The Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival (DOCUTAH) is an annual film festival

Film festival

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

, held in September, that strives to recognize some of the best in international documentary films. Hosted by Dixie State College of Utah

Dixie State College of Utah

Dixie State College of Utah is a college located in St. George, Utah, United States.-History:...

 (DSC), the festival screens films at various locations throughout the southern Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 area, including Ivins

Ivins, Utah

Ivins is a city in Washington County, Utah, United States. The population was 4,450 at the 2000 census, and it was estimated at 7,205 in 2006. Although Ivins was a town in 2000, it has since been classified as a fifth-class city by state law.-History:...

, Springdale

Springdale, Utah

Springdale is a town in Washington County, Utah, United States. The population was 457 at the 2000 census. It is located immediately outside the boundaries of Zion National Park, and is oriented around the resulting tourist industry. It was originally settled as a Mormon farming community in 1862...

, Kanab

Kanab, Utah

Kanab is a city in and the county seat of Kane County, Utah, United States. The area was first settled in 1864 and the town was founded in 1870 when ten Mormon families moved into the area. The population was 3,564 at the 2000 census...

, and St. George

St. George, Utah

St. George is a city located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Utah, and the county seat of Washington County, Utah. It is the principal city of and is included in the St. George, Utah, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is 119 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, and 303 miles ...

.

DOCUTAH, also, has an educational focus, and features “master class educational seminars.”

DOCUTAH 2010 is scheduled for September 16-25, 2010.

History

Dixie State College founded DOCUTAH in 2009. From the beginning, this Festival has aimed to provide attendees with not only a meaningful film-going experience, but also an educational one through its “master class educational seminars.”

The originator of the festival idea, Phil Tuckett, serves as the director of the Dick Nourse

Dick Nourse

Dick Nourse is a retired award-winning Salt Lake City, Utah television news anchor. He most recently worked for KSL-TV 5 Television. Nourse joined the KSL news team in 1964 as the station's weekend anchor/reporter. Six months later, he was named the station's weekday anchor...

 Center for Media Innovation at DSC. When he returned to his junior college (DSC) in 2006, after 38 years of working for NFL Films

NFL Films

NFL Films is a Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based company devoted to producing commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries on the National Football League, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows...

 and receiving 30 Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

s, he felt that the southern Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 area would serve as the perfect place to hold an international documentary film festival.

After working for several months with DSC’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Christina Schultz, to make his vision come to fruition, Tuckett officially announced DOCUTAH on 24 September 2009.

The City of St. George, the St. George Convention and Tourism office, the City of Kanab, and Kane County’s

Kane County, Utah

As of the census of 2000, there were 6,046 people, 2,237 households, and 1,628 families residing in the county. The population density was 2 people per square mile . There were 3,767 housing units at an average density of 1 per square mile...

 Office of Tourism and Film Commission (along with the Center for Education, Business,and the Arts) were some of the first to support and sponsor DOCUTAH.

Structure

The Festival runs for ten days annually, including two weekends, in the month of September.

Screenings

The Festival screens films throughout the southern Utah area, in both indoor and outdoor locations. Some notable outdoor venues include Tuachan Amphitheater in Ivins, UT, and the O.C. Tanner Amphitheater in Springdale, UT.

Master Class Educational Seminars

Film industry professionals are scheduled to teach the educational seminars during the Festival, which focus both on academic knowledge and real world application.

Film Categories

DOCUTAH has two separate film entry categories, one for general entrants and one for students. These both have sub-categories.

General:

• Minis running less than 5 minutes (including titles and credits)

• Short documentaries up to 45 minutes (including titles and credits)

• Features more than 45 minutes

Student:

• High School Student Film

• College/University Student Film

Awards

Five judges make up the DOCUTAH awards panel.

They confer the honors for the following categories:

• Judges Award

• Directing
  Film director
  A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
  
  

• Cinematography
  Cinematography
  Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
  
  

• Editing
  Film editing
  Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
  
  

• Music
  Film score
  A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
  
  

DOCUTAH also has an award for the Audience Favorite.

External links

• Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival
• Dixie State College of Utah