There are no leftovers here, no throwaways either. And the only real credo for the Utah Short Film and Video Festival is that shorter is better.
In some ways that makes the event the anti-festival -- or as some would say, an exhibition rather than an actual festival. But in the eyes of organizer Kent Maxwell, that makes it a festival of inclusion instead of one of exclusion."Our primary mission is to celebrate the wonderful diversity in film and video and to give artists a chance to have their works seen by an audience," Maxwell said.
Still, he admits that the event's policy -- to show all entries as long as they are in the appropriate film or video format and are 25 minutes or less in length -- isn't always audience-friendly.
"We do not pre-select what can be seen -- rather, we show all
the work submitted to us," Maxwell said. "That means you may not like everything you see, but each program should include many pieces that will interest, fascinate or provoke you.
The annual, competition-style event is now in its 20th year. This year's festival begins Thursday, Oct. 7, and runs on consecutive Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout the month at the Creer Auditorium in the Salt Lake Art Center, 20 S. West Temple.
Although the festival began as a platform to showcase student films from the University of Utah's theater arts department, over the course of the years it's become a national competition, with variety of awards and cash prizes given out to the winners.
In fact, past year's winners have used the festival as a launching pad to even bigger and better things. Animator Don Hertzfeldt brought his first works to the festival and has become a mainstay at both the Sundance and Slamdance film festivals, as well as the traveling Spike & Mike animation festival.
Alex Beckstead, who won the Best Documentary Award for his 18-minute film "sXe," then entered his work in several larger-scale, national events, including both the Telluride and Chicago film festivals, as well as the Sundance Film Festival.
And even though Beckstead's expose of Salt Lake's "straight-edge" scene was rejected by Telluride, eventually it was accepted into Sundance, where it was screened and where it received its fair share of acclaim.
"It's very important to have this sort of festival, especially here," Beckstead said. "Outside of film school it's one of the only places where you can have your work seen by other people, have it judged by them and get some sort of reaction to it. That kind of evaluation is crucial when you're starting out."
Beckstead is now hoping that the attention he received from both festivals will help him get financing for a new project, a full-length documentary about a retiree trailer park located near Phoenix.
To be honest, such success stories aren't always the case, Maxwell noted.
"It's very exciting to have one of our artists show up at Sundance, but Alex is the rare exception," he said. "Out of the thousands of short films submitted to Sundance, only a handful are shown. Besides, that's not really why we keep doing this -- the festival is to give these filmmakers a forum." This year's festival slate, divided into nine different programs, will feature more than 90 works, more than 40 of them from local directors and artists. Included in the film categories, which can be in either Super-8 or 16mm, are 25 narrative films, 19 documentary films, 29 experimental films and 12 animated films.
Eligible film and video makers are competing for cash prizes and awards, including honors for Best of Division (film, video, Super-8 and Young Media Artist), Best of Category (narrative, documentary, experimental and animated), in both film and video divisions, Best of Show, Best Utah Video and the Mort Rosenfeld Award for Best Utah Film.
Judges for this year's event will be New Mexico filmmaker Francine Jones and William Moritz, a film historian from the California Institute for the Arts. The judges, who have both made their own experimental films, will spend three days viewing the entries to select the winners.
"It's no coincidence that I've continued to select filmmakers who take chances to be our judges," Maxwell said. "They tend to be more open-minded about what they see, and that's very important to the festival. Different is good here."
The award winners will then be screened on the festival's final day, Friday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. That program will also include a post-festival party.
In addition to the regular nightly programs, which run approximately 90 minutes and which start at 8 p.m., organizers have also reserved Oct. 21 specifically for feature films that were either developed by or were intended for viewing by children and teenagers.
Admission to the festival is $6 per night, $5 for students or members of the Utah Film and Video Center. Festival passes -- good for admission to all the programs -- are available for $20. The festival programs are not rated but some of the entries may contain some PG-13 or R-rated material.
For more information, contact the Utah Film and Video Center at 534-1158. Information on the festival and other film center programs is also available on the center's Web site (www.ufvc.org).