Red Dirt Film Festival Executive Director and co-founder Damon Blalack is a filmmaker, film professor, and a Ph.D. candidate of Filmmaking and Film Theory at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. Growing up as a filmmaker in the 1990s, frustrated at the lack of film culture and available mentors in his field of passion since age 2, he vowed to bring film culture back to the city of his formative years. After much formal education and networking that led to making dozens of films and receiving many film awards, by 2013 he was able to finally found Red Dirt Film for Stillwater, with the goal of it being held in-perpetuity both for the city residents and far-flung visitors alike.