By Rachel Holt, Photography by Mark Dyrud
“Film has struggled in this area for many years and we’re trying to give emerging filmmakers a platform to screen their work. We want to shine a spotlight on these filmmakers and develop a supportive community framework for those choosing to call Idaho home,” says Molly Deckard, Festival Director for Idaho Horror Film Festival.
The Idaho Horror Film Festival is a non-profit film exhibition and will be held October. Horror was selected as the focus of the festival for a number of reasons.
Deckard says, “Idaho, starting a new arts festival is hard and particularly with horror it can be very polarizing. People either love it or hate it. A lot of native filmmakers here have, whether they were avid horror fans or not, have made horror films. Horror is a genre that has stitched itself into the filmmaking community here. It seems when you look across the board at filmmakers from Spielberg on down they’ve all made a horror film and I think mainly because it’s fun, both behind the lens and watching it.”
This year’s event will be October 15th thru 18th with additional events running throughout the year. There will be a variety of events at the festival with over 50 film screenings, including a family friendly screening on Saturday, as well as a number of guest speakers including book signings and panels.
One event is the H48 film competition. The H48 or Idaho 48 Hour Film Festival and Competition event gives filmmakers the chance to create a film with specific requirements such as a mandatory prop, a sub-genre of horror, a character, a location in 48 hours. Completed films are screened and judged at the Idaho Horror Film Festival.
Victoria Horn, local filmmaker and actress who participated in H48 last year shares, “Once you kind of get into the mindset of horror flicks, it grows on you. All the other movie genres aren’t as intense or exciting anymore. I’ll do movies in other genres too but horror has really grown on me which is not what I expected. The filmmaking community in Boise and Idaho is an untapped keg. There’s so much great talent here. If you don’t know any Idaho films or filmmakers you’re missing out on some amazing work.”
New to this year’s event are educational programs including panels on screening writing and low or no budget filmmaking.
Deckard “We’re going to be engaging the community in an educational way which is something we didn’t have last year and learn more about filmmaking in the state. One thing I’m particularly excited about is we’re going to be offering a two day no budget filmmaking workshop. If you have an interest in making a film this will really give you the tools to go out and make it.”
Moving into their second year, the Idaho Horror Film Festival utilizes volunteers for their event with more than 30 volunteers last year and needing more for this year’s many events.
For more information about the Idaho Horror Film Festival, a schedule of events or to volunteer, check out their website at http://www.idahohorrorfilmfestival.org/ or find them on Facebook.
