Lights! Action! Orcas!
Kitsap County's scenic beauty and welcoming communities attract film projects.
Words by Linda Kramer Jenning
Rachel Noll James on the set of her 2024 film Inheritance, shot entirely on Bainbridge Island. (Photo: Sam McJunkin)
Now showing at a theater near you: a film shot in your backyard. That's not as unusual as it once was, thanks to a growing number of filmmakers attracted by the beauty and vibe of the West Sound.
"Our region is so rich in what we have to offer," says Amy Hesketh, program coordinator for Olympic College's four-year film school and an accomplished filmmaker herself. "We have amazing locations here in the Puget Sound. We have waterfront everywhere. We have rain forest. We have really interesting cities and architecture around here."
What we don't have, according to Hesketh and others, is enough financial and community support. Despite tax incentives offered by Washington Filmworks to productions shot in the state, our region hasn't been competitive with locales like Spokane, which provides additional aid and resources to the film industry.
To help change that, Patrick Sheehan started the Peninsula Film Commission. He envisions it as an organization that assists filmmakers and reaches out to local communities to encourage them to provide the support needed to get movies made here.
"What we need to do is galvanize the cities together, essentially to brand all of Kitsap County as one location," says Sheehan. "We can beckon more productions here. I have no doubt about it."
One of those productions might be his own, says Sheehan. Under the alias Penn Savitch, he's written a punk-rock romance novella titled Wedding Scam that he is working on turning into a movie or series filmed in the West Sound.
Sheehan grew up in Bremerton and worked 20 years in Hollywood as a screenwriter, consulting producer and other industry jobs. He now divides his time between Port Orchard and Los Angeles. He says he launched The Peninsula Film Commission as a nonprofit membership organization, offering production companies and filmmakers resources like a comprehensive toolkit for filming permits and a detailed map of local filming locations.
He plans to offer networking opportunities, workshops and training for members while working with Kitsap communities to encourage more collaboration with the film industry. "What I'm trying to do is demystify the business," says Sheehan. "It could be an incredible economic boon to the whole area."
To take advantage of tax breaks offered by Washington Filmworks, filmmakers must hire a percentage of their cast and crew in the state. That's where Hesketh, a collaborator on the Peninsula Film Commission, comes in. "We don't have enough people who are trained filmmakers in this state, and especially in this region," says Hesketh, who has directed six feature films and says all the OC faculty are film professionals. "That's been our role at Olympic College, to help that happen."
Meanwhile, Sheehan is developing a database of shooting locations to lure filmmakers to the area, adding: "Once we get a lot of the cities on board with permitting, it's going to be a lot more attractive for filmmakers to come to Kitsap County."
Filmmaker Emma Cameron on the Bainbridge Island set of Detention. (Photo: Illuminare Productions)
Isolation
If you like the thrilling rush of a horror film, filmmaker and actor Bobby Roe's your guy. His 2021 short film Isolation shows how the COVID-19 pandemic could have been a lot scarier. Roe, who moved from Los Angeles to Bainbridge Island a decade ago, used his own family and locations like Battle Point Park to shoot the film entirely on the island during the onset of the pandemic.He started thinking about how most COVID deaths initially were among the elderly, and he began picturing what it would be like if everyone 12 and above was dying. "That would be very scary," says Roe. "How would that world look? We were able to use Bainbridge Island as almost this lost island where you saw no one. It ended up being a really cool location."
Roe's better-known horror films are The Houses October Built and its 2017 sequel. Both films feature footage shot around the region, including at Fort Worden in Port Townsend. His next film will be shot next fall entirely in Washington state, thanks in part to financial incentives from Washington Filmworks. But the state’s beauty is the main reason for making it here. “I’m a really big advocate of a location as a character,” says Roe, who teaches film classes for teens at BARN. “If you can find the right location, that is priceless.”
Detention
The idea for her 2026 film Detention came to Emma Cameron after she left the hustle and bustle of LA to move to Bainbridge Island with her young family. “I feel like the trees and the landscape and the way of life gave me back my energy, my love for what I’m doing,” she says. Cameron studied performing arts at school in England before moving to Los Angeles. She spent 15 years in Los Angeles acting, doing voice-overs and teaching, and she ran a production company with her husband, Mark. Their Washington company, Illuminare Productions, makes feature films, commercials, music videos, PSAs and documentaries.
After leaving Los Angeles, Cameron began thinking about what kind of film she could make with a low budget, a feature that could be shot largely in one room. She decided to update the 1985 classic The Breakfast Club, Detention premiered at the island's Lynwood Theatre in August and is showing at Kingston Firehouse Theatre on September 3 and at Admiral Theater in West Seattle on September 26 and 27. It should be available to stream on Amazon Prime and Apple TV by the end of the year.
Inheritance
Rachel Noll James acknowledges that Los Angeles is the "alleged mecca of film," but since moving to Kitsap County, she's found the creative inspiration to shoot two feature films and start working on two more. "It's so beautiful here," says James. "The green and the mountains and the water and the forest and the fog and the changing weather makes for such an incredible mood and atmosphere for any creative project."
Bainbridge Island became the backdrop of her directorial debut, Ingress (2023), a sci-fi feature about a young widow who finds her way into an alternate reality where her husband is still alive. James also starred in the film, which received more than 10 international festival nominations. Next, James wrote and acted in Inheritance (2024), the story of two estranged sisters who discover they have inherited more than money when they reunite to bury their father. The film, now streaming (Prime Video, Apple TV), was shot locally with an incentive from Washington Filmworks.
Meanwhile, James is empowering dozens of aspiring women filmmakers through her company Emergence Films. Its Emerging Filmmakers program helps fund and mentor early-career, female-identifying filmmakers. She's optimistic about the region's movie future. "I think in the next five years, we're going to see a meaningful shift in the number of projects coming to this region."
Film Festivals
GIG HARBOR FILM FESTIVAL
September 24-27, 2026
gigharborfilm.org
PORT TOWNSEND FILM FESTIVAL
September 24-27, 2026
ptfilm.org
POULSBO FILM FESTIVAL
October 9-11, 2026
poulsbofilmfestival.com
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL
November 12-15, 2026
bifilmfest.org
OLYMPIC COLLEGE STUDENT FILM SHOWCASE
Each June at SEEfilm Cinema in Bremerton
WEST SOUND FILM FESTIVAL
Every August at multiple locations in Bremerton
westsoundfilmfestival.com