On Saturday, September 26, the Delta Egyptian Theater will host a daylong celebration of filmmaking and filmmakers from across the Western Slope. The film festival will feature two blocks of films, beginning at 10:30 a.m. with the Western Slope Student Showcase. The program will include films from local high school film programs, CMU Tech and Colorado Mesa University.
Bryan Wade, who is involved with the festival, says the student showcase gives young filmmakers an opportunity to share their work with an audience, discuss their creative process and receive feedback.
The afternoon and evening portion of the festival will feature two full-length films, both made locally. At 4 p.m., the theater will screen Cinemortal, a horror film shot inside the Delta Egyptian Theater by a group of recent film school graduates. The filmmakers crowdfunded the roughly $30,000 production as a way to celebrate their graduation. The film was written and directed by Wade’s son, Tycho Wade.
The production team spent 12 days in the theater in 2023. The film follows a group of film school graduates who gather in an old theater to watch movies all night, only to discover that the supposedly haunted building holds dark secrets in its basement. Wade says the theater itself becomes a character in the film.
“You look over to your left and that's where it happened. You know, it's, you're sitting in the seats where the action happens in the movie.”
Tycho Wade will be on hand following the screening to discuss the making of the film.
At 7 p.m., the festival will screen American Vampires, a new film by Grand Junction filmmaker Hank Braxton. The movie is billed as a hyper-local Western Slope vampire film and debuted to a sold-out crowd at the Avalon Theatre in August.
Wade says the festival is intended to celebrate the creativity of Western Colorado filmmakers and give them an opportunity to show their work to local audiences.
He says the screenings can take on a party-like atmosphere as audiences recognize familiar places and communities on screen.
The Delta Egyptian Film Festival will take place alongside the inaugural Delta Comic Fest at the Delta Library, which runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets and more information are available at deltaegyptian.org, with tickets also available at the festival. Organizers anticipate a large turnout and recommend purchasing tickets in advance.
