Focus on Fests featuring Frame of Mynd Film Fest

Description

Focus on Fests is not your average event — it’s an immersive experience mixing creativity and advocacy. These one-of-a-kind popup events blend filmmaking, multimedia, storytelling and live performances, to ignite conversations and build a stigma-free community. The 2026 program features premiere short films, panel discussions, presentations and the innovative storytelling of Frame of Mynd! Raising awareness through creativity for Mental Health, Disability, Autism and building community. May 19th 6pm-9pm Utah Film Center 375 W 400 N, Salt Lake City Here is info on the films, they are all shorts and will be split into 2 groups of 45 mins each. Brief panel discussion and Q&A will be in between the blocks. Full program will be 2 hours. Hang out and chat and enjoy the interactive activities also. Focus Bullied for his colourful, kid-like fidgets, young Kai - who has autism and dyslexia - no longer wanted to live. Left with no other choice, he forged his own from a bike chain. By 18, that single act of defiance has become Kaiko Fidgets, a company purpose-built for the neurodivergent community. Focus is the story of a young founder who transformed his darkest years into a movement and became a voice for everyone who was ever told that who they are is a problem to be fixed. Birds of a Feather A neurodivergent teenage boy with a fixation on birds navigates school bullying along with his first crush. Deaf Date Desperate to impress a date who's one dealbreaker is deafness, a Deaf man ditches his cochlear implant and attempts to bluff his way through a chaotic double date. Notes for Tomorrow Notes For Tomorrow is a tender exploration of love, memory, and loss. After one partner begins to fade, the other navigates the quiet rhythms of daily life, guided by hand written notes and frozen meals left behind. Set in the presence of nature, the film reveals how memory can both haunt and comfort, and how love endures even in absence. Viola The viola section of a large orchestra auditions (behind a screen) a new violist for their ensemble. The candidates are terrible, and the violists bicker among themselves. Suddenly, the perfect violist plays; it's pure bliss. But in the third round, when they discover the candidate's identity and see their wheelchair, their awkwardness as able-bodied people dealing with a disabled person pushes one of the violists in the section to reveal her own invisible disability to her colleagues with a bang. Will the four violists find a semblance of harmony again? Decaying - Behind the Seams 35 neurodiverse kids. 23 Saturdays. 10 zombies. 1 short film. Drag your rotting corpse behind the seams of this handmade horror and discover a love letter to creativity, neurodiversity, and organized chaos. Bruno's Wings A young autistic boy is raised alone from birth, almost without contact from his parents. His only companions throughout his life are his books, until he decides to face all his fears and overcome his limits, driven only by his passion and tireless curiosity.