An Invitation · December 2026 · Winston-Salem, NC
Via Queen's inaugural event is exactly what it sounds like — an intimate, ticketed evening at a/perture Cinema in Winston-Salem: the city where this began. A curated program of short films from NC and SC artists. A panel. An introduction. And a gift for every person in the room.
This is not a launch party. This is a first night — built to be remembered as the beginning of something that lasts twenty years.
NC and SC filmmakers, curated.
A selection of short works from artists rooted in the Carolinas — chosen for craft, voice, and the Southern vision that Via Queen exists to champion.
Written and directed by Masha Dowell.
Currently under consideration at Sundance and the Beijing International Film Festival. Winston-Salem gets it first.
Southern filmmakers in dialogue.
A moderated panel bringing the artists in the room into conversation — on craft, on the South, on making work that lasts.
Curated for every attendee.
A curated gift for every person in the room. Because this evening sets the standard — from the first night.
This is an intimate evening. Tickets will be announced to the list first. Reach out now to secure your place.
Contact UsVia Queen is a Southern-centric, auteur-focused cinema institution: production, festival, and exhibition — held from within. The December 2026 inaugural event is the beginning.
The South is not asking for a seat at the global table. The South is the table — and doesn't yet own it. Via Queen builds the apparatus to change that: the studio, the festival, the screens. The Carolinas as canvas. The standard, world-class.
"I did not arrive at film. I arrived at the place where six careers meet — the science, the ownership, the images, the mechanism, the voice, and the craft. The center was here the whole time."
Masha Dowell, SAG-AFTRA, B.S. — Actress-Director, Media Psychology Strategist, and institution-builder with a 26-year arc from laboratory science to stages, studios, and founding. Alumna of Disney, IndieWire's Shadow & Act, and the Austin Film Festival; commissioned by NASA/JPL and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.