As always, deadCenter Film Festival offers an embarrassment of cinematic riches. These are a few notables that look particularly interesting:
Free Leonard Peltier
8 p.m. Friday, June 13
Oklahoma City Museum of Art – Noble Theater
415 Couch Drive
7 p.m. Sunday, June 15
Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16 – Auditorium 15
150 E. Reno Ave.
In the waning hours of the Biden Administration, a long-sought presidential pardon finally came for Native activist Leonard Peltier, who had been serving two life sentences for the 1975 fatal shooting of two FBI agents. That controversial conviction and Peltier’s tenacious fight for freedom — he always maintained his innocence — are detailed in Free Leonard Peltier, a riveting documentary by directors David France and Jesse Short Bull. Peltier and two others were charged with the slayings, which emerged from a standoff in South Dakota between members of the American Indian Movement and federal authorities. Peltier’s presumed accomplices were later exonerated.
My Father’s Daughter
8 p.m. Thursday, June 12
Rodeo Cinema at Film Row
701 W. Sheridan Ave.
8 p.m. Saturday, June 14
Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16 – Auditorium 12
150 E. Reno Ave.
My Father’s Daughter is a coming-of-age tale focusing on a young Sámi girl whose life is upended when her biological father unexpectedly enters her life. Up until then, Elvira (Sarah Olaussen Eira) had mollified herself with daydreams that her dad was a movie star who happened to donate sperm at a Danish fertility clinic. Featuring quirky characters, beautiful Norwegian vistas and a nifty supporting role by Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, this import from writer-director Egil Pedersen promises to be a crowd-pleaser.
The Other People
5:30 p.m. Friday, June 13
Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16 – Auditorium 13
150 E. Reno Ave.
12:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14
Rodeo Cinema at Film Row
701 W. Sheridan Ave.
deadCENTER veteran Chad McClarnon returns to the festival with his feature debut, the thoroughly creepy thriller The Other People. Rachel (Lyndie Greenwood) meets and marries William (Bryce Johnson), a recent widower, and together they try creating a stable home life for William’s troubled 8-year-old daughter, Abby (Valentina Lucido). But stability isn’t easy in a town plagued by sudden deaths and missing persons — much less when Abby befriends a mysterious boy who resides in the darkened corners of their house.
Queens of the Dead
8 p.m. Thursday, June 12
Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16 – Auditorium 10
150 E. Reno Ave.
7 p.m. Sunday, June 15
Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16 – Auditorium 10
150 E. Reno Ave.
They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, an adage that, as the comic-horror Queens of the Dead makes clear, also applies to apples of the zombie variety. At least that’s if the tree was George A. Romero, the late filmmaker whose Night of the Living Dead and sequels made flesh-eating zombies part of the national consciousness. The apple in this tortured metaphor is daughter Tina Romero, here making her directorial feature debut. This time around, the undead invade a New York City queer club. The ensemble cast includes Jacquel Spivey, Nina West, Katy O’Brian, Tomás Matos and Margaret Cho.
Visit deadcenterfilm.org.
This article appears in deadCenter Film Festival 2025.