FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE AT THE 2024 FESTIVAL

**RACHEL KEMPF & NICK TOTI**
**IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS**
In 2020, screenwriter Rachel Kempf and indie filmmaker Nick Toti moved from Los Angeles to rural Missouri to make weird, low-budget horror movies. They have never regretted this decision.
In addition to making movies together, they also run DieDieBooks, an indie press that publishes books about scary movies.
DieDieBooks has been featured in Dread Central, Nightmare Nostalgia, and The Pitch KC.

**TYLER EATON**
**MYSTERIOUS WAYS** **(World Premiere)**
Tyler Eaton is the writer-director of Mysterious Ways and is originally from Sugar Land, Texas where he was homeschooled alongside his 3 siblings and went to church a whole lot. He studied film at the University of Texas in Austin and moved to Los Angeles in 2014 to work in TV where he started taking sketch and improv classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade and doing stand up. Eventually, he made a few web series like Going Going Gone (about losing his precious hair), Bottles, and Dumb Astronauts. After meeting Lauren Gilbert in 2016, he made a bunch of comedy shorts with her like Chemo Brain (2020), hosted a couple stand up shows, and most recently wrote and produced the scripted podcast series Battle of the Bald and in 2021 he produced a comedy feature film from writer-director Devon Green called Judge Mint's Follies.

**ALEC BONK**
**BLIND COP 2** **(Opening Night Film)**
Alec is a writer and director from central New York. He spent his formative years watching John Carpenter films with his mom.
After attending the Savannah College of Art and Design to study directing, Alec found a community of like-minded artists who became his close friends and collaborators.
Following his studies, Alec returned to his hometown to film his debut feature, Blind Cop 2, which brought his creative journey full circle.

COURTNEY ECK

DARK MOMMY (World Premiere)

Courtney is possessed by the endless ways to tell stories about the abstract and existential nightmare that is the human condition through the absolute blast that is the horror genre. She’s equally infatuated with the beauty of light and liminal space, the absurdity of our constructed reality, and the danger in abandoning our elemental selves. She exercises all of these things through her narrative horror podcast and corresponding production company, Please Leave. Her previous films have screened at SXSW, Raindance and Fantastic Fest.

**NICK ROHR**
**WEEKEND DAD - “LOVECRAFT”**
Nick Rohr is the creative director that runs Lemon Pulp Studios, both an independent comics and zines publishing label as well as an internationally awarded traditional animation studio. You can find the work on Instagram @lemonpulpstudios.
His animated short screens at the festival before Chad Ferrin’s H. P. LOVECRAFT’S OLD ONES.

JAKE VIAENE

SENTINEL

Jake Viaene is a filmmaker from rural Wisconsin. He studied film at the Peck School of the Arts at UW-Milwaukee and is now a full-time commercial director and producer, but also creates music videos and narrative films.

**DEREK BAUER**
**I WANT YOU**
Directory of Photography for “I Want You.” Derek Bauer's work, often darkly comedic, explores themes of social alienation, sexual shame and the common tragedies of the "traditional" nuclear family through a DIY, expressionistic visual style.

BEN MANHANKE

SMILEY

Ben Manhanke is an award-winning filmmaker based in St. Louis, MO. He has been directing and shooting short films since 2018, working primarily in the horror genre. With an emphasis on visual style, his films explore the topics of isolation, loss and the power of chance encounters.

His latest short films, Smiley (2023) and Dementia 29 (2022), are screening at festivals now.