OREM — The LDS Film Festival may not bring in the Jennifer Anistons and Robert Redfords but it's steadily gaining a following.

More than 3,000 people bought tickets and adjusted their lives to include catching some of the films at the fifth annual weekend event, held at the SCERA Center for the Arts for the first time.

So many people showed up that it made for a few logistical problems. Venues had to be switched and there were a number of delays. A DVD player burned out mid-movie because it overheated from the workload.

But generally, there was a great deal of interest in how to make LDS movies, how to market LDS movies and what an LDS movie really ought to be.

Known as the Mormon filmmaker who introduced the LDS culture as serious movie fodder, Richard Dutcher made an appearance as did a number of local film-makers and production gurus.

Festival founder Christian Vuissa said he is amazed at the growth in filmmaking and in the level of interest in the festival.

"We kind of predicted it but had no idea it would happen so fast," Vuissa said. "Our community is learning. We're learning. Before, people didn't even know it was possible (to tell LDS stories), but now there are hundreds of us."

Kurt Hale, of HaleStorm Entertainment, said part of the growing process is financially painful as more Screen Actors Guild cast members are used.

That increases the potential for creating a movie with credibility but pushes up the costs of production, he said.

Ten feature-length films were screened at the festival and 54 short films produced in a 24-hour marathon event.

Reviews of some of the films follow:

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"AMERICAN MORMON"

So just what does the outside world think of Mormons?

Daryn Tufts and Jed Knudson took that question and a camera and hit the road, filming a documentary based on interviews with people living in the United States.

The answers they found created "American Mormon," an interesting and sometimes hilarious film on the misconceptions people have about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The film was shown at the LDS Film Festival at the SCERA Theater.

Filming took two weeks, and the interviewees shown signed a release after their interview.

Some wouldn't sign and the content of others wasn't appropriate, Tufts said. Those interviews were left on the cutting room floor.

Some of the answers:

• "They're not too big on technology. They stick to the old ways. They're still churning butter (by hand)."

• "They look, like, waspy looking. They're pale."
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