PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Christine Parker is the owner and founder of Sick Chick Flicks Film Festival and Sick Chick Flicks and one of the biggest supporters of women in this industry. She has won several awards for her films and continues to impress. Learn more about her upcoming projects, current discounts for Sick Chick Flicks Film Festival, and more!
PopHorror – Hi Christine! Tell the readers a bit about yourself.
Christine Parker – I began her film career in Sanford, North Carolina in 2004. I wrote and produced a short film Second Death that led to forming Adrenalin Productions which has since produced more than a dozen films that include four feature films, two which received distribution with Brain Damage films.
My most notable films include film festival winners Getting a Head in the Movie Biz, Dead of the Night, The Ghastly Ghostly Gas, Cache Me If You Can, and Mother. Mother was the first film shot under my new production company Sick Chick Flicks. It was shot with an all-female crew. Sick Chicks’ second short, a Poe film, Tell-Tale Heart – Sisters, was heavily influenced by one of my favorite films Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. It has won awards for best film, best writing, and best adaptation at various film festivals.
I have always loved participating in the 48 hour film projects. In 2013 I received the audience award and Best Director at Greensboro’s 48 Hour Film Project our Sick Chick Flick’s entry Fruits of Her Labor. Again in 2016 my film Exercising Demons won The 48 Horror Project Best Film along with 5 other awards, and in 2018 I won awards for our 48 film Hellexa.
PopHorror – Wow – you’ve been a busy lady! Congratulations on all our success. Last we talked, you had just finished up your film Blood of the Mummy. Did that have a good Festival run?
Christine Parker – We had a great festival run! We recently got distribution through Wildfire/Bounty Films and will have our film on Amazon sometime this month.
PopHorror – That’s great to hear! You run Sick Chick Flicks Film Festival. How did this come about?
Christine Parker – Well in 2016 the Sick Chicks came up with the brilliant idea of starting our own film festival so we could not only support local female filmmakers but also support women who make films all over the world! Much of this was born out of my own frustration at how hard it was for women to get their films seen in film festivals. There are a disproportionate amount of male-directed vs female-directed films in film festivals and it’s not because there aren’t a lot of really excellent female directors out there. I think our programming has proven that there are lots of them.
PopHorror – Completely agree! What’s your mission for the festival?
Christine Parker – To get recognition for female directors and their films. We have fairly strict criteria compared to other film festivals. One of the main creative roles (director, writer, cinematographer) must be a woman in order to qualify for our festival. And we purposely do not invite celebrity guests because to us, the filmmakers are the celebrities. Our festival is all about celebrating them, their work, and sharing our experiences with our audience and other filmmakers. It’s important to me as a filmmaker to make sure that they are treated the way I would want to be treated at a film festival.
PopHorror – Love it – that’s admirable. I hear you got some good discounts currently happening for the festival. Tell us about them, please!
Christine Parker – Yes! We are offering free submission into our film festival until February 7th with coupon code WIHMFREE. If they miss the deadline on that they can still get 50% off until the end of February with code SCFFFWIH50OFF. They can enter via our Filmfreeway page https://filmfreeway.com/sickchickflicks
Obviously we are not in this for the money. We just want to see as many Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy films created by women as we can get!
PopHorror – Woohoo! Sick Chicks are working on an anthology. Can you tell us about it?
Christine Parker – Well I’ve worked with these ladies for a number of years, and they have all been learning the craft and supporting me with my projects. I wanted them to have the opportunity to create their own and walk in my shoes for a bit. So I challenged them to write a short script that could be shot in a weekend and I would produce it for them. So we ended up with 6 really great scripts and 4 brand new directors. There are currently learning the casting process and really digging into what preproduction needs to be done before we start shooting in late March. I’m very proud of how they’ve taken this on. I have a feeling they will be hooked like I was and come back for more after this Anthology is finished! You can find out more about it on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Sick-Chick-Flicks-Anthology-110163373759133
PopHorror – Who are the women in the industry that inspire you?
Christine Parker – Honesty every single woman out there who has made their own film. I have great admiration for anyone who has the tenacity to create and share their vision, their stories. It’s sometimes like standing naked in front of a crowd of people. You hope that people won’t judge you too harshly and that they can see the beauty that is there.
PopHorror – Favorite film directed by a woman?
Christine Parker – I can’t pick just one.
