Red Means Go!

Panama City’s Resident Film Festival Spreads Hope for the Future

By Jordan Staggs

Hope. Everywhere we went during Redfish Film Festival, there was a common thread: We hope they love our town as much as we do. We hope they see our artistic heart. We hope they feel something, whether it’s joy, fun, motivation, pride, or a sense of community. We hope people get it.

Although documentary films can be emotionally jarring or sad, hope is what many of them convey—a look at some of the world’s most difficult situations and the people who continually work to make things better. Redfish Film Festival in Panama City, Florida, brought hope to the guests who attended its seventy-plus screenings, art installations, and parties. They saw stories on the screen that moved them to tears and laughter while also witnessing the story of a town coming into its own as it recovered from Hurricane Michael, which made landfall as a Category 5 storm in 2018. Kevin Elliott saw this moment and had a vision to create a cultural experience like no other.

“My family moved to Panama City in 1988, and when I saw the historic Martin Theater downtown, I fell in love,” says Elliott. “As a theater kid, I was always in plays and shows, and later in life, I started having this vision of putting on an event with this town as the venue. The idea became this Walt Disney World-style set, where the main street would play host to art and music and film, and all the shops and people in the community could be part of the ‘cast,’ so to speak. When Historic Downtown Panama City started to rebuild after Hurricane Michael, with Dover, Kohl & Partners doing the town planning, it was like my dream was becoming reality. I knew we could pull off an amazing festival here if we had enough local support.”

And man, did the locals show up in incredible and unexpected ways. The inaugural Redfish Film Festival took place April 11 to 13, 2024, featuring documentary films submitted by local, national, and even international filmmakers. Merchants and restaurants downtown opened their doors and held special events, sold red-themed food and drinks, and more. Artists and musicians filled the streets with beautiful sights, sounds, and soul. People wore a lot of red. The response was so overwhelming that the organizers decided to add another full day of screenings to the second festival, April 24 to 27, 2025, along with more filmmaker panels, workshops, parties, and interviews. The fest also gained a new, perfectly themed presenting sponsor: Coca-Cola.

VIE was thrilled to join as the sponsor of the VIE Speaks x Redfish Film Fest Pop-Up Podcast Studio, where hosts Lisa Marie Burwell and Jordan Staggs interviewed several of the weekend’s headliners, along with Elliott himself. The guests ranged from the award-winning Northwest Florida-based climate listener Dayna Reggero to Meg Cruz and Rebecca Sirmons of NASA (yes, that NASA), celebrity true-crime podcast host and filmmaker Stephanie Harlowe, and documentary directors Carrie Lederer and Brett Whitcomb.

“The decision to make Redfish a documentary film festival was very intentional,” Elliott says. “Storytelling is at the heart of everything we want to do, and these filmmakers are telling stories from all over the world that can make a difference and move people. The diversity in this genre is also a huge plus. We curated an amazing lineup of documentaries that cover every topic, from climate change to LGBTQ rights to local Panama City history. Our guests had such an array of films to choose from, we couldn’t be prouder. Our hope is to become the premier documentary film festival in the Southeastern United States.”

The long weekend is full of even more than the seventy-plus featured films. A veritable A-list cast of local performers, event planners, chefs, craftspeople, volunteers, media, and more came together to put on events along Harrison Avenue, inside the Panama City Center for the Arts, in nearby private venues, and at McKenzie Park. The weekend kicked off Thursday with a bustling welcome party at The Sapp House, a historic downtown event venue, with the theme “From Bayou to Beyond” celebrating local history. The main events took place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with screenings at locations all over town: the Center for the Arts, the Bay County History Museum, Downtown Boxing Club, Gallery of Art 850, Mosey’s Downtown, and House of Henry.

Brittany Tucker, communication director and event organizer for the festival, expresses her profound gratitude and awe for the creative displays, parties, and enthusiasm shown by so many Panama City locals and organizations.

Anima Arts created a speakeasy that stopped people in their tracks. “There was a closet you had to duck to get into,” Tucker shares. “It reminded me of the one you’d hide in as a child when you were young enough to comfortably adventure into nooks and crannies. There was a veil that, as you crossed, opened the room and led to a writer’s desk with a typewriter. My grandfather, who meant the world to me before he ‘crossed the veil,’ was a writer. It brought me to tears. That’s what world-class art does; it makes you feel profoundly.”

Public Eye Soar lit up the entire downtown in red, from covering the streetlamps and bringing red spotlights to crafting projection art perfectly curated for the theme of each party. Shadow puppets invited children (and children at heart) to play along with the artists at Friday night’s Storytellers Row craft market and performance. A custom sculpture projected redfish all over McKenzie Park. “I was speaking with a woman from Fort Lauderdale, and she said, ‘I can’t put my finger on it, but it reminds me of Disney,’” Tucker says. “That’s the highest compliment we could receive.”

The Panama City Center for the Arts not only lent its space, gear, and time to Redfish Film Fest, but its team also lent its talent. The upstairs gallery hosted screenings alongside an exhibition of festival posters submitted by local artists. The team also created a red sofa with a ring of red lights surrounding it, which instantly became an iconic Redfish scene for all who visited the space. “It organically became the profile photo of half the town,” Tucker laughs. “They weren’t asked to, they didn’t have to, it’s just what artists do: they ‘art.’”

Missed A Spot Designs created a tri-sided mobile mural that gave three different depictions of Redfish. It included a pool scene with red floats, a redfish bearing the Coca-Cola logo, and an “action figure” package that allowed guests to stand in front to be part of the scene. “Every time I thought I liked one better than the last, I’d turn the corner and fall in love all over again,” Tucker says.

Chef Chris Infinger, a culinary instructor at Gulf Coast State College and chef at St. Andrews Bodega, created an entire menu for the opening night party featuring Coca-Cola products creatively infused into each dish. The menu was playful, nostalgic, and nothing short of culinary art. Masque of the Red Death, the festival’s Saturday night Edgar Allan Poe-inspired signature party, also featured an entire roasted pig and a table full of accouterments by Chef Chris and his team.

The Masque also featured an incredible vignetted, Poe-inspired set design inside a dress by Misty Joy. Guests could walk up to the cage-like skirt of the dress and pluck a glass of champagne from the many affixed to the structure. Tucker says, “Misty’s art breaks the rules, reimagines the familiar, and lets you see something you’ve seen a thousand times before for the very first time.”

The Trash Market took over Gateway Park during Storytellers Row. Vendors with tables drenched in red art, a “trash band,” and one-of-a-kind installations made from found items transformed the space into something new and unique for one night only. Floriopolis produced a box art installation that Tucker says, “forever changed the way I look at everything from appliance boxes to Kleenex boxes. They have the world-class ability to look at a seed and see a garden.”

The Gulf Coast Players theater troupe, comprising students from Gulf Coast State College, spent six months rehearsing parts to play during Storytellers Row, which featured an eclectic cast of characters scattered throughout the park, waiting to tell a story to anyone who stopped long enough to chat. From pirates and sirens to fairy-tale favorites, their stories were perfectly melded into the theme of the evening, lending a fully immersive feel for guests of all ages and a unique experience for each one.

In conjunction with the Gulf Coast Players, Aequoreal Spell Productions turned the Gateway Park fountain into a siren’s enclave with actual mermaids lurking in its waters. “It was so enchanting, I was almost lured to crawl into it myself,” Tucker recalls. “I have a newfound empathy for the sailors tempted to their watery graves!”

This year, Redfish Film Fest also welcomed its first intern, Dani Smith, from Gulf Coast State College. “Dani created an entire mask installation for Masque of the Red Death,” says Tucker. “She designed, crafted, curated, framed, and lit them. Not only was she obviously talented, but she was more professional than I thought a twenty-year-old was capable of being. She’s going to take the art world by storm.”

The filmmakers themselves, whose work was showcased alongside and among all these fascinating art installations and performances, shared a mutual respect and a sense of being blown away by the hospitality, creativity, and uniqueness of Redfish Film Fest.

The fest’s headliners were equally impressed. Social media influencers and history content creators The Hughleys agree Redfish was one of the best experiences they have had. “We are invited to a lot of places, and Panama City is the top of the top,” Jermaine Hughley says. “The organization and professional touches on this fest blew us away. We want to come back every year.”

True-crime podcaster Stephanie Harlowe says Redfish is claiming its place in the larger film festival world. “My team and I had the most amazing experience in Panama City with the amazing people who run and operate the Redfish Film Festival,” Harlowe expounds. “From the events planned with such meticulous attention to detail to the warmth and genuine care we felt from every person we encountered, Redfish has proved to be a cusper in the film industry, and larger festivals should take note. From the programming to the hospitality, it felt like the real deal, and honestly, it was the most impressive film festival we’ve ever attended.”

Josh Forbes, a filmmaker from Los Angeles whose documentary Gallagher was a Redfish feature film this year, was also surprised at how fully formed the festival was, considering its age. “I was shocked to find out this was only the second year,” he says. “Everything was so dialed in and ran so smoothly; it felt like they’ve been doing it for decades. Redfish is unlike any other film festival. Documentaries are usually the ‘redheaded stepchild’ of the film festival world, but at Redfish, it’s nice to see so many special films getting the love they deserve.”

One headliner even decided to purchase a home in Panama City. If that isn’t a sign of a great community and one thriving on sharing world-class art with its locals and visitors, I don’t know what is. There is hope for the future of Panama City and its residents as they rebuild a place their children will be proud to call home.

It’s all about hope. As I write this recap of an unforgettable festival, I hope people will read it and watch the incredible films shown there. When you do, I hope you will be moved to attend Redfish Film Festival in the future.

— V —

Visit RedfishFilmFest.com and follow @redfishfilmfest for more news. To hear filmmaker interviews, check out VIE Speaks: Conversations with Heart & Soul podcast on all platforms and VIE’s YouTube Channel.