2026 Backyard Docs Film Festival: Centerpiece Screening — The Haunting of Pennhurst

Each year, Backyard Docs Film Festival brings one film to a DIY venue in Pittsburgh. This year, our centerpiece screening will be the perfect way to welcome in the spooky season with the Pennsylvania Premiere of The Haunting of Pennhurst! A homecoming of a film set in Pennsylvania’s Pennhurst Asylum, this can’t-miss film takes an honest look into the complicated history of the notorious former institution, its challenging history, and the disabled actors who now help transform the space into one of the state’s most well known haunted houses.
A filmmaker Q&A will follow the screening. This screening will be captioned and ADA accessible.

The Haunting of Pennhurst
An institution for disabled people, notorious for decades of abuse, was finally shuttered in 1987—only to reopen 30 years later as a haunted house attraction. Here, disabled actors become “haunters,” navigating the shadowy corridors where performance and reality bleed together over one season at the Pennhurst Asylum.

Saturday, September 26, 2026, 7:00 PM @ TBA

Backyard Docs Film Festival is our annual celebration of non-fiction cinema that explores our region’s Rust Belt and Appalachian identity.
We showcase documentary films and filmmakers who are directly connected to our region or have a shared connection with our region’s identity and culture. Formerly known as The Rust Belt & Appalachia Documentary Film Festival, the Backyard Docs Film Festival continues its trademark DIY screening style, holding screenings in unconventional locations such as repurposed factories, dive bars, and backyards. However, this year, we are expanding the festival to include traditional theater venues for some of our more well-attended screenings. The four-day event will also showcase a photography exhibition, private rough-cut feedback sessions, workshops with world-renowned filmmakers, and, of course, great afterparties. It’s the one time of the year when filmmakers, journalists, and artists of all stripes can come together and create new connections while helping redefine the story of the Rust Belt and Appalachia.