Just because people are stuck at home through the coronavirus pandemic, and nobody can go out to the movies, doesn’t mean Utah filmmakers don’t have stories to tell.
We’re inviting Utah filmmakers to show their short films online in the first — and, let’s hope, last — Salt Lake Tribune Quarantine Film Festival.
We want to see what Utah filmmakers are creating in response to the coronavirus pandemic and how the disease is changing our lives.
We can’t offer much as an incentive, other than a platform for people to see interesting films. Oh, and we have tote bags — we’ll give away one for each film submitted, once everyone’s back in their offices and functioning normally (or whatever we’re calling “normally” by then).
Here are the rules:
• Each film should be no longer than 5 minutes.
• Any genre is allowed: Comedy, drama, documentary, music video, spoken-word performance, whatever.
• Films should touch on topics related to the coronavirus pandemic — which can include health care, social distancing, working from home, working essential jobs, lost businesses, reopening, and so on.
• This is a family newspaper, so keep it clean — content must be appropriate for all audiences.
• At least some footage, audio or video, must have been created after March 1, 2020. No fair sending us your student film from last year.
• Films should be made safely, following common social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
• Tribune employees and their immediate families are not eligible.
• All submissions should be posted to the filmmaker’s YouTube or Vimeo account, so they can be embedded in an article on the Tribune’s website. They should be set for public viewing.
• Filmmakers who submit works will be asked to answer interview questions via email.
Send a link to your film to: features@sltrib.com. Put “Quarantine Film Festival” in the subject line, and include your name, and city or town of residence. Deadline is at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, May 5.
