The Tumbleweeds Film Festival celebrates 15 years of creating film opportunities for youth to engage in creativity and curiosity

By: Laney Hansen | University of Utah

This story is jointly published as part of the Utah College Media Collaborative, a cross-campus project bringing together emerging journalists from Southern Utah University, the University of Utah, Utah State University and Utah Tech University. The collaborative is an Amplify Utah project with support from PBS Utah and POV.

SALT LAKE CITY – Sophia McDonald was 10 years old when her filmmaking debut premiered at the Tumbleweeds Film Festival. Now, 13, she will be attending this year’s festival to gain inspiration for her next project. 

Her experience at Tumbleweeds Film Festival fueled her passion for filmmaking, which was influenced by her father, Ryan McDonald, a film director in Utah.

“I thought it was pretty cool that he did these things, like he knew how to make movies and stuff,” she said. “And I wanted to know how to do it, too.”

This has always been the mission of the Utah Film Center– to give kids the chance to experience the full film festival, including creating their own work.

Sophia likes horror and comedy genres, so blending them, she created her two films ‘Sister, Sister Jinx” and “The Sockening,” which screened at the 2023 and 2024 film festivals. Both were a collaborative effort between Sophia, her sisters and her father, who added that it was an explorative process even for him.

“It’s cool to see the kids put the pen to paper and then turn it into a movie that gets made with an iPhone,” McDonald said. 

Sophia met filmmaker Jared Hess, director of “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre,” at the festival in 2023 and received direct feedback on her work. McDonald said Hess’s involvement created a unique experience for young filmmakers attending the festival.

Sophia said the collaborative process of showcasing the films was her favorite part “because you could see what other people came up with and how their ideas came to life.” 

Sophia’s films went on to screen at festivals in San Diego and Australia. 

Community and collaboration since day one

Community involvement has been at the core of the Tumbleweeds Film Festival since 2011. The festival is directed and curated for children ages 4 to 14, but also draws adults interested in wholesome, family-friendly films.

This was true for parents like Mark St. Andre, who was seeking out new opportunities for his kids in 2011. At the time, he was volunteering for the Sundance Film Festival and wanted something his children could enjoy and grow up with.

“As a parent, you’re always looking for unique but educational experiences for your kids. And this was it, because all the movies are like, great quality,” he said. “They’re meaningful, they’re foreign films that the kids had to read the titles too, so that it exposed them to other cultures. … It’s just like all around a great experience.”

His daughter, Julia St. Andre, was 8 years old when she first attended the festival. Now 22, she’s pursuing a minor in documentary film at the University of Utah. She said growing up with Tumbleweeds is what led her toward nature documentaries. 

“I really am interested in real-life stories and turning them into something interesting and something beautiful,” she said. “And I think that there was a lot of films that felt very real … a lot of them were based off of people’s real lives … I think it just opened my eyes to different forms of storytelling that were possible.”

The opportunities Tumbleweeds offered kept the St. Andre family coming back year after year. As the family grew close to the festival, Mark and his wife became sponsors and plan to keep volunteering, attracted by not only the opportunities, but the community, too. 

“I think what’s really always been very interesting to me is how much of the arts really tries to create a sense of community and belonging,” said Julia Gale, the Utah Film Center’s education and family programs director. “I think that’s why you have something like Tumbleweeds around for 15 years. Because when you come, you feel really welcome. It feels like, ‘This is my place. This festival is made just for me,” she added.

About the festival

Tumbleweeds took root with the Utah Film Center when festival founder Patrick Hubley approached them with an idea. Hubley had worked with the Sundance Film Festival to create the first kids film festival programming at the Toronto Film Festival. After seeing the response, he knew something was missing in Utah. 

“My vision for Tumbleweeds was to create an event aimed to engage and inspire young audiences through films and stories from around the world, specifically tailored for them,” Hubley said. “By presenting these films and conducting educational workshops that offered a glimpse into the creative and technical aspects of filmmaking, I hoped to ignite a new generation of film enthusiasts, artists, and creators.”

In 2014, the Sundance Film Festival approached the Utah Film Center to collaborate on film programming to engage younger audiences. This partnership evolved into the festival’s new programming, “The Matinee,” which produces family-friendly films like this year’s movie, “The Cookie Queens.”

The festival returns April 15 at the Viridian Event Center. Now in its 15th year, Tumbleweeds is the longest-running youth film festival in the Mountain West. 

This year’s theme is “Passion in Action,” which Gale defined as intentional and circular. She added this year’s films surround the themes of “passion, creativity, curiosity and positivity,” which will give young festivalgoers the tools to explore their own passions.

Executive Director of the Utah Film Center, Mariah Mellus, said that Tumbleweeds continues the century-long tradition of film in the state.

“I feel like letting kids know that this is part of Utah’s DNA, and that there are a lot of resources and infrastructure here, including the Utah Film Center, is really important,” she said. “We want to keep them all here in Utah … Make your movie here, and then let’s show it to the world.”

Where it’s going from here

Sophia and Julia’s stories reflect others impacted by the festival’s mission of inspiring young minds to create new work. Mellus said Tumbleweeds has always been a way for kids to allow their curiosity to flow. 

“As kids are growing up, making this content more of a shift to inspiring future content creators has really been a driving mission for me and for the film center,” she said. 

The center is looking at implementing an alumni advisory committee of past Tumbleweeds participants who have moved on to film careers. 

“To have them come back, I think, is really going to help kids envision, if they stick with it, ‘where can I go to school? What might I study?’ And that there’d be a place for them to come back, and show their work and give back to the next generation,” she added. “I think that that kind of pipeline and ecosystem is really important when it comes to inspiring kids on future career paths and then letting them know that the Film Center is a resource.”

Celebrating 15 years, Tumbleweeds is growing rapidly with community and creativity at the forefront.

“We really want to focus on young kids exploring the world through film, learning about the movie-making magic, and then also having an opportunity to create that magic,” Mellus said.

Laney Hansen reported this story as a journalism student at the University of Utah. Podcast production by U of U student, Greta Faatz.