Loosely documenting John Caleb Pendleton's (Planks & Pistils) 2021 Juneteenth floral in...

Okie Shorts 1

Friday, June 9, 5:30 - 7:30 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Keep it local with these homegrown hits! | A love story between an incompetent Indigenous man and his dog after he is made homeless after a breakup. | Black alumni from 5 different high schools (Star Spencer, Douglass, John Marshall, Millwood, Northeast) enter the world of rowing for the first time as they compete in the inaugural “River Bowl Classic" at Riversport OKC. | Young dancers contemplate getting older through conversation and movement. | A boy ventures into the unknown and disco...

Friday Night Frolic

Friday, June 9, 6 - 9 PM @ Dunlap Codding

A deadCenter staple at DUNLAP CODDING on Film Row, the FNF combines complimentary beverages, live music, and frolic to prep passholders for a full weekend of film festing. TGIF!

All the Feels Shorts

Friday, June 9, 6 - 8 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

Happiness, heartbreak, and everything in between. | A portrait of a Deaf activist and his formerly incarcerated daughter, who build new bonds through their experiences in the criminal justice system. | Two years after surviving a brutal attack, boyfriends Michael and Alex are trying to move on with their lives. Things get complicated when Michael's dissociations start becoming reality. | Sheila. Lela. These are women hidden within the statistics of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women...

PLAN C

Friday, June 9, 6:15 - 8:15 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

A hidden grassroots organization doggedly fights to expand access to abortion pills across the United States, keeping hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Love, Sex & Death Shorts

Friday, June 9, 6:30 - 8:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

A few things in this life are certain... | Jane and Teddy are on the brink of divorce – but when their marital problems come to a sticking point, they have an unexpected breakthrough. | A young Ojibwe man prepares for a sacred fire ceremony in the woods where his father used to hunt, desperate to feel close to him one last time. | New Shoes delves into the troubling relationship between a young boy and his drug-addicted mother. Elaine supports her son and her habit the only way she know...

This Closeness

Friday, June 9, 7 - 9 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

Tensions rise when a couple stays at the home of a reclusive host, with the three entering an intimate battle to gain and reclaim territory.

The Awkward Stage

Friday, June 9, 7:30 - 9:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

Lost in an academic wasteland, a middle school reject falls in love with a sculpture.

BLACK AS U R

Friday, June 9, 8 - 10 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

In the wake of Black Lives Matter, filmmaker Michael Rice addresses the trans/homophobia within the Black community by magnifying the stories of Black LGBTQ+ people and their contributions to the Black liberation movement.

Okie Shorts 2

Friday, June 9, 8 - 10 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Keep it local with these homegrown hits! | A defected member of a religious extremist group searching for spiritual enlightenment must come to terms with his past as he recalls the most traumatizing and guilt-ridden moment of his life...or face the wrath of a mysterious judge. | A nine-year-old girl has to care for her little sister after their mom leaves one afternoon and doesn't come home. | Through a blending of music, poetry, dance, theater, visual art, and more, a diverse group of 25...

Know Your Place

Friday, June 9, 8:30 - 10:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

KNOW YOUR PLACE is a slice-of-life drama set in present-day Seattle, WA. Robel Haile, an Eritrean- American boy of 15 embarks on an errand to deliver a huge and heavy suitcase across town destined for a sick family member in his parents' homeland. He enlists the help of his best friend, Fahmi Tadesse, when an unexpected turn transmutes his simple task into an odyssey across the city of Seattle; navigating directions to make his delivery on time, along with the challenges of familial res...

Time Bomb Y2K

Friday, June 9, 8:45 - 10:45 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

As the year 2000 approached, rumblings started to spread outside of the world of computer engineers and into the mainstream consciousness about a ubiquitous glitch in computer code that meant when the year turned from “1999” to “2000,” all computers would reset to “1900” and the world’s systems would malfunction, grinding to a halt. In a fully archival tour de force, co-directors Brian Becker and Marley McDonald document the countdown to Y2K against the backdrop of the mass hysteria that infilt...

Portals Shorts

Friday, June 9, 9 - 11 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

Get ready for liftoff, destination unknown. | A couple has begun physically splitting into many different versions of themselves, and must investigate an uncomfortable mutation that has arisen. | Tasked with promoting a tech company’s VR innovations, a young scientist risks her job when she decides to use her creations to faithfully serve a grief-stricken family rather than follow the company’s wish to stage a publicity stunt. | A disillusioned U.S. soldier unearths a mysterious man trapped...

Mind Body Spirit

Friday, June 9, 9:30 - 11:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

An aspiring yoga influencer embarks on a ritual practice left behind by her estranged grandmother.

Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls

Friday, June 9, 10 PM - Saturday, June 10, 12 AM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

Onyx joins a group of fellow occultists to attend a dark ritual at the mansion of their idol, Bartok. Suspecting Bartok’s nefarious intentions, Onyx is suddenly immersed in a world of monsters, mystery, and mayhem.

PJ Party Dazed and Confused

Friday, June 9, 10:30 PM - Saturday, June 10, 1 AM @ 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City

Alright. Alright. Alright. Snuggle into your loungewear and throw down some Friday-night fun at a PJ PARTY featuring Richard Linklater's classic, Dazed and Confused.

Sinful Sinema Shorts

Friday, June 9, 10:30 PM - Saturday, June 10, 12:30 AM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Steamy selections with sexuality at their center. | A loving gay couple experiments with becoming a hot gay throuple. But threesome sex and open relationships come with more complications than limbs. | The Daily Life of Mistress Red is a mockumentary that explores the world of kink, Native women, and defeating white supremacy on one's own terms. Taylor is a blogger for an Indigenous women's website and wants to interview her favorite idol, Marie Callingbird, a Native fashion boutique owner...

Saturday, June 10th

FamilyFest Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Family friendly stories for film fans of all ages. | Living in the forest, little spider Temi dreams of catching the Moon. For that, she will do anything. | During a game of hide and seek, Vanja leaves the bright living room and enters a dimly lit courtyard, which has far too many dark corners, weird shadows, and strange noises. To overcome the fear, Vanja turns into a dangerous tiger. | A couple in a cafe await with trepidation their harshest critic and most important confidant – their 9-y...

Registration

Saturday, June 10, 11 AM - 3 PM @ deadCenter HQ

Stop by dCHQ to pick up your passes (and swag bag!) at registration, where our friendly and AWESOME deadCenter volunteers will be ready to answer all of your 'how to fest' questions.

Future of Film

Saturday, June 10, 11 AM - 6 PM @ JDM Place

OF+MO Filmmaker Lounge & Press Room

Saturday, June 10, 11 AM - 5 PM @ OF+MO Filmmaker Lounge & Press Room

Dusty & Stones

Saturday, June 10, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

Dusty and Stones struggle to sustain a country music career in their tiny African Kingdom of Swaziland and yearn for greater recognition. When they are unexpectedly nominated to compete in a Texas battle of the bands, the two cousins journey to the heart of American country music, determined to win big and turn their careers around.

PLAN C

Saturday, June 10, 12 - 2 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

A hidden grassroots organization doggedly fights to expand access to abortion pills across the United States, keeping hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade.

OKC Film: Spotlight on Black Cinema

Saturday, June 10, 12 - 12:45 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Join the OKC Film & Creative Industries Office for a spotlight on Black Cinema. The panel will feature filmmakers from Black Barbie: A Documentary (Lagueria Davis), Riding Legacy (Kian Taylor and Nicole Jocleen), and Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom (Ya'Ke Smith), and the Program Director of the Northeast Renaissance and founder of AfroCinema Nights, Quintin Hughs. The panel will be moderated by Jill Simpson, Executive Director of the Film & Creative Industries Office.

Comedy Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 12:30 - 2:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

High School Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 1 - 3 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

A spectacular selection of student films! | Cho-won is divorced and living with her daughter Areum. She gets worried about her father and thus visits him often. The day Cho-won brings Areum, she and her father start to talk about their feelings toward each other for the very last time. | A girl uses a program on a futuristic computer-like mirror called "Mirror Me," where she is able to see what she would look like with different features. While customizing herself, her mirror counterpart co...

Heartfelt Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 1 - 3 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

Mini movies that make us go "awww." | 7-year-old Juice has one mission this year: to help Grandma Lovely retain as many memories as possible in order to halt the onset of her early dementia. | On a startup farm outside Oakland, various chicken flocks surmount daily obstacles while the newbie farmers attempt to Google their way to help. | After their mother’s death, a cognitively disabled woman and her estranged sister must learn to communicate in order to move forward. | N?i Nai is my g...

Black Barbie: A Documentary

Saturday, June 10, 1:30 - 3:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

Iranian Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 1:30 - 3:30 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Women. Life. Freedom. | A veiled 16-year-old Iranian teenager is terrified to take her red suitcase from the carosel at the Luxembourg Airport and go through the exit doors. Her fear grows with every second in the face of what awaits her beyond the gate. | A six-year-old boy, Siavash, has won a painting award, and his parents are trying to analyze his TV interview about the painting. In the painting is a home with no walls. Everyone is trying to find a reason, but none are correct. | In a...

Community Showcase: The Journey of Tiak Hikiya Ohoyo (Standing Pine Women)

Saturday, June 10, 2 - 3 PM @ First Americans Museum

The inspiring story of Choctaw women from a very small reservation in Mississippi and their love for their ancient game of Choctaw stickball. Against all odds they compete in the World Series of Stickball in hopes of bringing their first title back to their community.

Series Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 2 - 4 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

When Carly, a naive, homeschooled fourteen-year-old, is forced to face the treacherous waters of public high school, she turns to her beloved dolls, Lily and Mermia, for comfort and advice. Sprung from Carly's own vivid imagination and taking the form of lifesize "friends," they guide Carly through the ups and downs of growing up, fitting in, and figuring herself (and her sexuality) out. | Dr. Joyce Hendricks (Annabeth Gish) is a professor of psychiatry at the Harvard school of medicine. She...

Teenage Wasteland Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 2:30 - 4:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

It's alright to get a little angsty. | Teenager Ly and her cousins get high before a boisterous family Thanksgiving at their auntie’s house in southeast San Diego in 2006. | When 13-year-old Cricket walks past the local strip club with his friends, nothing can prepare him for who they see walking into work – his mom. With rumors starting to spread, Cricket must take matters into his own hands to clear his mom's name and prove that she isn't a stripper. | When Danny steals his older brother'...

A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened

Saturday, June 10, 3 - 5 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

In 1977, "Star Wars" became a cultural phenomenon that single-handedly revitalized a stagnant film industry and forever changed how films were sold, made, and marketed. Movies would never be the same again. A year later, neither would television. In 1978, CBS aired the two-hour "Star Wars Holiday Special" during the week of Thanksgiving. The broadcast was watched by 13 million people. It never re-aired and is considered one of the worst shows to ever air on TV. While some fans of the franchise...

Join or Die

Saturday, June 10, 3:30 - 5:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Join or Die is a film about why you should join a club – and why the fate of America depends on it. Follow the story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of Robert Putnam, whose legendary "Bowling Alone" research into American community decline may hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis.

Portals Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 3:30 - 5:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

Pride Happy Hour hosted by the OKC Pride Alliance

Saturday, June 10, 4 - 6 PM @ 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City

dCFF has been a loud and proud supporter of LGBTQ+ friends and films from the very beginning. Come celebrate Pride Month and dCFF with our friends from the OKC Pride Alliance at MARY EDDY'S . All are welcome! dC pass holders receive a complimentary cocktail!

????? (We Will Speak)

Saturday, June 10, 4 - 6 PM @ First Americans Museum

With fewer than 2,000 fluent speakers left, a small group of Cherokee activists race to save their language from extinction.

What Rhymes with Reason

Saturday, June 10, 4 - 6 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

Tragedy ignites a group of teens on a quest to find a legendary landmark hidden in the wilderness. Together, they navigate the quest while confronting the darkness within themselves.

Riding Legacy: An Oklahoma Black Cowboy Story

Saturday, June 10, 4 - 5:30 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Riding Legacy is a documentary about the Oklahoma Black cowboy community that has existed since the early 1850s. Our film team (Jay Rid, Nicole Jocleen, and Kian Taylor) began documenting the rodeo season in 2022 from April to September. Our documentary highlights the origin of Black cowboys/cowgirls, the Black rodeo community, and the future of Oklahoma Black cowboys/cowgirls who ride professionally and locally.

Know Your Place

Saturday, June 10, 4:30 - 6:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

Quantum Cowboys

Saturday, June 10, 5 - 7 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

Two hapless drifters, Frank and Bruno, team up with Linde to recover her land and trek across 1870's Southern Arizona to find an elusive frontier musician. The complex quantum time theory is blended with philosophical musings about art as the way we understand our history and memories – with gunfights, horses, dance halls, cacti, and saloons.

The Herricanes

Saturday, June 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

The Houston Herricanes were a women's full-tackle football team from the 1970s whose fight to play the game continues to resonate with female athletes today.

Bad Press

Saturday, June 10, 6 - 8 PM @ First Americans Museum

When the Muscogee Nation suddenly begins censoring its free press, a rogue reporter fights to expose her government's corruption in a historic battle that will have ramifications for all of Indian Country.

Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom

Saturday, June 10, 6 - 8 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

A Black American is troubled by the legacy of American slavery and the misuse of Christianity to justify it. He travels throughout Texas discovering how the Juneteenth reveals faith and a fight for freedom in an unjust society.

In His Words: The Tales of Gray Frederickson

Saturday, June 10, 6 - 8 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Oscar winner and producer of the Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, Outsiders, and many other iconic films, Gray Frederickson has achieved more in Hollywood than most. But his passion to establish a film industry in his home state of Oklahoma might be his greatest legacy. This documentary explores the journey of a wandering Oklahoma boy who finds success in Hollywood and returns home to inspire generations of filmmakers.

Saturday Sningle at Social Capital

Saturday, June 10, 6 - 8 PM @ Social Capital

Saturday afternoon is the perfect time to bring back dC's unofficial fave word blend and activity, sningle ! We'll see you downtown at Social Capital for nachos and beer before you head over to the Scissortail Park FREE screening of It's Only Life After All .

Awesome Animation Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 6:15 - 8:15 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

It's a medium, not a genre. | The good name of a seemingly regular rabbit falls victim to an unstoppable tide of disinformation. | A seed who can’t get under the sun and the shadow who needs light to exist are the meaning of life for each other. The seed makes up her mind to find a way to be with the shadow and goes on a journey of exploration in this strange world. | A heavy secret and oblivious parents. | Echo is a story about young brothers living in an apartment in a newly developed cit...

Hell Hath No Fury

Saturday, June 10, 6:30 - 8:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

A husband and wife separately and unknowingly plot to murder each other on the same fateful night.

A Pretty Good Movie

Saturday, June 10, 7 - 9 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

After 50 years of failure, an amalgamated man sets out to make a name for himself through cinema, but as his production unfolds, the various versions of him clash over whose story is being told while confronting an entrenched industry that may never let him finish.

Time Bomb Y2K

Saturday, June 10, 7:30 - 9:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

Steps

Saturday, June 10, 7:30 - 7:45 PM @ Scissortail Park

STEPS from OKCThunder Films provides an introspective view of the journey of Derek Loccident, a former University of Central Oklahoma and Westmoore High School football player whose left foot was severed in a train accident in 2018. Rather than allow the tragedy to define or discourage him, Loccident took on the challenge of becoming a disabled track athlete needing a prosthetic blade as he trains in California focused on representing the United States in the Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024....

Mind Body Spirit

Saturday, June 10, 8 - 10 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

An aspiring yoga influencer embarks on a ritual practice left behind by her estranged grandmother.

Body Electric

Saturday, June 10, 8 - 10 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Body Electric follows queer filmmaker Nick Demos’ journey from dysmorphia to acceptance. Through conversations with friends including Leslie Jordan, Judy Gold, Trans activist Rajee Narinesingh, social media influencers, and others, it investigates growth through visibility, extremism of steroid use, eating disorders and plastic surgery, and the impact of the AIDS crisis. It dives into the the psychological and spiritual roots of dysmorphia, explores factions within the queer community, and unco...

It's Only Life After All

Saturday, June 10, 8 - 10 PM @ Scissortail Park

An intimate look into the lives of one of the most iconic folk-rock bands in America – the Indigo Girls. With never-before-seen archival and intimate vérité, the film dives into the songwriting and storytelling of the music that transformed a generation.

Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls

Saturday, June 10, 8:30 - 10:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Les Artistes Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 8:30 - 10:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

Stories with art in focus. | When country singer Randy travels to take care of his sister Sophie as she recovers from facial feminization surgery, he meets her girlfriend, Morgan, for the first time. The three bond over family history, love, and an extremely chaotic home nurse. | Bobby Wilson, aka “Dues,” is a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota actor, writer, visual artist, and comedian. He's known as a founding member of the Indian sketch comedy group the 1491s and writer on "Reservation Dogs." He s...

This Closeness

Saturday, June 10, 9 - 11 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

Tensions rise when a couple stays at the home of a reclusive host, with the three entering an intimate battle to gain and reclaim territory.

Avant-Garde Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 9:30 - 11:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

Young Sasha loves and hates his sister at the same time. She is a troublemaker. He carefully avoids mentioning her, even in an ordinary conversation with a policeman on the street. Sasha has his own life. He tries to win the girl from his authoritative classmate in Olympic reserve school. The conflict turns from a trifle into a disaster – a trap for everyone involved. | Loosely documenting John Caleb Pendleton's (Planks & Pistils) 2021 Juneteenth floral installation, "Chronicle of a Summer Day...

eXXXplicitly Queer Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 10 PM - Sunday, June 11, 12 AM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

Late night LGBTQ+ love on display. | A loving gay couple experiments with becoming a hot gay throuple. But threesome sex and open relationships come with more complications than limbs. | A married dairy farmer travels to a gay campground in rural NE Pennsylvania to search for the man he fell in love with 30 years before – and discovers the past is not done with him yet. A narrative/doc hybrid film. | Exploring the innate intimacy of submission wrestling, a lifelong wrestler turns his talen...

Awards Party Presented by the Chickasaw Nation

Saturday, June 10, 10 PM - Sunday, June 11, 12 AM @ JDM Place

Whether short or feature, narrative or doc, music video or Indigenous, everything that screens at dCFF is a winner in our book. Join us at our AWARDS PARTY , presented by the Chickasaw Nation, as we celebrate the official winners and the incredible 23rd Annual deadCenter Film Fest lineup!

Midnight Shorts

Saturday, June 10, 10:30 PM - Sunday, June 11, 12:30 AM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

Sunday, June 11th

Brunch at the Bodega

Sunday, June 11, 10 AM - 12 PM @ 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City

There's no better way to celebrate the last day of dCFF than to worship at the altar of brunch. Join us poolside at the 21c Bodega for an energy boost in the form of a quick bite, caffeine, and/or cocktail before settling into a final day of dCFF film fun.

PROUD Family Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 11 AM - 1 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Family, friendly, fully inclusive storytelling for all. | A nonbinary child struggles to find the perfect Father's Day gift for their disapproving dad. | Two years after surviving a brutal attack, boyfriends Michael and Alex are trying to move on with their lives. Things get complicated when Michael's dissociations start becoming reality. | A high school teenager navigates the final minutes before his first stage performance, which includes experiencing his first kiss – unfortunately, in fr...

Love, Sex & Death Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

Okie Shorts 1

Sunday, June 11, 12 - 2 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

????? (We Will Speak)

Sunday, June 11, 12:30 - 2:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

With fewer than 2,000 fluent speakers left, a small group of Cherokee activists race to save their language from extinction.

Series Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 1 - 3 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

BLACK AS U R

Sunday, June 11, 1:30 - 3:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Community Showcase

Sunday, June 11, 1:30 - 2:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

Bad Press

Sunday, June 11, 2 - 4 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

Quantum Cowboys

Sunday, June 11, 2 - 4 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Okie Shorts 2

Sunday, June 11, 2:30 - 4:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

The Herricanes

Sunday, June 11, 3 - 5 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

The Houston Herricanes were a women's full-tackle football team from the 1970s whose fight to play the game continues to resonate with female athletes today.

Awesome Animation Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 3:30 - 5:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

Body Electric

Sunday, June 11, 4 - 6 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Dusty & Stones

Sunday, June 11, 4 - 6 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

Les Artistes Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 4:30 - 6:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

Celebrating Indigenous Cinema Reception presented by CNFO

Sunday, June 11, 5 - 6 PM @ First Americans Museum

Hosted by The Cherokee Nation Film Office, this reception in FIRST MOONS THEATER highlights the long history of Indigenous films and filmmakers at dCFF.

The Awkward Stage

Sunday, June 11, 5 - 7 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

Lost in an academic wasteland, a middle school reject falls in love with a sculpture.

Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom

Sunday, June 11, 5 - 7 PM @ Oklahoma City Museum of Art

A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened

Sunday, June 11, 5:30 - 7:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

Fancy Dance

Sunday, June 11, 6 - 8 PM @ First Americans Museum

Following her sister's disappearance, a Native American hustler kidnaps her niece from the child's white grandparents and sets out for the state powwow in the hopes of keeping what’s left of her family intact.

Heartfelt Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 6 - 8 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

Bottoms

Sunday, June 11, 6 - 8 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 14

Two unpopular queer girls in their senior year start a fight club to try to impress and hook up with cheerleaders so they can lose their virginities before graduation.

Join or Die

Sunday, June 11, 6:30 - 8:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

A Pretty Good Movie

Sunday, June 11, 7 - 9 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 13

Closing Night Cheers & Beers

Sunday, June 11, 7 - 10 PM @ Vanessa House Beer Company

The 23rd Annual deadCenter Film Festival is about to wrap, and we hope you'll raise a glass with us to all the generous sponsors, filmmakers and film-lovers, volunteers, and passholders who made it possible!

Riding Legacy: An Oklahoma Black Cowboy Story

Sunday, June 11, 7:30 - 9:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 10

Teenage Wasteland Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 8 - 10 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 12

All the Feels Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 8:30 - 10:30 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 11

Sinful Sinema Shorts

Sunday, June 11, 9 - 11 PM @ Harkins Bricktown Auditorium 15

Festival Date & Time June 8-11, 2023

Location: Various downtown locations Oklahoma City

Purchase Tickets Here!

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