1CLT Film Festival Unites the Silos of Charlotte’s Film Scene

After its inaugural 2020 event saw success only to sputter out in the succeeding years, The Independent Picture House (IPH) this August is bringing back the 1CLT Film Festival, conjoining the silos of Charlotte’s film scene to create a united front in celebrating the spirit of local cinema.

Returning five years after its original conception, and for the first time in person, this year 13 local film organizations will present dozens of screenings at IPH from Aug. 20-24, showcasing the diverse film ecosystem Charlotte holds.

The inaugural 1CLT Film Festival in 2020 was a brainchild of CineOdyssey Film Festival founder Tre’ McGriff, who was inspired by a similar concept in New York. He reached out to Charlotte Film Festival co-director Jay Morong and other local film organizations and camps to put on a virtual film festival in an effort to unite the community while raising funds for local nonprofits.

Morong said that, although the event was successful and led to plenty of connections between participating organizations, working around so many numerous organizations’ schedules proved too logistically difficult to repeat in the following years. It appeared 1CLT Film Fest would become a standalone event.

Since that first event, however, Morong has consistently fielded inquiries from folks in the local film scene eager to see IPH host another like it, but in-person.

At the 2024 Charlotte Film Festival (CFF), held at IPH in September of that year, Morong and his team decided it was time to commit to another 1CLT Festival.

”Part of the mission of our venue is to engage with and enable local film organizations and educate people about local film organizations,” said Morong, who is also the creative director at IPH. “[We decided to] just commit to doing this right now and set a date.”

Showcasing Charlotte’s world-class film scene

Along with uniting the community in a time of isolation, 1CLT’s initial film festival highlighted the importance of supporting local organizations and featuring Charlotte’s thriving film exhibition scene.

“We really stuck to Charlotte because the idea is you don’t have to go outside of Charlotte to find [genres like] international, independent, student, animation, documentaries, social justice,” Morong said.

Though cities like New York, L.A. and Atlanta are celebrated as film hotspots, there is an incredible wealth of film organizations here in Charlotte, he emphasized.

“You don’t have to go outside of Charlotte to get, essentially, a world-class amount of films.”

1CLT Film Festival offers a platform for regional, national and international filmmakers to showcase their work and amplify the voices of underrepresented filmmakers, fostering a more inclusive and unified film landscape in Charlotte.

Many organizations in the city screen compelling, diverse material year-round, Morong said.

The Black Girls Film Camp, Charlotte Asian Film Festival, Cine Casual, Charlotte Jewish Film Festival and more organizations participating in this year’s 1CLT offer a blend of perspectives with one commonality: Charlotte.
Though not all of the films in the festival are set in or shot locally, they were selected by each local organization because they felt the film was important or enjoyable for people to see.

“There’s enough [film] here to keep us busy in Charlotte and to keep audiences … satiated with really great material,” Morong said. “Especially material that is diverse, that speaks to lots of social and political issues, that speaks to things happening on the ground in Charlotte.”

Each of the organizations have a designated block of varying run times, showing films that are representative of what the organization stands for and/or celebrates.

The Charlotte Latino Film Festival’s block will feature an eight-minute short film celebrating the Carolina Migrant Network’s five years of immigrant advocacy and the community bonds the organization has built.

Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ film festival Reel Out Charlotte will explore the personal journey and dilemmas experienced by a late-blooming trans woman in Clementine.

CFF will screen Hundreds of Beavers, the 2022 film that became last year’s runaway indie hit, following a 19th-century drunken applejack salesman’s efforts to become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers (life-sized beavers in mascot costumes, at that).

Read more: Greg Sestero Discusses ‘The Room’ Before IPH Double Feature

Not every film has to be a hugely important, society-changing piece, Morong said. CFF’s tagline is “discover different,” and knowing they had the last film block on a Saturday night, Morong wanted to book something that was a little quirky and bizarre because he knew there is a core of his audience that likes that kind of stuff.

That’s the beauty of 1CLT, he said: “It really does showcase what [specific organizations] do and then also, as a collective, all of those films together from all these different organizations showcase the real diversity and uniqueness of all of these film organizations in Charlotte,” Morong said.

Creating networks in Charlotte’s film scene

As CFF’s creative director, Morong would love to see the 1CLT Fest bring a larger audience to his own upcoming festival on Sep. 23-28, but he also emphasizes the importance of folks attending the numerous other festivals offered locally by separate organizations.

“What we’re trying to create here is showing that art organizations should not be operating in silos,” he continued. “That in whatever artistic or business pursuits that you’re in, it is really important that you are communal with your fellow people in that industry.”

Though most participating organizations have already held their 2025 festivals, the Charlotte Asian Film Festival will celebrate its third year at the Dubois Center on Sept. 13 and IPH will host the Carolina Film Festival on Oct. 4, followed by the 15 Short Film Festival on Oct. 13.

Because 1CLT is a free event, it also gives people the opportunity to take a chance on films they wouldn’t normally pay to see.

”You can look at the Charlotte Latino Film Festival lineup and say, ‘I don’t know if I would like that, but I could take a chance because it’s not going to cost me anything other than some time,’” Morong said. “But I think if you go to any of these [blocks] you will be like, ‘Oh, that was really interesting and great, I had no idea that this is what they’re doing.’”

Now with this template in mind, Morong hopes to make the 1CLT festival an annual event, bringing in new groups and collectives as it grows.

“I think the excitement that people should have for this is that it really does show that Charlotte is a world-class film exhibition city,” he said. “Seeing local organizations working together and supporting each other in Charlotte should be a very exciting thing to people … so we’re trying to say, in a nice way, you should be excited because we’re excited.”

Visit the Independent Picture House website for more information about the 1CLT Film Festival, including a schedule and how to reserve seats.