Grand Junction has a film festival, and it’s back with an unusual name
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Editor’s note: Rocky Mountain PBS is a sponsor of the Junktown Film Festival.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Western Colorado is an excellent place to make a movie. Filmmaker Michael Gallegos knows from experience.
“It’s a little mini oasis in terms of a filming location, because we have deserts 30 minutes away, we have downtown Grand Junction that can play off as a city, and the mountains, the Mesa for a forest,” he said.
Gallegos made his short film “Interlude” in town. The movie, made for a senior level class in the film program at Colorado Mesa University, is about a man who feels stuck in his routine, the days at his office job all look the same until he decides to make a change.
Now, it’s an official selection of the Junktown Film Festival.
The festival, which was formerly known as the Grand Junction Film Festival, returns to the Avalon Theatre on Saturday, October 26 at 7 p.m.
“Junktown has always been a kind of pejorative term for Grand Junction and to be able to co-opt that and turn it into something that is reverent of the arts was the idea behind it,” said Jaden Quan, one of the organizers of the festival.
The festival, which started in 2017, went on hiatus last year but re-formed under a new name after the state of Colorado gave a shot in the arm to the local production industry.
Colorado’s Office of TV and Film and Colorado’s Office of Economic Development launched a new tax incentive program for film production this year. The state credits movie makers with up to 20% of qualified expenses, with an extra 2% if production takes place in a marginalized rural area. Ideally, making every corner of Colorado appealing to filmmakers.
CMU offers bachelor and associate degrees in filmmaking. Graduates from those programs are well represented in the Junktown lineup. High school students in Mesa County are learning to make movies from industry professionals.
“Colorado could definitely be a hub for filmmaking in the next couple of years. I happen to be in a place that has all this opportunity and all this buzz and excitement around it,” said Quan.
As he was working on a behind-the-scenes documentary for locally produced horror film, "Glowzies," Quan knew he wanted to be involved in whatever happened next in western Colorado’s film industry.
“We wanted to assemble a team of filmmakers of all varieties and really add some credibility to [the festival] and really bring it to a level that it hasn't seen yet, and hopefully that'll be the case,” he said.
The festival slate includes a mix of 15 live-action and animated films. Organizers narrowed down the selections from about one hundred local and international submissions.
“It's cool to be able to see the other stories being conjured up around here,” said Gallegos.
“I think it's an honor in general because I'm not sure how many films were in the running for this festival, but I’m sure there is quite a bit, and it's cool that my film will be able to be part of Junktown history.”
Best cinematography, best student film, best director, and other awards will be given out. Winners get a custom engraved plaque made by a small company in Vail, and a cash prize.
Held at the Avalon Theatre, a venue that’s more than 100 years old, the place has special meaning for some filmmakers.
“I remember going to ballet performances or ceremonies that were held in the Avalon, my high school senior prom actually took place at the Avalon,” said Gretchen Kowalczyk, a local director whose animated film, “Brain Break,” is included in the lineup.
“I keep coming back to this place for major events, which is pretty neat,” said Kowalczyk, who produced the film as part of her senior thesis at CMU.
Kowalczyk has worked on both live action and animated projects and learned a new program to produce her film about feeling creatively stuck, and what to do with that feeling. The hand drawn brush and pencil marks and striking color gradients bring viewers into the emotion of what taking a break can look like.
“I taught myself how to animate when I was 13. I felt like if I didn't have an animated project for my final project, I [wouldn’t] be finishing the reason I started the degree,” she said.
Kowalczyk sent in “Brain Break” on the last day of submissions for the festival.
“It was one of the bigger film festivals I've been accepted to. It feels like animated films aren't as common,” she said.
Four of the selections at Junktown are animated.
Making sure there’s a good emotional balance across the show is challenging, Quan says. This is the first film festival he’s ever worked on.
“If we are the Junktown Film Festival, I feel like our selection has to be eclectic and odd and surreal, being able to pile them up all together creates a really, really distinct experience that I don't think you're going to find anywhere else,” he said.
“Interlude” was also selected for the Colorado Springs Short Circuit festival last month, specifically because it featured western Colorado.
Filming in Grand Junction was a positive experience for Gallegos and his crew. They only had a semester for the whole production, a constraint that informed some of the creative choices on the film.
“The quietness of this film was just due to the fact that I didn't want our actors to have to remember too many lines,” he said. “And I felt like it was easier to keep it contained, and in a way, it made the film stronger.”
Standing on Main Street, a few days before the festival, Gallegos remembers the work that went into one short scene.
“These cars are too tall. We can't shoot over it. So I spent two hours just kind of mingling inside the Heart Music store, waiting for a spot to open.”
He found Grand Junction residents to be really helpful during his location scouting trips.
“I think that's just also a small town thing,” Gallegos said. “Not many productions happen here, so when they see it, they're kind of really interested in it from the get-go.”
For Quan, the “vast kaleidoscope of talents” is the appeal of the Junktown Film Festival.
“If you really want to spend your Saturday night doing something that's truly different and unexpected and strange, but also compelling and enjoyable, I think that's what really sets it all apart.”