Streaming 4:00 pm August 22nd
Join us for a one-night streaming event as we look back on 25 years of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival with new independent cosmic horror short films, some rarely seen classics of the genre, and a live Q&A with those filmmakers.
This is an internationally diverse lineup, with films from Taiwan, Ireland, Poland, Australia, United Kingdom, Argentina, and the US.
Stream is available to watch anywhere in the US, beginning 4 pm August 22nd and ending 11:59 pm on August 23rd. Ticket sales will end at 8 pm on August 23rd.
For more info visit the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival website.
From the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival:
As the organizers of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Portland Horror Film Festival, we fully support the Black Lives Matter movement, viewing it not as a political issue but a human rights issue.
We acknowledge that H. P. Lovecraft is a problematic literary figure. We embrace his contributions to the genre, the bleakness of his horror, the coolness of his monsters, but we firmly reject his racist ideologies. We celebrate his literary legacy through film, particularly the genres of cosmic horror and the Weird tale that he helped create. However, we do not condone or espouse his racist beliefs and while fully acknowledging that he was racist, we study his vast body of correspondence to better understand the kind of racism prevalent in America in the 1920s and 30s which allowed Jim Crow laws to continue for several more decades.
The H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival frequently features guests and speakers who are men, women, transgender, non-binary, and people of color to discuss both the fandom in general and the complexities of being a fan of the works of a man with reprehensible views.
Our primary mission is to encourage new voices that expand on the cosmic horror genre in new and interesting ways, including works like Matt Ruff’s novel Lovecraft Country and Victor LaValle’s Ballad of Black Tom. As such, an integral part of our programming this year will be to highlight the works of cosmic horror by modern BIPOC creators.
Now more than ever it’s important for us to examine our fandom with eyes wide open, and we appreciate the opportunity to have this dialogue.
Gwen & Brian Callahan
Festival Directors
H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon
Portland Horror Film Festival
From the Hollywood Theatre:
Much like the organizers of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, we at the Hollywood recognize and condemn the author's racist attitudes and opinions. As the host venue of the Festival for many years, we have seen the festival's producers continually address this aspect of Lovecraft's legacy and engage with the question of what it means to be a fan of work created by someone with blatantly bigoted ideas. We realize this is a complex and evolving conversation that affects all of us, and as producers and presenters of media, something we continue to grapple with. Â
The Hollywood as an organization is evolving as well. We realize that no matter how sincere our intentions (or the intentions of the programmers and community organizations we host) that what we decide to show can have a very real impact to members of our audience. We hope that by acknowledging the dissonance that sometimes exists between art and artist, and encouraging conversation (which involves both speaking and listening), we can help lessen that impact and find a way forward together.