Full circle: Aisha Weinhold’s teenage inspiration sparks leadership at 5Point Film Festival
Courtesy/ Mark Weinhold
The 5Point Adventure Film Festival has been a defining part of Carbondale resident Aisha Weinhold’s life. Now, she’s stepping into a new role to help lead the organization into its next chapter.
“It feels very full circle because 5Point has been so influential in my life for the last 18 years — more than half my life,” Weinhold said. “I think the work the organization does is incredible, and I love what it brings to this community. I’m really excited to be able to carry that forward.”
For more than a decade, Weinhold said she “religiously” attended the festival with friends, including Hayden Kennedy, the late son of founder Julie Kennedy. They would sneak in using Kennedy’s VIP pass and soak up inspiring stories from up-and-coming and established filmmakers.
After graduating high school, the festival became a point of reconnection. From 2007 to 2017, Weinhold and her friends returned to Carbondale each April to experience the films and community.
Although nearly 20 years have passed since the first event, Weinhold remembers it clearly.
One of the films was created by a fellow high schooler and featured classic mid-2000s iMovie transitions — a page turning, a picture dissolving, and a fade to black.
“It was so different,” she said. “It was still an incredible production, but I remember one of my friend’s films playing. Twenty years ago, the entire medium of documentary film, especially adventure film, and the technology that was available, was so vastly different from what we have now.”
Since its inception, 5Point has grown exponentially. The festival now features dozens of adventure films, hosts workshops, highlights guest speakers, and awards more than $50,000 in grants annually to both budding and established filmmakers.
This year, the 18th annual 5Point Adventure Film Festival will run from April 24 to 27 at the Carbondale Recreation and Community Center, 567 Colorado Ave.
Weinhold said it was 5Point that sparked her passion for film festivals and led her to launch No Man’s Land Film Festival in 2014. The festival creates space for women and LGBTQ+ individuals — historically underrepresented in adventure films — to see themselves reflected on screen. It celebrated its 10th annual flagship event earlier this month in Denver.
“I was inspired to start that festival from a film I saw at 5Point in 2015. It was the first time I’d really ever seen a woman on the big screen in an adventure film,” Weinhold said. “That’s my experience with film festivals. It’s a world I really love, and I think the power of film is so special. It can be nuanced and dynamic.”
Her journey with 5Point came full circle in February when she was named interim director in preparation for the departure of executive director Luis Yllanes, who will stay through the end of April. Weinhold will then have the opportunity to apply for the executive director role.
“I think 5Point does a good job of making space for local companies, brands, sponsors, filmmakers, and creatives — and highlighting them as best it can,” she said. “For me, that’s something I’m really excited to build upon. There’s so much talent in this valley, and I’d love to see that showcased even more.”
Weinhold also owns Ragged Mountain Sports, a consignment shop for outdoor gear located at 810 CO-133 in Carbondale. She said her perspective as a business owner, longtime 5Point fan, and Carbondale local will help her further support the small businesses that make the festival thrive.
“I’ve seen not only the numerical results of being involved as a business with 5Point, but also what it’s like to work in sales during the festival,” she said. “You see the influx. You see the different people who are coming in. That makes me really motivated to help local businesses figure out how they can be involved because I’ve seen what the impact can be. I would hate for anyone to miss out on that.”
She said she’s also thinking about how to ensure local businesses are fairly represented alongside large sponsors.
“How do you represent these local businesses who are maybe percentage-wise giving a really meaningful amount, but it measures lower on that sponsorship deck in terms of what the festival actually receives?” Weinhold said.
To purchase tickets for this year’s festival or find more information, visit 5PointFilm.org.
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