The Horror Film Fest at Tackett’s Mill is set for Oct. 16, and one of the shorts on the slate was shot in Virginia Beach.
Kendra Louka of LoukaRound Productions submitted No Grace. She told Potomac Local’s Mike Salmon the film will screen at the Clearbrook Artist Collective program inside the shopping center arts space at 2230 B Tackett’s Mill Drive.
“I’m so excited about this year’s film festival,” Louka said.
She found the call through Women in Film & Video of Washington, D.C., which emails members a daily rundown of festivals and events. No Grace opens on a protagonist meeting a stranger — a setup Louka said she keeps running in her head when she buys things off Facebook Marketplace.
“When I show up to someone’s house to get something, and they invite me in to help them carry it out, or whichever, these scenarios are always running through my head, and so that is how my short film begins,” she said.
Asked for a film that left a mark, Louka pointed to a YouTube short called Curve: almost no dialogue, a woman who wakes on a cliff. “You feel what she feels, and it’s really intense, and you watch it to the end, because you have to see what happens at the end, and just that feeling is what I’m going for when I think of shooting my films.”
Her next script is set in an airport. Four strangers lose cell service. Flights are delayed. What they say to each other changes where they end up.
“When I travel now, everyone is on their phones, but when I was a flight attendant, I had so many conversations with strangers that were literally life changing, and so I wanted to recreate that, sort of a wish fulfillment,” Louka said.
Salmon asked whether each festival acceptance still lands as a win. “Yes,” she said. “My work resonates with someone.”
Organizers have billed the night as a one-day showcase of independent horror, thriller and mystery shorts, with tickets $5 at the door. Several area filmmakers are on the lineup. The collective has not posted a full running order or start time on its event page.
Watch the interview:
