WIFF gives the Front Range an indie film hotspot

Jul. 3—Cheyenne might not be a hot spot for independent film screenings. The Wyoming International Film Festival, running from July 7-10, just might make up for it.

In its eighth year, it's looking more prestigious than ever.

After being organized by Alan O'Hashi for seven years, Rudi Womack is taking the reins as executive director. At least in his first year, Womack is keeping the structure of the festival the same.

This year, there are 128 films available for viewing between the Surbrugg/Prentice Auditorium and the Pathfinder Building on the Laramie County Community College campus. There are several ticket options. The best deal comes in the form of one $50 pass, which grants access to all three days and four nights of the festival.

Womack is a filmmaker himself, and works as a movie trailer editor for major studio releases. He employed his own personal experience undergoing the pitfalls of working through a film festival circuit as an independent filmmaker.

"It gives you a perspective as a filmmaker to go and see what different festivals do — what you like, what you don't like, what's unique, what's interesting, and then you can apply that to this festival," Womack said in a recent phone interview.

"I'm really trying to take my experience from going through festivals and what I learned as an attendee, and trying to cater to the filmmakers themselves and create an event that they get excited for and they're gonna come back and be like, 'Oh my god, Wyoming is the place to be.'"

One of the changes for this year's festival was Womack's intention to increase the presence of documentary films. By pairing with the International Documentary Association, the festival padded the lineup of both short and feature-length nonfiction narratives.

On-set in Wyoming

Womack believes the first step to growing a film industry in the state is to establish a strong foundation of nonfiction movie-making.

Wyoming continues to experience a challenge of trying to gain presence as a location for onsite television and movie production, and gaining a foothold in the industry may not be feasible by swinging for the fences.

Rather than immediately trying to wrangle in shows like "Yellowstone" — which the state of Wyoming did miss out on due to lack of film incentives — Womack thinks the place to start is with advocating for independent documentary filmmaking as a viable profession for Wyomingites.

"Even in Los Angeles, which is the film capital of the world, you'll still see most of the market is rooted in industrial, commercial or documentary filmmaking," Womack said. "It's really important to bolster that. I want to support Wyoming filmmakers. I want to build up the film community in Wyoming."

Perhaps the most impactful aspect of the festival for filmmakers lies in the fact that succeeding in the industry is in part contingent upon the connections you maintain. Traveling to different regions and interacting with other directors and producers gives them a chance to establish professional opportunities with New York and Los Angeles industry members.

In turn, this lets these out-of-state directors and producers survey the talent and opportunity here.

With categories like historical drama, crime, horror, science fiction, romance, action, children's movies, comedy and a special Wyoming filmmaker showcase, there's an opportunity for filmmakers to submit their work, plus a wide array of available entertainment.

48 Hour Film Festival

If you like flicks with a slight gimmick, the Wyoming 48 Hour Film Festival is up your alley.

The WIFF sent 15 teams across the state with one prop, a line of dialogue and a genre. It allowed them 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a film with what they had. The finalists will be screened at the festival, and the stories ended up getting pretty weird.

Womack is satisfied with the films being screened — several are award-winning, including an Academy Award-nominated short film and several Emmy-nominated films. While many movies are relatively low budget, they aren't low quality, which can be the most difficult stigma to overcome in a region less accustomed to indies.

"Selling indie film in Los Angeles is super easy, because people are more exposed to it," Womack said. "They understand indie doesn't mean 'bad' — indie just means independent. That's it."

Versatility is the obvious strength of the festival.

Directors can get creative, take bigger risks and be more conceptual than they would with a full-length feature. If the viewers aren't enjoying it, they can wait for the next film that's follows it or float over to the other screen at the festival.

Wyoming filmmaker Sean Higgins, who has two films in the festival, is playing both sides of the spectrum.

His first film, which is completing its festival run with this upcoming screening, follows two fictional Wyoming veterans fighting "the war at home." This is a colloquial term describing former military service members dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from war.

The other short flick is seeing its Wyoming debut.

"Qingren," which is Chinese for "Lover," is a love story between a 19th-century American railroad financier and Chinese emigrant worker told entirely through motion and dance. Higgins and his brother, who also worked on the film, both come from an extensive dance background, with Higgins even performing in New York theatre productions in the past.

"I think it's the right time, right place. The world needs certain stories all the time, and we didn't set out to make it with any intention in mind," Higgins said about "Qingren." "It's the exploration of a white American presenting man and a Chinese/Asian-American presenting man in conflict and in a relationship that is really an interdependence.

"I think it has some interesting echoes on a global scale."

Higgins, founder/CEO of Story House Pictures, is one of the Wyoming movie-makers lobbying to revitalize the industry in the state. He still believes that there's a good deal of opportunity for Wyoming to launch this economic sector.

Depending on whether the director is in attendance, there will be a short question-and-answer forum after each showing. Right now, Womack estimates that about a third of the directors will be in attendance.

There will also be afterparties at various locations around Cheyenne each night, as well as an opening night red carpet event at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Tickets are on sale now and will be available onsite throughout the festival. Aside from the $50 all-access pass, there is also a five-film pass for $30. A single ticket costs $12.

A full schedule of the festival is available at wyoiff.com/2022schedule.

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.