I Got Bombed at Harvey’s

2026, N/R, U.S., Documentary, 93 minutes
  Florida Premiere
  Filmmakers in Attendance
  Juried Film

Directors: Amy Bandlien Storkel, Bryan Storkel
Producers: Karen Bowlin, Bo Butterworth

On August 26, 1980, an elaborately constructed bomb packed with 1,000 pounds of dynamite was wheeled into Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino in Lake Tahoe alongside a handwritten demand for $3 million. What followed was a surreal 33-hour standoff between the FBI and a device so intricate it was considered virtually undefeatable. With a ticking clock, a brazen extortion plot and a mastermind convinced he couldn’t be caught, the crisis gripped law enforcement and captivated the nation. But beneath the spectacle and suspense lies a far darker, more personal story.

Told through the eyes of the bomb builder’s son, the film transforms an outrageous true-crime saga into an intimate portrait of a family trapped in the orbit of a volatile, domineering father. As the son reckons with the trauma, loyalty and fear that shaped his childhood, the thriller evolves into a story of generational damage and hard-won redemption.