Utah’s other film festival gets rolling

On Saturday, the 10th annual Slamdance Film Festival will get underway in Park City, Utah -- a destination for Hollywood folk seeking edgier fare than that at the higher-profile Sundance Film Festival, opening in the same town just two days before.

The goal of the festival, which was started by a group of upstart writers-directors-producers, is to showcase emerging global talent -- a challenge in an industry in which even independent movies are going mainstream, festival organizers maintain.

Rather than going for names, says Peter Baxter, Slamdance president and co-founder, the festival is focusing primarily on first-time filmmakers with limited budgets and no domestic distribution.

“Being close to the sexed-up, star-driven independent cinema of recent years has often been tricky,” he said. “But, against the odds, Slamdance has not only endured [but also] prospered. [Our] goal has been to continue to ... exhibit fresh, raw and largely unknown talent at its best, in the spirit of filmmaking without apologies.”

Regional diversity also sets it apart, adds Omaha native Dan Mirvish, another co-founder of the event. “The wide-eyed farm boy in Nebraska has an equal shot of getting in as the black-turtlenecked East Village hipster,” he said.

Nineteen feature-length films have been selected for the competition, 11 of them fictional narratives and eight of them documentaries. (Thirteen are world premieres.) Twenty-one short films will also be screened, as will an increasing number of digital movies.

“The novelty of shooting in this inexpensive [format] has worn off, and we’re seeing filmmakers focus more on story and character development,” said programming director Nubia Flores. “It’s getting back to the message and not the medium.”

The world premiere of Philadelphia-based director Eugene Martin’s “The Other America,” a coming-of-age tale about a homeless urban teenager, will open the festival.

The event will close with the world premiere of “Death and Texas,” Kevin DiNovis’ mockumentary about a running back jailed for armed robbery who’s offered a furlough from death row to take his former team to victory.

Award-winning 2004 films will be shown in the Best of Slamdance on Jan. 24.