With 13 short films and three full-length features, the Laramie Film Festival kicks off this Saturday.
This year’s festival is the spiritual successor to last year’s, which was put on by the group News From Nowhere. In the past year, the group has been less active, and the reins for the event were taken up by the local filmmaking community.
“It came about through friends and acquaintances with a passion for the project meeting over a few drinks,” said recent University of Wyoming graduate Connor Novotny.
Novotny is one of three organizers for the festival, and is quick to recognize the level of community collaboration required for the event. He said that contributions by the Gryphon Theatre and local artists and musicians have been invaluable.
Entry into the festival came with a unique requirement; prospective entries had to be either the product of a Wyomingite, or take place in Wyoming. Rather than being a limiting factor, according to Novotny these restrictions have not been a hindrance for filmmakers:
“The films range from amateur to professional in quality. Their genre’s are kind of all over the place,” Novotny said. “All of the films employ the landscape to a large extent.”
According to directors, Wyoming’s harsh environment can offer unique filming challenges.
“The wind is always a big problem. It can create a lot of noise,” Freshman English, Art and Communications major London Homer-Wambeam said. “There was one particular shoot where we had to just leave. We showed up and realized we weren’t going to get anything worth filming.”
Homer-Wambeam was born and raised in Laramie, and the city serves as the backdrop for his science fiction film Project Cora. Despite being shot entirely in Wyoming by a Wyomingite, Homer-Wambeam did not allow Wyoming’s western environment limit his ideas.
“I tried to stay away for the tropes,” Homer-Wambeam said. “My film makes Laramie look surprisingly urban.”
According to recent Colombia College Film School graduate and native Wyomingite, Michael Masterson, the vastness of Wyoming’s western space inspires imagination.
“Wyoming has the unique perk of making artists feel completed isolated. You build up your imagination in a unique way where you have to build everything from the ground up,” Masterson said. “Being from Wyoming has given me great pleasure because now, I know if I’m making a movie it’s going to be set in the sandbox where I used to create all my fantasies.”
The Film Festival will take place this Saturday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Gryphon Theatre. Admission is $3.00 and the proceeds fund Laramie’s What Fest.
According to Novotny, one of the motivations behind putting on an event like this is that it provides artists a community they otherwise would not have.
“It takes a lot of time and takes months of your life to make a film,” Novotny said. “It’s crucial to give filmmakers that sense of community.”
