14th annual Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival highlights artistic progress, mainstream acceptance

There is no doubt, especially in the last half dozen years, that the artistic ideals of LGBTQ cinema not only successfully promulgate new perspectives in the mainstream but also highlight incisive takes that push the film traditions of character, director, auteur and audience well beyond conventional binary-based boundaries. Today’s stories emphasize themes of inclusion, openness … Read more

A detailed look at largest, most cosmopolitan lineup ever at Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival

The Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival offers the largest, most cosmopolitan lineup ever in its 14-year history. Utah filmgoers have a rare opportunity to see some of the best examples of LGBTQ cinema today, as 21 films are receiving their Utah premieres. The Utah Review screened many of the films in … Read more

The top 10 of many fine moments in 2016 for the Utah Enlightenment

There were many fine moments this year for the Utah Enlightenment. In compiling the list of what I believe were the 10 best defining moments of Utah’s cultural awakening for 2016, the pool of choices was more than satisfying in breadth and depth. There has been a great deal of recent press, for example, about … Read more

Utah Film Center to feature Bluespace, director Ian Cheney in Through The Lens presentation

As the impacts of climate change and threats to the planet’s sustainability become more urgent, discussions of colonizing and terraforming Mars have moved beyond idealistic fancies of science fiction writers. Some scientists have conceptualized short- and long-term scenarios of how Mars could be transformed into an inhabitable environment. The irony is that scientists also believe … Read more

Utah Film Center’s 6th Peek Award honors outstanding Life, Animated documentary

In Life Animated, the magnificent documentary about a young man diagnosed with autism as a child who learns how to communicate with his family and express his emotions and thoughts by immersing himself in the world of Disney animation, Owen Suskind is unquestionably the leading man in this award-winning film. In Owen’s story, that plain … Read more

Utah Film Center to present 6th annual Tumbleweeds kids film festival

A truly international slate of children’s films that treats young viewers seriously with timely engaging stories about different cultures and issues such as immigration, learning about nature, homelessness, overcoming stereotypes and family identity highlights the sixth annual Tumbleweeds Film Festival which will be held Sept. 23-25 at the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts in … Read more

13th annual Damn These Heels LGBT Film Festival marks coming of age on many levels

The record large slate of international films for the 13th annual Damn These Heels LGBT Film Festival which will be presented by the Utah Film Center suggests a multi-layered, life-spanning, coming-of-age theme not just in the documentaries and narratives being presented but also in the sophisticated and artistic depth of LGBT cinema, the long-game opportunity … Read more

Utah Film Center regroups, sets fund-raising campaign after fire disaster

Just months before it will open its 15th anniversary season and during a time when annual attendance for its screenings has increased by at least 50 percent in the last five years, the Utah Film Center (UFC) is facing its biggest challenges after a four-alarm fire in late March destroyed its offices in downtown Salt … Read more

‘Survival of the least fit’: Utah Film Center to screen Dogtown Redemption documentary

Many of the scenes in the documentary film Dogtown Redemption, representing the nickname for a western section of Oakland, California in the East Bay area, likely are familiar in many cities across the country, including Salt Lake City. Initially, Amir Soltani and Chihiro Wimbush, co-directors of the film, set out more than seven years ago … Read more

Outstanding Alice Walker, Chernobyl documentaries on tap for Utah Film Center

Two exceptional documentaries of magnificent story-telling by women directors – one about Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker and the other about a small group of elderly women who have lived for 30 years within the forbidden zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster – will be screened in free, public presentations later this month … Read more