From the Utah Film Center, the 2023 offerings at the Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival represent five local filmmakers, 17 female directors, 10 directors identifying as a person of color, and 14 countries represented. A large majority of the films are receiving Utah premieres and at least one is being screened for the first time … Read more
The 20th anniversary of the Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival also marks the return of the center’s Artist Foundry program through two workshops for independent, do-it-yourself filmmakers and a conversation about queering the filmmaking process. Festivals such as Damn These Heels often inspire aspiring filmmakers to make their debuts with their … Read more
ART YARD (June 23-25, noon-9 p.m.) ‘Let me tell you about this tree. It was a rock-solid hardwood, three feet in diameter with a trunk magnificently embossed in rich gray tones, set in deep relief with an exquisitely interconnected skin of bark that was somehow both coarse and forgiving to the hand. The ash is … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Part I is an overview of the Utah film industry in the current moment. Part II (tomorrow) will offer a summary preview of the Sundance 2023 feature-length and short films, which The Utah Review will cover. Like nearly 2,400 of their peers who are listed in a directory of Utah film industry professionals, … Read more
The Utah Film’s Center’s 19th annual Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival, the longest running festival of its kind in the Intermountain West, opens Oct. 14, returning to its familiar weekend format of live screenings, extracurricular events, and an opening night party but also providing a separate streaming on demand option for patrons, which will … Read more
Generally, open discussions about death and dying in the U.S. are awkward at best and ignored at worst. It is often said that a son or daughter truly becomes an adult when they lose one or both parents. Yet, even when a parent has a prolonged illness and the inevitable is near, it remains difficult … Read more
In the few short days since Amy Berg’s documentary Phoenix Rising premiered at Sundance, many have been discussing on social media the details that actor Evan Rachel Woods provided about the abuse she endured during her relationship with Brian Warner a/k/a Marilyn Manson between 2006 and 2011, most notably her description of being raped on … Read more
There usually are empirical realities confirmed by numerous sources and studies that validate statistics which make evident the rationale for major policy changes and corrective measures. Then, there are stories couched in those validated statistics that are so astounding in their irony that they compel immediate and widespread attention. In the captivating documentary Aftershock, which … Read more
The Sundance Kids offering of Summering, directed by James Ponsoldt which he wrote with Benjamin Percy, is a smart mix of tropes from fantasy, horror and the fully liberated imaginations of smart children, as specifically embodied in a quartet of girls who worry that their tight circle of friendship is about to be broken as … Read more
In less than a handful of years, Doris Muñoz quickly established her credentials in the music industry, particularly in artist management. Her intergenerational connections to music bridged the classics of rachera and boleros to the legends of Juan Gabriel and Los Panchos, and recently to indie first-generation Mexican-American pop artists such as Cuco, Kali Uchis … Read more