THURSDAY 6:00 KICKOFF PARTY

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Thursday, August 21, 2025

6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Center615 Main Street Gallery

Box office pickup: Stop by the kickoff party to pick up your tickets for the weekend, and skip the will call line at the fest!

7:00 PM — UNTAMED: A DEFY RETROSPECTIVE
8:00 PM — VOYAGE: A LIVE VISUAL ALBUM

Help us kick off our 10th year of Defy with our first-ever Festival Kickoff Party on Thursday, August 21st, at the Center615 Main Street Gallery, featuring a retrospective film screening with some of our fave films from the past ten years, followed by a special performance by friend-of-the-Fest Sarah Saturday (Gardening, Not Architecture) of her multimedia musical Voyage: A Live Visual Album, featuring several short films directed by Defy's own Dycee Wildman.

Ticket Type:

Thursday, August 21, 2025

6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Center615 Main Street Gallery

Box office pickup: Stop by the kickoff party to pick up your tickets for the weekend, and skip the will call line at the fest!

7:00 PM — UNTAMED: A DEFY RETROSPECTIVE
8:00 PM — VOYAGE: A LIVE VISUAL ALBUM

Help us kick off our 10th year of Defy with our first-ever Festival Kickoff Party on Thursday, August 21st, at the Center615 Main Street Gallery, featuring a retrospective film screening with some of our fave films from the past ten years, followed by a special performance by friend-of-the-Fest Sarah Saturday (Gardening, Not Architecture) of her multimedia musical Voyage: A Live Visual Album, featuring several short films directed by Defy's own Dycee Wildman.

FILMS IN THIS PROGRAM (ALPHABETICAL ORDER):

Featured
Dollface
Dollface

Director: Kirsten Johnson

Country of Origin: Canada

Defy Year: 2016

Synopsis: A woman wakes up covered in toys. Is she hungover? Depressed? Can she get up? Live action and stop-motion animation fuse together in this mad ride exploring self-doubt, delusion, misplaced inner voices and embroidery floss.

Trailer

The Fire Cycle - A Reading from the Book of Regenesis
The Fire Cycle - A Reading from the Book of Regenesis

Director: Clay Steakley

Country of Origin: United States

Defy Year: 2022

Synopsis: The Fire Cycle is a multidisciplinary artwork consisting of films, poetry, music, and visual art. It's a call to stop, to breathe, to return to elemental things and the ritual of the year. This short film accompanies both a poem and song titled "A Reading From the Book of Regenesis," which sets the stage for The Fire Cycle—a regenerative cycle in which large fires cause changes in weather that can lead to other fires, elsewhere. In the process, they bring life and take it away.

Website

Horny Kid
Horny Kid

Director: Josh Whiteman

Country of Origin: United States

Defy Year: 2023

Synopsis: The filmmaker's mother describes stories of his lustful youth over the phone, causing them to reflect on his current love life at the age of 30.

Nail Clippings: World Without Sun
Nail Clippings: World Without Sun

Director: Artemis Evlogimenou

Country of Origin: Cyprus

Defy Year: 2023

Synopsis: Dark Comedy Experimental Short starring Konstantina Skalionta. Our immersion into the surrealist world of emotions, brings to light how constructs of reality can be affected by our detachment from: nature, ourselves and others, when dealing with loneliness and depression.

Website

Paris-Bruxelles
Paris-Bruxelles

Director: Marjorie Lhomme

Country of Origin: France

Defy Year: 2024

Synopsis: Paris-Bruxelles is a road movie that starts out as a holiday. But a different kind of adventure is in store. Today, 8-year-old Loulou is driving to Belgium with her family for the euthanasia of her grandmother, Blanche.

Princess
Princess

Director: Karsten Dahlem

Country of Origin: Germany

Defy Year: 2017

Synopsis: When gang leader Ole (11) and his buddies Marco (10) and Milan (12) nicked twelve year old Davie's school bag, Ole would never in his wildest dreams have imagined that a short time later he would appear on stage with Davie at a school karaoke contest dressed as a princess with makeup on... neither could his friends.