A brief history of the Utah Filmmakers™ Association

The Utah Filmmakers™ Association (UFA™) was founded in 2002 by Joe Puente and Lawrence & Lana Gardner in Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete County, Utah, with the mission of fostering collaboration between filmmakers and promoting filmmaking as an art form and an industry.

UFA™ Logo
(Circa 2004)

The organization’s initial efforts included several community-based projects concentrated in central Utah including high school workshops, guest lectures at Snow College, screening events, after-school programs, and a 4-H filmmaking club. It also oversaw the production of short films and a documentary-style variety program called “Section One TV” for the regional telecommunications firm CentraCom.

Utah Filmmakers™ rebranded itself a few times as its mission evolved over the years. A number of other established organizations in the state were also working to effectively meet most of the needs of local filmmakers, and UFA™ leadership—not wanting to duplicate those efforts—was content to support and promote those existing programs as it considered alternative ways to serve the film community.

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The organization has maintained an active online presence to be better informed about local filmmaking projects, programs, and events. Concurrent with the growth of social media, a number of forums had been set up with goals similar to those of Utah Filmmakers™—primarily, bringing people together to make movies—including the original "Utah Filmmakers and Actors" Facebook group created by Ben Hawker in 2007. Puente joined the group in 2009, becoming one of around 400 members. In 2011, when membership grew to around 750, he was invited to become a group Admin.

After relocating from Sanpete to Salt Lake City, Puente worked on several productions—Feature films, TV series, commercials, and corporate videos—both in front of and behind the camera. He also collaborated on independent productions and attended events organized by local filmmakers. “I started to notice something,” he relates. “Whenever I was on a professional film set, I usually saw the same people on the crews, but I rarely saw any of them at the local networking events—and it wasn't often that I saw the regular networking attendees working on professional sets.”

In 2014, Joe was hired by Ben Fuller to work on a commercial campaign for the Utah State Fair. Ben was a Managing Partner at mediaRif for over a decade, as well as the curator and host of the Channel 801 screening series and podcast. On their way to a location shoot, Fuller made an observation to Joe, “...you’re one of the few people that I know who has their foot in the local film industry as well as in the local film community.”

Realizing that the "film industry" and "film community" were, in fact, distinct from one another, a new mission for the Utah Filmmakers™ Association began to emerge: Enabling aspiring community filmmakers to become professionals in the film industry.

By this point, the Utah Filmmakers and Actors group had grown to over 4,000 members. It had become an active resource for filmmakers to find work and hire talent, providing a platform with the broadest reach at Puente's disposal. With empathy for those who have struggled for years to “get their foot in the door” and—having made a lot of the same mistakes as most novice filmmakers—he appealed to the industry filmmakers in the Facebook group, asking them, "What's the most important information you need to know when someone shares a job opportunity?" Their first priority was knowing how much the job paid, followed by dates, locations, the nature of the project, etc. This feedback informed the creation of a job-posting template that has proven quite effective—even influencing job-posting practices in other groups associated with other creative industries.

Around this time, membership growth began to noticeably increase, thanks partly to establishing a more straightforward purpose for the group and how it intended to serve its members. While the forum has always welcomed professional and novice filmmakers alike, the number one rule became "Professionalism is expected in all interactions." By inviting professionals to set the standard for novice community filmmakers to emulate, establishing some simple guidelines for what was considered to be “on-topic,” and—most importantly—informing the members that they all have a role to play in how useful the forum can be for them.

As membership numbers continued to rise and Puente's active administrative style began to stand out, new members often assumed that he was the one who had started the Facebook group. Whenever that became a topic of discussion—online and in person—Puente would remind members that it was actually Ben Hawker who started it; he just asked Joe to help him as an admin. Hawker was eventually asked to be on the Board of Directors for Utah Filmmakers™ since the group had basically become so closely identified with Puente and the nonprofit organization. He agreed, and eventually, the name of the group was updated from “Utah Filmmakers and Actors” to simply “Utah Filmmakers™”—a term to which has been ascribed a broad definition that includes actors and anyone else involved in all aspects of filmmaking in Utah. The trademark symbol at the end of the name sparked an interesting discussion, but the organization had, in fact, registered the trademark with the state of Utah. It also helped to distinguish the group—still the first and largest of its kind—from other “Utah”+“film” groups that were out there… none of which have the same membership and active engagement levels as the original.

With that, the focus of the Utah Filmmakers™ organization became more in line with its more descriptive business name: Associating Utah filmmakers with one another and seeing what can be done to bridge the local film community—filmmaking enthusiasts, novices, students, etc.—with Utah’s film industry. It has implemented several new programs to help build that bridge over the years, and the group continues to be an invaluable resource for fostering collaboration and promoting job growth in Utah's film industry.

The organization has also continued to produce original content under the brand “Section One Entertainment,” the production arm of Utah Filmmakers™—named for the gentlemen’s partnership established between Puente and his coworkers during his enlistment in the U.S. Navy to produce a film titled “Barracks Rats.” Through those productions, he continues to apply the skills he’s acquired and develop additional tools and resources that can then be made available to other Utah filmmakers.

Current Revision: 20250121