Utah Film Center

Sanctuary, an immersive art installation, deepens the visitor’s experience with Damn These Heels LGBTQ+ Film Festival

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Cinema always has been viewed as one of the most potential media to transport audiences to new landscapes, characters, identities and truths. With the addition of virtual reality, the individual audience member is immersed in a different person’s world that compels an intensified sense of empathetic connection. The Camden International Film Festival, for example, has … Read more

Interview with director: Gracefully, Iranian documentary, set for world premiere at Utah Film Center’s 16th annual Damn These Heels LGBTQ+ Film Festival

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The 16th Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival will feature a world premiere of Gracefully, a documentary by Iranian filmmaker Arash Eshaghi, which has been banned in Iran. The Utah Review was privileged to screen this documentary, as mentioned last week in the preview of the film festival, which is set in rural Iran and … Read more

With new programming elements, Utah Film’s Center 16th annual Damn These Heels LGBTQ+ Festival will be largest in history

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A Zen poem from Chinese literature by Sengcan: The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set     infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold … Read more

Detailed look at the slate for Utah Film Center’s 16th annual Damn These Heels LGBTQ+ Film Festival

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The 16th Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival offers 23 films and two programs of short films. Utah filmgoers have a rare opportunity to see some of the best examples of LGBTQ cinema today, as 20 films are receiving their Utah premieres and two others having their first Utah screenings since their premieres at last … Read more

Pre-Pride events: Award-winning Rafiki, Before Stonewall in free public screenings by Utah Film Center, Utah Pride Center

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Two award-winning films with LGBTQ themes — a 2018 Kenyan narrative feature and a 1984 documentary about five decades of gay activism leading up to the Stonewall riots of 1969 — will be screened in separate free, public programs, courtesy of the Utah Film Center and the Utah Pride Center. Both films, part of the … Read more

Utah Film Center’s fundraiser to celebrate Napoleon Dynamite’s 15th anniversary

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There are many reasons why the sleeper hit comedy Napoleon Dynamite (2004) deserves to be the pride of the Utah film industry. Directed by Jared Hess and written by Hess and his wife Jerusha, it has become a timeless pop culture staple featuring authentic characters and tropes who epitomized the high school scene that remains … Read more

Utah Film Center’s Through My Lens screening to feature short documentary films about immigration, migration by Salt Lake City valley students, their teachers

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Sixteen short documentary films produced by students in schools throughout the Salt Lake City valley in collaboration with their teachers and featuring a wide range of stories about immigration and migration will premiere May 1, as part of the Utah Film Center program Through My Lens, an educational collaboration unlike any other in the U.S. … Read more

Utah Film Center’s 8th Peek Award honors exceptional Intelligent Lives documentary

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Within the first three minutes of the exceptional documentary Intelligent Lives, the viewer is introduced to the film’s two most important themes. The first dismantles the narrow yet long accepted perceptions of measuring intelligence that have done more damage than good in gauging a person’s meaning or value to their community. The second strikes down … Read more

From high school dropout to award-winning international filmmaker, Kenyan director Likarion Wainaina discusses poignant inspiration for Supa Modo, Tumbleweeds Film Festival opener

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When Supa Modo, the award-winning feature-length narrative film from Kenyan director Likarion Wainaina, opens the Utah Film Center’s Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children and Youth on Friday (March 1, 7:30 p.m., The City Library auditorium), Wainaina will be in attendance. As mentioned in the festival preview last week at The Utah Review, Supa Modo sets … Read more

Utah Film Center set to present 8th Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children and Youth March 1-3

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The eighth presentation of the Utah Film Center’s Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children and Youth from March 1-3 brings in a slate of Utah premieres including films from Swaziland, Kenya, two from Iran and another from the Ladakh region of India. Twelve of the 13 feature-length films are exclusively from outside the U.S. while the … Read more