East Dallas neighbor, Chaselyn Wade

Chaselyn Wade. Photography by Jessica Turner.

East Dallas neighbor Chaselyn Wade knows the film industry. She’s worn various hats during her 20 years of movie-making: IMDb lists over 40 titles for her, including actress, costume design and makeup. But she can now add to the list director and star of her first full-length feature film. Not too shabby for a girl from a small town in Kentucky.

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Just in time for the creepiness that is October, Wade’s film, Dr. Kim Hunter and the Apparition, will premiere on the big screen on Oct. 13 at LOOK Dine-In Cinemas on Technology Boulevard. The event will be hosted by Justin Chavez from the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show, and a Q&A will follow the screening.

Bonus: The premiere raises funds for Legacy Cares, a Dallas organization that provides mental health care, substance abuse treatment, housing services and education to people who are impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Wade’s path to this moment reads like some-thing you’d see in, well, Hollywood. Growing up in the tiny, rural community of Carlisle, Kentucky, Wade was an artsy type and member of the LGBTQ community.

“I never fit in,” she says. She found her escape on the silver screen. “Movies would give me a different perspective or outlook, or just take my mind off of the monotony,” she says.

The year 2000 rolls around, and Wade is saying goodbye to a friend moving to Dallas. Believing the city would be a good fit for Wade, he encourages her to move with him and his boyfriend.

“You’re too fabulous to be here, honey,” he said to her. “You need to go bigger.”

A week later, the group hit the road for Big D. “I only had $141 in my pocket,” Wade says. Wade supported herself as a makeup artist for still photography until fate stepped in.

“I was approached to do makeup on a very small-budget film. At that time, I said, ‘Yes, I can do special effects,’ but of course I couldn’t,” she recalls of her gutsy response. “So off to the library I went. Remember there was no YouTube at the time.”

Her foot now in the film industry’s door, she began working in the world that had given her so much comfort as a youth. Over the years, she directed and acted in several episodes of TV series Detour; served as lead makeup artist for the series Big Rich Texas; and was a wardrobe breakdown artist for the film Freedom’s Path, which is currently making the festival rounds. She has acting credits in 18 films and has shared the sound stage with another East Dallas neighbor, Burt Gilliam.

But it was her work as director and actor in the short film Hunting Love — filmed entirely in East Dallas — that got the attention of ITN distributors.

“They offered to fund my full-length feature with built-in worldwide distribution,” she says.

Dr. Kim Hunter and the Apparition is the tale of a celebrity medium who gets pulled back into her past and her home town when someone she knows seeks her help with an “apparition” plaguing their family home. “The story revolves around her finding the truth about the apparition and herself,” she says.

Though written for the screen by frequent collaborator Joseph Herrera, the concept is by Wade herself. And she chose to give Dr. Hunter a trans identity.

“I’m proud to tell a story where the lead character is trans and it’s not a major issue,” Wade says. ”The story is not based around her being trans; she just is.”

The actual filming, all of which took place at locations in Dallas, took place over about two-and-a-half weeks. But Wade put in the work to get to that point.

In the year or so leading up to film-ing, Wade cast the project, scouted locations, choreographed fight scenes, managed props, did special effects makeup, catered food and generally stepped in wherever needed. All this was in addition to starring in and directing the movie.

“I love the entire process of film-making, but I definitely enjoy directing the most,” Wade says. “I love being able to tell the stories that I want in the way I like. Call me a control freak if you will, but having the power to say yes or no to a camera angle, lighting, wardrobe, etc. is great! Being on many film sets, there have been moments where I said, ‘Why would you shoot that scene like that,’ or, ‘I would’ve done this or that differently.’ So I said to myself, ‘Well then, do it! Make your own film. Use your knowledge.’”

Wade has traveled far from that small Kentucky town where she felt like a square peg. She’s hard at work on her next project, another full-length feature that she will star in and direct.

“The most rewarding aspect is the final product, sitting back and knowing that everyone involved did what they could with what we had to work with,” Wade says. “And in the end, we have a watchable film with humor, horror, suspense and maybe a few lessons and insights along the way.”