Trailer
The drive to create— No matter the challenge
'LIGHTS, CAMERA, PASSION' is a our upcoming Documentary feature film that tells the story of an organization that has grown the independent film scene across the southwest. The Almost Famous Film Festival, created by brothers Jae and Kai Staats, originated in 2005 with a 48 Hour Short Film Challenge that became an overnight success.
Fast Forward to 2025, the A3F has impacted hundreds of lives by nurturing, inspiring and supporting filmmakers and their dreams, by cultivating a welcoming environment where everyone can find acceptance. Explore the impact the A3F has had across Arizona filmmakers and beyond and see what it takes to become a budding artist in a landscape of endless content monotony.
Show your support!
This film has been a labor of love by a handful of team members. While we have a good portion of our interviews for this documentary already filmed, we still have more to go. The remaining interviews are with creatives who have started their filmmaking journey participating in the A3F, but have gone on to do bigger and better things.
With your help, we can offset the travel and lodging costs of venturing out to Los Angeles, Kentucky and Utah where we aim to travel to in 2025. Our team is dedicated and passionate about completing our film and answering the question of “why do people commit the time, talent and effort to create film?” If self-funding is what it takes, we’ll make it work.