05/02/2025
May 2, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Adele Robey, [email protected]
Valley Place Arts Collaborative, a non-profit producing and presenting project supporting Ward 7 and Ward 8 artists and creative projects, is pleased to announce the official selections of the third Anacostia Shorts Film Festival.
Tickets $15 to $10 with a $5 Discount for Anacostia Residents. Purchase tickets at bit.ly/2025AFFtix
In partnership with Arch Development Open Road Arts Film Festival, , and Lisa Hodsoll, Valley Place Arts Collaborative once again sponsored “Anacostia Shorts,” a special category and contest for Anacostia filmmakers and/or stories rooted in this historic DC community.
There will be a three-day event to show the selected films, which will be screened live on May 10 and 11, 2025, and via YouTube on May 12, 2025. Live events take place at Historic Anacostia’s Honfleur Gallery.
The festival's first day is dedicated to a day of “COVFEFE” or films that speak to our present moment. We contacted filmmakers and asked them to create or submit films that speak to these unprecedented times. The films that are being screened do just that either directly or obliquely. They certainly give food for thought.
DAY 1, “COVFEFE”
The Final Chapter, Rashada Coton
Living Your Truth, Ricardo Bouyett, Eleshia Simms-Harris
Hope Works, Daria Strahan, Yaa Bonsu, Perry Chamberlain
Moon Crab, Leah Clare Michaels
Banana Banana, Raghad Makhlouf
Red Flag of the Future: Scene, Andrew Bellware
GNH in Bhutan: Youth Volunteers in Thimphu. Dara Padwo-Audick, Hans Wessing
Seeing Without Sight, Alyscia Cunningham
DAY 2
Living Your Truth, Ricardo Bouyett, Eleshia Simms-Harris
Waiting For April, Timothy Parsons
Moon Crab, Leah Clare Michaels
Millstone, Peter Hoffman Kimball
The Final Chapter, Rashada Coton
But He’s Gay, Michael Calciano
Seeing Without Sight, Alyscia Cunningham
DAY 3 (Virtual)
Living Your Truth, Ricardo Bouyett, Eleshia Simms-Harris
Waiting For April, Timothy Parsons
Moon Crab, Leah Clare Michaels
Millstone, Peter Hoffman Kimball
The Final Chapter, Rashada Coton
But He's Gay, Michael Calciano
Films from Day of “Covfefe”
Banana Banana, Raghad Makhlouf
Red Flag of the Future: Scene, Andrew Bellware
GNH in Bhutan: Youth Volunteers in Thimphu, Dara Padwo-Audick, Hans Wessing
Hope Works, Daria Strahan, Yaa Bonsu, Perry Chamberlain
Honorable Mention:
Legacy on the Potomac, Lois Cooper
The producers:
Lisa Hodsoll, Co-Producer
Lisa Hodsoll started An Open Road Film Festival, which is now in its third year and has a continued partnership with The Valley Place Arts Collaborative. As an actor, she most recently appeared in Chicago P.D. on NBC and The Waverly Gallery at 1st Stage. Selected theater credits include: NEW YORK: Laura Bush Killed A Guy (The Klunch)— DC run, Helen Hayes nomination for Best Lead Actress. LOCAL: The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Theater Alliance) Helen Hayes Nomination Best Supporting Actress, Edgar and Annabelle (Studio Theatre), and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide … (Theater J) OTHER: A Fool’s Paradise (Valiant Flea) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Medea’s Got Some Issues in Chicago (Chicago Theater Sweatshop) and DC (No Rules Theatre) Selected TV/FILM: Tires (Netflix), Chicago Med (NBC), Lady in the Lake (Apple TV +) and the feature film Jesus Land
She is the founder of the not-for-profit arts organization Open Road https://theopenroadarts.com/.
For more information, visit https://lisamhodsoll.com/
Adele Robey, Co-Producer
A former resident of Historic Anacostia, Adele is a founder of the Theater Alliance, which was formed when she was on the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop board. In 2001, she and her late husband bought a property at 1365 H Street NE, Washington, DC, turning it into a small independent black box theater. This theater, The H Street Playhouse, proved to be one of the catalysts for the explosive growth that continues to happen on this corridor. She has always been intimately involved in local economic development, first as a member of the H Street Merchants Association and then as a board member of the H Street Main Street organization. She has also been a CHAMPS, Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce member and the Capitol Hill Community Achievement Award recipient. She has served on the Anacostia Business Improvement District and St. Coletta School boards.
In 2012, she founded a non-profit, The DC Theater Arts Collaborative, whose major project was the Anacostia Playhouse, which opened its doors in August 2013. The Playhouse served as a neighborhood hub for the performing arts, drawing participants and audiences from both sides of the Anacostia River and playing an integral role in the economic revitalization of Historic Anacostia and Ward 8. Her role at the Playhouse ended in January 2022. She now concentrates on Valley Place Arts Collaborative, Inc., as a founding artist and board member, helping create art programs and opportunities for East of the River artists and the community at large.
As a freelance graphic artist (and part-time actor), she co-founded the successful Voice of the Hill newspaper and served in Capitol Hill public schools, fashioning after-school programs. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she is the recipient of that school's Alumni Award of Merit.
For more information, please contact: Adele Robey, [email protected]
