Features Reporter
Photo by Chris Clark
Only in its second year of existence, the Grand Junction Film Festival has been a platform for filmmakers to enter their work for the viewing public of the Western Slope community.
This year, 49 films ranging from experimental short projects to full-length feature films showed a wide array of creative storytelling and compelling messages to the audience in the University Center Feb. 14 and 15.
Submissions came in from across the country as well as here in Grand Junction, including one from a former CMU student.
Jamie Lee Smith, assistant director and producer of the film “Seven Deadly Words” is a Mesa State College and Fruita Monument High School alumna. She returned to her hometown this past weekend for the first time since graduating from Mesa State in 2004.
Smith earned a bachelor’s in political science during her time at Mesa State and was a member of the International Studies Club. She explained that entering her film in the Grand Junction Film Festival gave her a chance to show her work to her family and the people who supported her while in school.
“I wanted to enter this one because it’s my hometown and it means a lot to me,” she said. “Of course, entering any film festival is always about exposure, but for me it was a chance to come back to my hometown. I still consider Grand Junction my home because my family is still there and my professors at Mesa State who are like family to me are here, so I wanted to bring my film home for them.”
After graduating from MSC, Smith went into a career in public relations before starting her own company, Global Rockstar Productions, which is based in Miami. Her production company has been a part of many popular films such as “Jumper” and “Battle: Los Angeles,” and also produces many horror and science-fiction films. Despite playing a role in successful Hollywood productions, Smith had the desire to break away from the large-scale projects in order to work independently to create a film that would be on a much smaller scale but would have a great deal of personal meaning to her.
“I’ve been doing films for a long time, and I wanted to branch off and do my own film,” she said. “At the time, I had plenty of experience and enough funds, but no script. Then I met Eric (Benson) who had a script but no money or experience, so we came together and decided we wanted to do this film.”
The film, “Seven Deadly Words,” is a faith-based psychological drama shot in a “mockumentary” style format through the cameras of two local high school students. It is based on the true story of a young pastor who moves with his family to a small town in Indiana looking to bring new life to the church he was hired to run, but one family attempts to stand in his way in order to keep old traditions alive despite the best interests of the church.
The seven words, “We’ve never done it that way before,” are a theme throughout the movie and serve to demonstrate the difficulty of convincing people to accept change and leave behind outdated traditions in religion as well as in life.
Since its premiere in New Jersey last year, the film has received award nominations at multiple film festivals and won Best Director at the Churches Making Movies Christian Film Festival and Best Supporting Actor at Red Dirt International Film Festival.
Smith explained that although the production of the film took several years, she enjoyed the style of filmmaking in which the message behind the movie is more important than the effects put into it.
“With a lot of the newer films that come out, most of the movie is made in the studio creating after-effects rather than actually filming,” she said. “I miss the old style of film and wanted to make something where the idea behind the movie is more wholesome.”
Smith is currently working on major projects such as “Happy Valley: The Story of Joe Paterno” as well as a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
“Seven Deadly Words” won the Viewers’ Choice Award at this year’s Grand Junction Film Festival.
mfreter@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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