Local and global filmmakers alike showcased films at the first Dark Cinema film festival in Tooele, Utah on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Founded by Connor England and Spencer Bertrand, Dark Cinema is an intersection of the dark and supernatural with film. This year’s film festival took place on Tooele Main Street in the historic Ritz Theater for the Arts.
The festival boasted food trucks, vendors ranging from tarot card readers to tattoo artists and even included a red carpet. After enjoying these attractions, attendees went inside the Ritz Theater for the main event.
Ten short films were shown, five of which were created by Utah filmmakers. After this, there was a late night showing of the 1968 film, "Night of the Living Dead."
“I'm not a horror guy,” Jacob Snideman, an attendee from Tooele, said. “I was kind of ready to be like, ‘Uh oh.’ And then, I really enjoyed myself.”
Connor England, one of the festival’s founders, said he and his friend, Spencer Bertrand, started the festival because they wanted to cultivate more film culture in Tooele County.
Despite their different backgrounds — England’s in medicine and Bertrand’s in business — the two share a love for film and wanted to bring something fun to their hometown.
“I don’t think I realized how big of a project running a festival was,” England said. “I think it’s been a learning process with each step.”
Although it was difficult at first, England and Bertrand quickly found food trucks, vendors and a location for the event.
“As soon as we figured it out, it just started rolling,” Bertrand said.
England said the initial idea for the film festival was to showcase films just from Tooele County, but then expanded to the state of Utah. They even received entries from outside of the United States, and England said some of them were just too good to pass up.
In the end, the festival featured films from not just Utah, but also places like Spain and Massachusetts.
"Porphyria" was the final short film shown that night, directed by Daxon Geldmacher, a resident of Provo who graduated from UVU in May with a degree in film.
The film is about a man suffering from an illness caused by a vampire living in his house. Geldmacher initially made the film for a school assignment.
"Porphyria" was Geldmacher’s first short film, and he got creative with putting it together. He joined Facebook groups to find cast and crew members and used his great-grandma’s basement apartment for a location.
“Honestly,” Geldmacher said, “a lot of production was also just watching every vampire movie and black and white horror movie I could squeeze in instead of sleeping eight hours a night.”
Geldmacher said the Dark Cinema film festival was important to him because it was the first time he got to see how his film did in front of a crowd instead of a class full of other film students looking to critique his work.
“You get really in your head when you make art,” Geldmacher said. “You kind of forget that, ultimately, it’s something you make so people can experience it.”
England said he and Bertrand are planning to make Dark Cinema an annual event, so as many people as possible can experience watching local films.
“I would expect with each passing year it’ll become spookier, darker and more locally based,” England said.
In the future, they also hope to have different levels of spookiness, Bertrand added, with different age categories for submissions, to encourage youth participation in filmmaking.
“If you’re experienced or if this is your first film, pick up a camera and send us a submission,” England invited, looking forward to future festivals. “I would love to see what people here in our community have to create.”
Filmmakers interested in submitting a film for Dark Cinema 2025 can watch for applications to open on the Dark Cinema website.