Filmmakers come to Rexburg for Spud Fest film festival

Neva Ward WAR05009@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Attracting independent films to use the Teton area to shoot is a huge economical advantage the Idaho Film and Television Institute wants to capitalize on. Filmmakers bring revenues to local businesses from paying for fuel and props to motels and restaurants.

The Film Institute is sponsoring Take One, Spud Fest 2006 at the Westwood Theatre in Rexburg April 20, starting with breakfast at 9:30 a.m. and running all day.

Independent filmmakers have the chance to show off their work at Spud Fest, and winners get a scholarship to attend IFTI.

“Motion art is the art of the future,” said Dawn Wells, founder of IFTI. “[People will be] watching movies while waiting for a cab.”

Spud Fest celebrates the best of the independent filmmakers making family movies … that deal with the issues of peoples’ lives, according to www.spudfest.org.

“We want to expose the kids to the opportunity in anything in the film industry and remain in the state,” Wells said. “We’re not bringing Hollywood here, we’re trying to create a film community amongst our own. … The whole key is exposing people to new films.”

“Its worth it, to go see what being made and what’s being accepted,” said Kirby Heyborne, who starred in The RM.

Heyborne has participated in Spudfest before, entering the films Sons of Provo and Saints and Soldiers. This year his newest film, Pirates of the Great Salt Lake, will be featured in Spudfest.

Film festivals such as Spud Fest may be the ticket to discover the next Steven Spielberg, Wells said.

One example is Jared Hess, director of Napoleon Dynamite, who started out small and and found success in filming in the small town of Preston, Idaho.

Students and senior citizens get a free pass and can get tickets at the BYU-Idaho ticket office.

Adults can buy day passes at any Key Bank in southeast Idaho.

The winners of Spud Fest are invited to show off their work again in another film festival. Take Two, A “Spud-tacular” Celebration, the second phase of the film festivals, which will be held in Driggs Teton Teepee Lodge in July.