For most of the 1980s, “officials in the state of Utah did nothing but sit back and watch people die of AIDS. That is not a hyperbole,” Ben Williams, one of Utah’s best known gay historians, wrote in a QSaltLake magazine several years back. Unfortunately, Utah was no exception at the time. Few people across … Read more
Fifteen awards were announced today in the Fear No Film portion of the Utah Arts Festival, including a Grand Jury Prize, Utah Short Film of The Year, Fear No Filmmaker Award, three honorable mentions and the best short film in each of the seven ‘memory’ categories around which the film festival was organized as well … Read more
The Utah Short Film of the Year competition at the Utah Arts Festival has become more rigorous in recent years, as local filmmakers are making more adventurous films that especially show audiences outside of the state the high quality of independent film creativity. Four of this year’s seven entries already have established a national, if … Read more
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
Why, a canvas I have covered is worth more than a blank canvas. That – believe me my pretensions go no further – that is my right to paint, my reason for painting, and by the Lord, I have one! Source: Vincent van Gogh. Letter to Theo van Gogh. Written c. 22 July 1888 in … Read more
‘The most striking thing about the crowd is their ordinariness: just a bunch of earnest suburban moms and dads, accompanied by young children still so androgynous-looking that the trans kids are indistinguishable from their non-trans siblings.’ — Sabrina Rubin Erdely, Rolling Stone Magazine, Nov. 7, 2013 Eri Hayward, the young Utah woman at the heart … Read more