Wake Forest students, alumni and faculty have long been part of the RiverRun International Film Festival, and that tradition continues this week when the festival returns for its 28th run.

“I think that most people don’t realize how lucky we are to have a film festival as strong as RiverRun right here in our back yard,” said Chris Zaluski, director of Wake Forest’s Documentary Film Program. “It’s something we have used in our program as a teaching tool, as a way for students to network with professionals, and as a platform for our students to get their work out there. It’s just a fantastic event, and it seems to get better every year.”

RiverRun is one of the biggest film festivals in the Southeast. Each spring, RiverRun screens new narrative, documentary, short, student and animated films from around the world. The festival draws about 10,000 attendees each year.

One of the new events at this year’s festival is “Limitless: Stories Without Restraint,” featuring shorts with, by, and about individuals with disabilities. The inaugural year of this film block is anchored by “Back on Track,” a film by Peter Tkac, a 2025 MA graduate of Wake Forest’s Documentary Film Program. “Back on Track” looks at a wheelchair basketball team based in Winston-Salem. The film is executive produced by Peter Gilbert, a Wake Forest professor known for his film “Hoop Dreams,” and former NBA star Chris Webber.

“Once Upon a Wetland,” a film by Wake alumna Elizabeth Miller-Destrine, is part of a package of North Carolina-themed documentary shorts.

The Documentary Film Program is also sponsoring a film panel called “Behind the Lens: BIPOC Voices in Documentary,” featuring documentary filmmakers sharing insights about what it takes to build a sustainable career as a BIPOC filmmaker in the South. 

S. Cagney Gentry, a filmmaker who teaches film and media studies at Wake Forest, co-directed “Other Houses,” a feature film that will be screened at this year’s RiverRun. Cagney’s film, a blend of drama and improvisational performances, will be part of the Carolina Stories program, a long-running series of short film packages shown at RiverRun.

The film’s origins are tied to  the festival, since Gentry met filmmaker Thomas Sutherland, his co-director on “Other Houses,” at a previous RiverRun. They hit it off and decided to collaborate on several movies.

Gentry said he felt it was important that Wake Forest, with its vibrant arts community, and RiverRun, as a premier arts event happening in Winston-Salem each year, work closely together. And the collaboration between the two gives students at the school a working relationship with moviemaking. “This is bridging two worlds that I’m passionate about, teaching students and the independent film world,” he said. 

“RiverRun is excited to deepen its collaboration with Wake Forest University,” said Michael Morin, the new executive director of the festival. RiverRun has long partnered with Wake Forest’s Documentary Film program, he said, and while this is Morin’s first year as executive director, he looks forward to a long and fruitful relationship between the organization and the University.

“Wake Forest’s emphasis on experiential learning aligns closely with RiverRun’s mission to create meaningful, hands-on opportunities for students.”

Michael Morin, Executive Director of RiverRun

In addition to alumni and faculty involved in several of this year’s films, the University has other connections to the festival. Two Wake Forest students will be part of this year’s Pitch Fest, a popular event where student filmmakers present their ideas to a panel of judges. Zaluski said that Wake students traditionally do well in each year’s Pitch Fest and have been first-place winners for the past three years.

This year’s MFA students in Pitch Fest are Emily Allgair and Xiaoya Wei. This is the first year the Pitch Fest has been split into two different panels, one each weekend, and they will participate in the second weekend’s Pitch Fest, which focuses on documentaries.

And this year’s festival jury will include two Wake Forest Documentary Film Program students: Kenan Reed on Documentary Features and Emily Allgair on Documentary Shorts.

The collaborations between Wake and RiverRun will also run throughout the school year, not just during the festival itself, with plans for an on-campus screening and panel discussion later in the year. That event will address one of the school’s areas of academic distinction, according to Zaluski, such as environment and sustainability; neuroscience and society; health, medicine and humanity; leadership, character and integrity; and emerging and future technologies. 

Gentry is also developing a new course at Wake Forest in partnership with RiverRun to look at the history of independent filmmaking and distribution.

“We’re trying to educate students about how many ways you can tell a story in this very versatile medium,” Gentry said. “Film and media don’t have to come through predictable channels, and we want to empower students to take advantage of that.”

Wake Forest and RiverRun hope to create meaningful connections this year and in the future, building on the partnership with year-round screenings and events. Morin said, “Together, we are committed to helping students engage with powerful films to learn how storytelling can drive impact within communities.”

—Contributed by Tim Clodfelter.