Citizen Screen: Port Townsend at the Oscars

This month’s column is by Danielle (Danni) McClelland. With supporting side careers as a professional cook, journalist, field hand, and union organizer, Danni has worked consistently in the arts for the last 30 years.  Focus on social change, civic engagement, and entrepreneurship have marked all areas of their professional life. They spent several years as a consultant for multiple civic entities in the Midwest and 19 years as the founding Executive Director of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, a 600-seat historic film and live performance venue in Bloomington, IN. Now the Executive Director of the Port Townsend Film Festival, they grew up in the Seattle area, and have visited family in Port Townsend regularly since 1997.

We might feel like “the little festival that could” out here at the tip of the Peninsula, but sometimes the universe conspires to give us a glimpse of the ways we’re connected to the larger world and the culture-makers of today. This past week is one of those times. Several films from our 2025 film festival program were honored with nominations at this year’s Oscars:

• Come See Me in the Good Light was nominated for Best Documentary Feature, directed by Ryan White (his second feature to be presented at PTFF, the first being Good Ol’ Freda in 2013).
• “Sweet Dream of Joy” from Viva Verdi! was nominated for Best Original Song, with music and lyrics by Emmy Award-winner Nicholas Pike and performed by Grammy Award-winning international soprano Ana María Martínez.

In addition, Port Townsend is home to a rising star in the executive producing world, D.D. Wigley. She was also at the Oscars this past weekend with her second Academy Award-nominated film.

• The Voice of Hind Rajab was nominated for Best International Feature Film, directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania. 

D.D. joined forces with nearly 50 other executive producers to bring this story, which reconstructs the 2024 killing of five-year-old Palestinian Hind Rajab in Gaza, utilizing real audio from her terrified phone calls while trapped in a car. Other executive producers include names you might recognize like Spike Lee, Michael Moore, and Brad Pitt. 

D.D. is a long-time resident of Port Townsend and a long-time supporter of the Port Townsend Film Festival and The Rose Theatre. Here are a few of her own words about being an executive producer. 

How did you get started as an executive producer?

Two festivals were my starting points, PTFF and Ashland Independent Film Festival. At PTFF, I met Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli (PTFF first Filmmakers in Residence) as they were working on their film Frame by Frame (2015). They invited me to give more comments and input. Sometimes I’m asked to be involved creatively, sometimes just financial support. In all cases I become an advocate for the film. 

What attracts you to a particular film?

I really like films that are “out of the box,” doing something unexpected, and I am also drawn to films that feel important, even if they’re not my personal taste. Sometimes a film is just so compelling to me I feel I MUST be involved. 

How do film festivals serve the kind of films you support?

Festivals are often the only place films like these will get seen. They might get more attention if they’re able to accumulate a bunch of festival awards.  I support and attend festivals that present my kind of films. They’re the place I’m going to find those films.