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How the Shorts Filmmaking Program Came to Be


Ash Christian swimming

Our dear son, friend, and colleague Ash Christian passed away way far too soon in the fall of 2021. He was 35 years old. As a way to honor his legacy, shortly after his death, many of Ash’s friends and colleagues launched the Ash Christian Shorts Filmmaking program with the Provincetown Film Society serving as its fiscal sponsor. In 2021, Sam Kann was selected as our first shorts filmmaking mentee. With support from the program, Sam was able to complete her short film and present it at Provincetown Film Festival.


Ash had conceived of the program as a means to support young emerging LGBTQ filmmakers. The design reflected his outlook on success in the film industry. Find mentors who can teach you what you don’t know and by all means necessary, go out and make your film! To Ash, being in the film industry meant making work. In his short life, he wrote, directed, produced, and acted in more than fifty productions.


Working with Sam and other underserved filmmakers enabled us to explore the countless other ways in which Ash’s legacy could continue to have an impact. This past year, we founded the Ash Christian Film Foundation, a 501 c3 entity, as a means to support and empower filmmakers in LGBTQ, BIPOC and those underserved storytellers who want to contribute to the ongoing cultural narrative. For indeed, Ash’s work did not simply focus on one particular genre or demographic. His work spanned the spectrum of content-- from procedural crime drama to a heartbreaking film about AIDS.


One of our favorite quotes is from the writer Lena Waithe, screenwriter for Master of None, “I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” The Ash Christian Film Foundation exists so that Ash’s story will continue and in turn will enable others to reflect back the world on ourselves.


--Christine Walker, Board Secretary

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