aiff2026.eventive.org\/welcome<\/a>.<\/p>\nThis year\u2019s festival includes the works of quite a distinguished group of filmmakers including Academy Award-nominated documentarian Sam Green, experimental storyteller Cheryl Dunye, and longtime filmmaker and screen writer Alex Cox among others.<\/p>\n
Dunye is the recipient of this year\u2019s AIFF Pride Award and is the first out Black lesbian to direct a feature film, known for her bold and avant-garde style as a filmmaker.<\/p>\n
Dunye\u2019s film \u201cThe Watermelon Woman,\u201d will be screened April 25 during the festival.<\/p>\n
Green has received the AIFF Rogue Award for embodying the independent filmmaker spirit with his immersive and personal approach to making documentaries, and his two latest films, \u201cThe Oldest Person in the World\u201d and \u201c32 Sounds,\u201d which will be showed at the festival.<\/p>\n
Another creative whose work will be showcased at the film festival is Ashland-born filmmaker Mark Alan Hoffman.<\/p>\n
Based in Portland and returning to his roots in Ashland, Hoffman will show \u201cA Simple Machine,\u201d which is his debut feature film shot in black and white.<\/p>\n
The movie follows protagonist Nick who\u2019s dealing with debt, loss and scraping by every day in Portland. Looking to simplify his life from the the rampant consumerism of society, he starts a life of minimalism, leading to a reckoning with identity, responsibility and what it means to be free.<\/p>\n
Having the opportunity to showcase his debut film in the city where he grew up will be an full-circle moment for the filmmaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means so much; it\u2019s kind of surreal,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cI think just being able to see the film in theater with my parents and with my family coming from Bend and seeing it in my community; that\u2019s what I\u2019m excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoffman\u2019s film represents Oregon through and through, from exclusively filming in sites across Portland to using an all-Oregon-based film crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, the filmmaking talent we have in the state \u2026 I had the opportunity to work with all the people I\u2019ve made connections with over time to see if we could pull this off in a scrappy way,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cWe made a studio-level film here in Portland and I\u2019m really proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The movie was inspired by Portland author Evan P. Schneider\u2019s novel \u201cA Simple Machine, Like the Lever,\u201d which Hoffman first came across at the iconic Powell\u2019s bookstore in Portland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found Evan\u2019s book, which was published in 2010 or 2011, and it was about a guy during the recession trying to live frugally. The story resonated with me, so I reached out to Evan Schneider and we hit it off and started working on a screenplay together,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cAfter a year, he said \u2018you run with it\u2019 and it was a 10-year process (to finish).\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoffman started running the film festival circuit with \u201cA Simple Machine\u201d in June 2025 with plans to release the film in May, starting regionally before making it available on a national scale.<\/p>\n
Regarding what his plans are once he\u2019s back in Ashland, Hoffman is hoping to visit some of his favorite eateries such as Cocorico and Case Coffee Roasters, just to name a couple.<\/p>\n
Reach reporter James Sloan at james.sloan@rv-times.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source rv-times.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AIFF to offer 40 film programs, four days of entertainment Published 6:00 am Monday, April 13, 2026 Ashland-born filmmaker to screen debut feature film \u2018A Simple Machine\u2019 Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Ashland Independent Film Festival is set to return in late April, bringing in acclaimed filmmakers and showcasing a wide range of movies. Tickets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2371086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2371085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AIFF-to-offer-40-film-programs-four-days-of-entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2371085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2371087,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371085\/revisions\/2371087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2371086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2371085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2371085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2371085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}