EDITOR’S NOTE: For preview coverage of the 49th Utah Arts Festival, which runs June 19-22, The Utah Review is presenting individual or group profiles of artists, performers, entertainers and some newcomers to the event. Visitors will also see the first significant change of the last 15 years in the festival map. There are several new features this year: Voodoo Productions’ street theater will include roaming graffiti stilt walkers, contortionists and living master works of art. Salt Lake Acting Company will appear for the first time at the festival, offering a sample from its upcoming summer show, The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive. Urban Arts is offering its largest live graffiti mural installation, while a row of several other artists will be demonstrating their creative process in real time. For kids, as admission for those 12 and under will be free, there will be plenty of make-and-take art options in Frozen Spaces in the Art Yard. The City Library auditorium will be the home to the 22nd edition of the international Fear No Film program, with the strongest slate of narrative short films in the event’s history. Of course, dance, who wears the empress jewels in performing arts, will be represented by Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Echoing Spirit Dancers and, of course, the ever-popular 1520 Arts, at The Round. For tickets and more information, see the Utah Arts Festival website.
The thematic objective of Fear No Film is taken literally to heart in the 19 films that comprise the four Midnight Programs. These offerings are not for the faint-hearted but they epitomize what a director can accomplish when they emancipate themselves from the conventional boundaries of creative expression.
MIDNIGHT PROGRAM 1 (RUNTIME 60 MINUTES): June 19, 10 p.m.
Excellent example of creative risk-taking that produces satisfying results, I PUT A MASK ON MY BRAIN, directed by Emma Jacqueline, offers a compelling look at borderline personality order from the individual’s perspective. As Jacqueline explains in her artistic statement, she made this film “to depict the struggle of trying to trust that my friends care about me,” adding that it “is strung together through storytelling by actual friends from different areas of my life paired with experimental visuals of a mask that blocks their kind words out.”
Codependency is at the heart of the solid narrative IF YOU NEED ME, directed by Sarah Rebottaro, about two females who were once romantic partners and roommates. Nora, who has liberated herself from being codependent, is surprised to see Callie at her door, who is also carrying her luggage. Their reunion is hardly joyful and eventually Callie sinks into darkness that erupts into a violent confrontation
Another excellent Iranian short, THE MOULD, directed by the veteran award-winning filmmaker Mohammad Reza Nourmandipour, offers an elucidating story about masculinity and the wrongly centered expectations of a father who wants to see his son present himself as masculine and physically strong. Morteza, the son, has a delicate, feminine-like build. His mother has recently died and the father insists on continuing to raise his son precisely upon his preferences. The consequences turn out to be tragic. Even as the story is set in Iran (filmed in Kerman), Nourmandipour successfully frames the themes with universal relevance and applicability. As the director explains in his artistic statement, the film “is actually a small part of the real narratives of this kind of conflict between fathers and sons. Maybe some people say, is it possible that there are so many attitudes of aggression in the society for boys? I must say yes, even more than what many have heard.”
THE SPOOL, directed by LG Stokes, hits right on for Fear No Film’s branding of the midnight program section to showcase some of the most daring storytelling approaches. A couple tries to figure out what to do when their car stalls out on a frigid night during a trip to the mountains. The colder it gets, the hotter the couple’s argument becomes.
THIRTY2, directed by German filmmaker Tim Luna who lives in Mexico City, is an adaptation of one of Edgar Allan Poe’s quintessentially Gothic short story Berenice. Luna depicts well the tropes of this short story that spawned all sorts of narrative considerations, including, as M. Grant Kellermeyer has explained, “hypersensitivity, wasting women, psychosis-blighted genius, premature burial, monomaniac fixations, and gruesome, psychologically-poignant violence.”
MIDNIGHT PROGRAM 2 (RUNTIME 60 MINUTES): June 20, 10 p.m.
There have been numerous short films representing France at Fear No Film but none have come to the horror punch of BLOOD TIES, directed by Hakim Atoui. Mother believes her son and daughter, whom she has invited to lunch at her house, are ungrateful and inconsiderate. Meanwhile, the two siblings have secrets they are afraid to reveal. They are shocked to see Elyo, a robot who provides medical assistance and companionship to their mother. However, as emotions quickly boil, Elyo senses the siblings are a threat to their mother and decides to act accordingly.
From Spain, DIG, directed by Jandro, picks up a classic cinematic horror-mystery trope and turns it into a clever bit with plenty of ASMR effects. A man digging a secret grave in the middle of the night is suddenly discovered. Thus, the film makes the audience feel less like a passive bystander than as a detective pursuing what is really happening behind the imagery they see on the screen.
Based on the filmmaker’s experience with fibroids,including one that grew to mango size, MANGO, directed by Joao Iyiola, is a fictional narrative about Zadie, a florist who is about to secure the dream job of her career, is suffering fibroids that are pushing her body into unseemly shapes while becoming more frustrated that no healthcare professional appears to acknowledge the urgency of her medical condition. As Iyiola explains in her director’s statement, ”I set out to find out more information about this condition: what on earth was this benign tumour doing inside of me? How did it get there? And how could I get rid of it, quickly? There were no answers. The double invisibility that comes from tackling racism and misogyny in the healthcare space, shocked me to my core.”
An outstanding Utah short with excellent acting, cinematography and story elements across the board, THE ANGEL, directed by Barrett and Jessica Burgin, is, to quote the filmmakers, a “Mormon pioneer folk horror story.” Set in the early 1880s in the red rock region of when Utah was still just a U.S. territory, the story centers on two plural wives who have received an angelic vision and instructions to act upon making their faith true and pure. This film includes cinematography by Oscar Ignacio Jiménez, who also is involved with two other projects that are on this year’s Fear No Film slate. This short is a proof of concept for the filmmakers’ award-winning screenplay THIRD WIFE, which already has sparked interest among investors, distributors and others, including having been spotlighted by the Sundance Institute. As the Burgins note in their director’s statement, “It wrestles with certainty, spiritual deception, and the complex power dynamics fundamental to our heritage.”
MIDNIGHT PROGRAM 3 (RUNTIME 59 MINUTES): June 21, 10 p.m.
Perhaps one of the most impressive films to win the annual SLC 48-Hour Filmmaking Competition, THE DESTROYING ANGEL, directed by award-winning local filmmaker Derek Romrell, is about two friends whose ties are about to crumble when one of them has assumed God-like powers of indestructibility. Made on a budget of just $600, the short could be a scene for a possible longer cinematic treatment.
From France. THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND KILOMETERS PER SECOND, directed by Clément Courcier, is a magnificent video art piece that is a unique metaphysical riff on a conventional road film. Tracing the history of the universe back to its origin, the film becomes a parallel set of trajectories, highlighting a woman pursuing and trying to grasp onto the mysterious source of light that continuously morphs as they travel back in time. Toward its final destination in reverse, the woman and light become closer to the ultimate point of unification.
TIK TOK DEATH, a German short directed by Paul Arnstedt, centers on what risks and to what lengths would content creators in social media would go to lead in the competition among influencers for attention. The film is satirical: four young content creators seek the advice of a coach who advises them that if they want big numbers in their follower counts, then no challenge or stunt should be dismissed. But, the theme does not lightly treat the dark side of social media where it seems anything can go, even if it causes major injuries or even death. Last year, among Tik Tok creators, 18 died and at least 237 incurred permanent injuries, due to the effects of dangerously risky content they generated.
The second French short this year on the Fear No Film slate to have a horror narrative angle, TRANSYLVANIE, directed by Rodrigue Huart, is about Ewa, 10, who believes she is a vampire. Although she has few, if any friends, because of her odd behavior, Hugo, 15, is friendly toward her. He brushes away her remark about turning him into a vampire, thinking it is nothing more than a child’s innocent game of make-believe. However, after being bullied by other teens including some of Hugo’s friends, Ewa decides it’s time to prove that, indeed, she is a real vampire.
Turkey has been consistently represented well by superb short films at Fear No Film and WITHOUT HEAVEN, directed by Merve Bozcu, extends that streak with commendation. The film is inspired in part by the director’s own relationship with her mother. The narrative is about a mother, who clearly is in decline, and her daughter, who tends to her needs. However, when the daughter wants her mother to explain why she was abused during her adolescence, she realizes that her mother experienced domestic abuse just as well. “Domestic violence and abuse are a growing problem around the world, especially in Turkey. However, I chose to focus on trauma not the violence itself because when I was twelve, I told my mother in tears I was physically abused in the middle of the day,” Bozcu explains in her director’s statement. “She said to me: ’It happens.”:These two words hurt me more than the harassment itself. In In Without Heaven, I explore the painful process of reconciliation between a mother and her daughter, condensed into an experimental psychological thriller.“
MIDNIGHT PROGRAM 4 (RUNTIME 59 MINUTES): June 22, 10 p.m.
Another phenomenal short from Iran, ICE BOX, directed by Mehdi Judi, is about a female teenager who leaves her family to care for a middle-aged man (a composer);who was paralyzed in his legs after an accident. The young woman finds out that a woman who abandoned the man years before has decided to visit him. The man is distressed because he claims that it was the woman, not the accident, that ruined his life. As the young woman prepares the home for her visit, she has purchased a refrigerator and places it in an empty space and waits for the guest.
Making his debut as writer and director, Slade Monroe decided to research what PTSD and war trauma might have been like for combatants centuries ago. Thus, in KNIGHTMARE, he turns to the times of the Crusades just after the fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul) and the challenges of processing trauma for a defeated Holy Knight Templar.
The shortest narrative on this year’s Fear No Film slate, SELF STORAGE, directed by Brent Steen, extrudes a big punch of narrative symbolism in a running time of barely more than two and a half minutes. A woman brings a box to place in her unit at a storage facility but the routine act suddenly takes on a very unsettling nature, as she realizes the consequences of forgetting what perhaps should be always remembered.
UNCONTROLLABLE, directed by Mia Geere, arises from an intriguing premise. While he is set to leave with his wife to attend an evening’s event, a novelist has started writing his latest story but once he is away, the writing process takes over in a peculiar way. Geere, who says that she only recently has delved into the filmmaking process, explains in her artistic statement, “I will say that our ideas are not always our own, as is represented by the writer’s story taking the outcome into its own hands. It had a life with or without the writer’s participation. Also, sometimes things do get out of control, whether that be something that we created or something that has been presented to us without our say-so. Sometimes there’s no explanation for those things to have happened at all. Sometimes it’s mystical, sometimes it’s a direct result of our actions, and sometimes it’s something else entirely. We’ve likely all experienced being in a situation and wondering how we ended up there. This film represents one of those times.”
Part of the impressive set of Iranian short films on this year’s festival slate, VOYEUR, directed by Maryam Hashempour, represents a realistic and terrifying situation. A young woman waiting for a friend at a coffee show is startled to receive a photo of her taken just as she entered the store and it was sent by a phone number unfamiliar to her. Then, she receives the same photo message several more times.