Last Wednesday, I found myself in a packed Tomorrow Theater for MIXED*, a hybrid film showcase curated by my friend Garett Stenson. The concept was simple but ambitious — 211 films submitted from 44 countries, distilled into a single evening in Portland, Oregon. But MIXED* clearly had bigger ambitions than a typical screening — less curated showcase, more catalyst for the kind of conversations independent filmmakers actually need to be having about AI.
The night opened with a musical performance by Yawa that set the tone before Garett took the stage to welcome the crowd and frame the evening's central question: What happens when human creativity meets emerging technology?
The hybrid film showcase featured five pieces that each tackled that tension from different angles. Ceremony, directed by Mark Warcholiz. The Tin Woods, directed by Nick Boxwell. BLUE, directed by Felipe Valerio. The Hum, directed by Olat Taraszewski. And Railbound, directed by Jonathan Perry. Each film sat somewhere on the spectrum between traditional filmmaking and AI-assisted creation — exactly the kind of work that makes you think harder about where the craft is heading.
After the screenings, a panel discussion brought together Adam Davis from Oregon Humanities, Nishat Akhtar from Instrument, independent filmmaker Steven Golliday, Mike Vogel from AI Video School, and Suzanne Tong from Level Seven. The conversation circled around three provocative questions: What makes us uniquely human? What is lost or gained when we use AI? And what is the future of film? The room was engaged — you could feel people leaning in and processing the discussion. It was one of those panels where the audience energy matched the substance on stage.
The evening wrapped with the announcement of The Asterisk Award, a people's choice vote. The winner: The Hum. Well deserved.
Here's what stuck with me after the night: not once during the films or the panel did anyone mention blockchain or web3, let alone film3 or whats currently happening in the space with ai agents. Not once. And these are tools that are already helping filmmakers with financing, distribution, audience building — the stuff that actually makes or breaks an independent project. The discussions that happened that night were the very tip of the iceberg, and there is so much work left to do. For as long as I've been in this industry, the creative part has been the easy part. It's everything that happens outside of production that's hard — getting the money, keeping the freedom and integrity of the story you want to tell, and then figuring out how to actually get it in front of people.
The beautiful part about events like these is what happens next. I'm meeting with Garett next week to discuss exactly that. The Film3 Foundation will be supporting MIXED* moving forward-- last we met, we were already exploring co-hosting workshops together. This is the kind of event that sits right at the intersection of everything we care about — independent film, emerging technology, conversations and real community. Portland is building something here, and we're a part of it.
More to come 🎬
