Donate to Fiscally Sponsored Projects
Beatlore
BEATLORE is a documentary film celebrating the life and legacy of Derek Rieth, late percussionist and beloved member of the band Pink Martini. Derek’s long struggle with bipolar disorder ended when he died by suicide on August 20, 2014 at the age of 43. BEATLORE will capture Derek’s passion for music, his struggle with mental illness and his vibrant spirit that continues to influence generations of Northwest musicians.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Rebuilding LA
Rebuilding LA will be a 54-minute film that follows survivors of the 2025 Los Angeles fires,
placing their experience in the context of recent wildfire disasters such as Lahaina, the Camp
Fire, and the 2020 Oregon fires. Community leaders in LA are building on hard lessons from
these tragedies, but their story is different. Where past dreams of rapid, resilient recovery have
faltered, Los Angeles has a chance to set a new precedent: reaching 80% fire-hardened homes
while rebuilding quickly enough to preserve the fabric of its neighborhoods. Timed for release in
early 2026, the film will capture this journey and amplify science-backed plans that could shape
not only LA’s future but also recovery efforts from hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes nationwide.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever Northwest, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Mitzvah
Mitzvah is an independent feature film from Portland filmmakers Jessica Barr and Sarah Sherman. The film follows a stubborn middle schooler who is taken under the wing of two high schoolers as she prepares for her Bat Mitzvah. Mitzvah explores the Portland Jewish community experience, the legacy and obligation of ritual, and the reality of living with a terminally ill parent.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Sansei Sensibility
Sansei Sensibility follows third-generation Japanese Americans as they reflect on their family’s resilience through forced incarceration during World War II and their lives in rural Oregon in the years after.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Tulare Lake
Set against the scorched landscape of California’s San Joaquin Valley, the story follows
Matthew, a boy navigating the volatile weekends spent with his father, Raymond, a devout
Christian whose schizophrenia blurs the boundary between faith and delusion. Father-son
outings spiral into a series of encounters marked by visions, paranoia, and an unsettling
hitchhiker. At home, Matthew’s mother, Susan, offers him comfort but little protection, leaving
him suspended between chaos and care.
As a storm gathers and Tulare Lake, once drained for agriculture, mystically fills again, Matthew
is thrust into a surreal confrontation with his father’s unraveling mind. Faced with the pull of love,
fear, and transcendence, he must navigate the blurred line between trauma and the primal
loyalty that a son has for his father.
The film is a haunting exploration of faith, mental illness, and the resilience of a child caught in
the undertow of a fracturing relationship.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Portland Latin American Film Festival
The Portland Latin American Film Festival (PDXLAFF) serves the community as a non-profit cultural promoter under the guidance of the Hollywood Theatre. We are dedicated to showcasing perspectives of Latin American culture through an exploration of Latin film and increasing the visibility of Latin American cinema locally. PDXLAFF presents films with universal appeal that can be enjoyed by native Spanish, Portuguese, and English speakers, and other lovers of the Latin culture.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Portland Dark
Lower Boom, on August 1st, launched a Diversity and Inclusion Initiative to create opportunities for Television and Film writers, and selected 6 underrepresented writers to participate in a 2 month writer’s room for the TV series PORTLAND DARK. Support this Initiative and help to create PORTLAND DARK, the first home-grown prestige drama to come out of Portland.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
POW Film Fest
The Power of Women Film Festival is Portland’s premiere film festival showcasing the work of women and non-binary directors. Over the past 15 years, the festival has featured some of today’s top directors, while honoring the true pioneers and recognizing the next generation of leading filmmakers. Over the years POW has striven to encourage thoughtful and engaged discourse of the fem perspective while heralding the need for greater parity in the film industry through the keen and discerning eyes of women and non-binary film and media makers. POW was created, in part, to celebrate women in their quest to thrive and grow in the film industry.
The fest also provides a space to strengthen the Portland community of women and non-binary people in film by offering year-found film workshops for youth ages 15-19 with their POWGirls program. POWGirls offers workshops in video production, cinematography, audio recording, set lighting, digital editing and media literacy for girls and non-binary youth ages 15-19.
12 years, 21 workshops, and 27 films!!
POW Film Fest is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Q Doc
QDoc is the only film festival in the U.S. (and one of only two in the world), devoted exclusively to LGBTQ+ documentaries. Known for showing award-winning films, fresh from top-tier festivals as well as cutting edge works from emerging filmmakers, QDoc Film Festival is a uniquely anticipated highlight of Portland’s cultural calendar and an important event for the Pacific Northwest community.
Your donations help sustain QDoc Film Festival in its 14th year and beyond. Thank you in advance for your support and for your continued commitment to our festival, LGBTQ+ visibility in documentary film, and the creators.
QDoc is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Refuge
Refuge explores an embattled American West, where long-term struggles erupt, placing a remote rural community in the crosshairs.
Newly-minted Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward squares off against anti-government activist Ammon Bundy, in a latter-day Sagebrush rebellion over rights, land, and identity—set in Oregon’s arid outback. Confrontation descends into armed takeover with deadly results, as the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge transfixes a nation and places a frontier community at risk.
As part-time Harney County residents over 30 years, we share a stake in the outcome, and gain rare trust of those across the ideological spectrum. Dave Ward remains the film’s main character and moral center, while Burns Paiute Tribal members, ranchers, federal employees, occupiers and supporters, FBI agents, attorneys, and environmentalists round out a complex, multi-character story, providing a rich juxtaposition of perspectives. We examine themes of colonialism, land conflicts, socio-political divides, rural economic inequities, and the nature of protest in this timely American story.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Show of Hands
Project Website
Show of Hands: a #MeToo Reckoning for Catlin Gabel
This is a feature documentary about the current firestorm over decades of sexual abuse by teachers, recently uncovered at one of the most prestigious k-12 schools in America. There are nearly two dozen survivors who have agreed to share their harrowing stories. Although this type of atrocious behavior is not unique to the school, at Catlin, the insular nature of economic elitism exacerbated the problem, allowing it to continue unabated, for more than 40 years. Everything changed when one former student shared her personal story online, “It opened the floodgates.” Today, numerous lawsuits have been filed. Alumni are working together with (and without) the administrators to determine what kind of future is left for the Catlin Gabel School. Or if it can be saved at all.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
True and Tall Tales of the Pacific NorthWeird
Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly Music have created True and Tall Tales of the Pacific NorthWeird, a song and film cycle. The cycle consists of all original musical compositions, film, and multimedia presentations. This project is a collaborative, Pacific Northwest artist-based, film and music production directed by Jim Brunberg. All eight films are made with local filmmakers, visual artists, puppeteers, actors, performers, and writers.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Wake Up Maggie
Wake Up Maggie is a coming of middle age, independent feature film from Portland filmmaker Katie Prentiss and producer Cara Mitsuko. Maggie’s tightly wound life unravels when she gets a call that her estranged sister is in deep trouble. Their reunion reveals a startling diagnosis that leads Maggie to her own unexpected awakening.
Wake Up Maggie explores themes of the unraveling of midlife, the disruption and demands of caregiving, and the slow goodbye of dementia born out of Katie Prentiss’s own experience caring for her mother who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. This film is her love letter to all who are lost – to themselves and to the faceless spectre of dementia.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Yellow Balloon
Yellow Balloon is an independent short narrative film created by Portland Vietnamese-American filmmaker Summer Luu, co-written with Olyvia Chac-Nguyen and produced with Stephanie Duong. The film follows a young Vietnamese-American kid who is adopted by their immigrant grandparents and longs for self-acceptance and discovers the reality of letting go. Yellow Balloon is a story for the Vietnamese-American diaspora, exploring identity, the immigrant experience, and facing racial and gender adversity.
This is a sponsored project of Film Forever NW, DBA Hollywood Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.