Shawna Shea Film Festival in Southbridge will be packed with indie features, short movies

The annual Shawna Shea Film Festival will be packed with indie features, shorts, documentaries, experimental, horror films and more made both locally and from around the world July 24 through 27 at starlite, 39 Hamilton St., Southbridge.

The festival is presented by the Shawna E. Shea Memorial Foundation Inc., which also puts on the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival, which was most recently was held in Worcester and Southbridge in April.

The Shawna Shea Film Festival has also been held in Worcester and Southbridge some years, but festival director Skip Shea said that for 2024 "we're back to our home base." Meanwhile, for the first time several festival films will be screened online for people who subscribe to the Shawna Foundation's Patreon site. Altogether the festival will be screening almost 130 films.

"In keeping with the mission of the Shawna Foundation, we are thrilled to report that 62 percent of the movies we’re screening were made by underrepresented communities," Shea said. "We also have international movies from countries like Israel, Iran, China, and Russia to name a few. All of which shows that art transcends all politics. When we share everyone’s stories we learn that we have much more in common than not."

Opening night will include the world premiere of the short feature film "Happy Hour" by John J Lynch in which "Jack Sullivan has to decide between his brother's debts to the mob and the bar he owns and loves." The programing also includes Lisa Olivieri's documentary "Recovery City," to be shown 7:30 p.m. July 25, which was filmed in Worcester and is described as an "intimate, unflinching portrait of four bold women who refuse to let themselves or their community give in to the stigma and despair of addiction." True to the festival's traditions dating back to its inception in 2012, horror will be well represented in the line-up including a block of Horror shorts starting at 10 p.m. July 26 with titles such as "The Sins of Salem."

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Shea is an acclaimed Uxbridge-based filmmaker, writer, director and producer who founded the Shawna E. Shea Memorial Foundation Inc. in memory of his daughter Shawna E. Shea, an Uxbridge High School student and a creative and artistic young woman who died at 16 in a 1999 automobile crash.

The nonprofit organization runs a number of programs including supporting young people, especially women, in filmmaking, performance arts and other artistic and cultural endeavors through financial assistance, collaborative fellowships, mentoring and educational opportunities.

Comparing the Shawna Shea Film Festival and Mass IFF events, Shea has said the Shawna Shea Film Festival "is more fringe ... a little weirder."

Tickets for program blocks are $10. For the full schedule and to buy tickets, visit shawnafoundation.org.