Drew Ayers is an Associate Professor of Film at Eastern Washington University, where he teaches, researches, and writes on the subjects of cinema, visual effects, digital technology, visual culture, and nonhuman theory. Drew is the author of Spectacular Posthumanism: The Digital Vernacular of Visual Effects, and his work has appeared in Convergence, animation, Configurations, Film Criticism, and various edited collections.
Frances Grace Mortel is a Filipino interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and community organizer. She is the cultural and digital organizer for Asians for Collective Liberation in Spokane, a member of Washington Filmworks Equity Committee, and serves on the boards of Spokane Film Project and Spokane International Film Festival. Often exploring the intersections of gender, labor, and migration, her works have been shown across the United States and abroad. Presently, she splits her time between living with her family in the Pacific Northwest and pursuing her MFA at Bard College in New York.
Chase Ogden teaches film production at Eastern Washington University. Holding an MFA in film production from Chapman University, Ogden has been a part of 100′s of different film productions over the years. In 2006 he co-created a magazine style outdoor sporting show Outdoor Storytellers and continued to serve as the show’s co-producer, cinematographer, and editor until 2009. He has worked on dozens of commercials for major clients such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Mammoth Mountain and he has had short films in over 50 festivals around the world, including Cannes.
Misty Shipman is an enrolled member of the Shoalwater Bay Tribe of Indians and a descendent of the Chinook Indian Tribe. She is a prolific Pacific Northwestern filmmaker intent on sharing a femme, American Indian gaze that shifts the lens of power and frees the viewer from the reservation of the mind. Through visual sovereignty, she strives to create a space for authentic representation. Misty holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho and a PhD in Native American Literature with a concentration in Film Studies from Washington State University.
Alena Schoonmaker is the marketing director of the Spokane Spectrum Singers, a programmer and consultant with the Spokane International Film Festival, and the office and communications manager for Westminster UCC. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies from Seattle University and participated in a filmmaking workshop at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has worked on independent shorts and features and has programmed for multiple festivals in the US. She is also a board member with Pawsitive Outreach Spay/Neuter Advocates in Newport, WA.
Olivia Evans is a grant-awarded, multidisciplinary visual artist, producer, and owner of Mama Wolf Media, LLC, based in Spokane, WA. Working in video, photography, drawing, film, and beadwork, her work is heavily influenced by motherhood, nature, the subconscious, and personal experiences - intertwining traditional and digital media to create narratives of the self. All these influences echo her eclectic cultural background of growing up as a Black, Italian, and Native woman. She boasts a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art, and a minor in Film from Eastern Washington University (2018). As a producer and social media manager for the Alliance for Media Arts + Culture, an arts non-profit, she continues to elevate marginalized communities in film & art through Social Media posts, Documentary Film events, and other projects. She has consulted at various organizations and schools such as, Spokane Arts, Artist Trust, Whitworth, Gonzaga, and 6-months as a Marketing & Communications Coordinator for Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition, where she empowered victims of Domestic Violence through visibility on social media, marketing materials, MMIWP campaign, and community partnered events. Her work has been featured in several exhibitions, for instance, Spokane Art’s SATURATE, Terrain 12 & 13, INT’L All Media Exhibition ‘22, Land Acknowledgement exhibition ‘22, and as a co-curator at the GU Urban Arts Center for “Home: Imagining the Irrevocable.” She has also been featured on KXLY, Krem2, and various radio stations. Today, she continues to expand her art practice in many facets, such as directing Spokane’s 1st BIPOC art, film, and music festival The Root Experience: Living Cultures of Art, Music & Soul, grant reviewing/ writing/ paneling, adjunct teaching, and film festival paneling.
Pete Porter teaches film history and theory/criticism at Eastern Washington University. Dr. Porter’s recent work studies media representations of non-human animals from a cognitive-ethical perspective. He has published in Society & Animals, The Journal of Moving Image Studies, and Michigan Academician. Dr. Porter also serves as film review editor for Society & Animals and on the board of The Friends of Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.
Aaron Spickelmire has always been fascinated by movies. It wasn’t until he watched Run Lola Run in 1999 that he became highly interested in international cinema. He graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2004 with a B.A. in Humanities, and since then has continued to be engaged in the Spokane film community. In addition to SpIFF, Aaron has also been involved with the SFCC International Film Series, the 50 Hour Slam, and worked at the Magic Lantern Theatre as the manager/projectionist.
Programmers Emeriti
Irv Broughton has been making films for over 30 years. His films have shown at numerous festivals, including Ann Arbor, Bumbershoot, and the Northwest Film and Video Festival, where he is a three-time winner. As a writer, he is author of eleven books, including Producers on Producing and The Art of Interviewing in Television, Radio and Film. Irv holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from the distinguished writing program at Hollins (College) University. He he teaches film and writing courses at Spokane Falls Community College.
Vaughn Overlie is an avid storyteller and a member of the Spokane Storytelling League, but his first love and passion is films. Overlie says, “I fell in love with cinema in 1953 when he saw Shane. In 1960 he entered the world of foreign films when he visited the Dishman Theater to view Bergman’s The Virgin Spring.
Dan Webster has been watching movies since 1952 when, after throwing a temper tantrum, he emotionally blackmailed his parents into taking him to see Stanley Donen’s musical “Singin’ in the Rain.” His aesthetic sensibilities, thusly shaped at age 5, never recovered. He took film courses at the University of California, San Diego, taught by the late critic Manny Farber. He began reviewing movies at The Spokesman-Review in 1984, continuing until his retirement in 2009. Webster continues to blog about movies for www.spokane7.com, and he is a cohost of “Movies 101,” a movie-review show that airs weekly on Spokane Public Radio.
