The Emerging Filmmaker's Project at the Bug Theatre

Denver has no shortage of people making short films and almost nowhere to show them to strangers. That is the gap this night has filled every month since 2002, which makes it older than most of the festivals now claiming to represent the local scene. Filmmakers submit, the room watches, and then the filmmaker stands up and takes questions, which is the part that separates this from a screening.

The Bug runs it out of a 1912 nickelodeon house on Navajo Street that has spent the last three decades as a north Denver arts room. Programs are built from whatever came in that month, so the bill is short-form and unpredictable: narrative, documentary, animation, experimental, usually several filmmakers on one night rather than a single feature. The lineup is not published in advance, which is the format rather than an oversight.

It is $5 at the door, doors 6:30 PM and films at 7, running about two hours. Ratio Beerworks pours free beer for anyone 21 or over. The Bug is at 3654 Navajo Street with street-only parking on a residential block, and the room seats under 100, so early arrival is the difference between a seat and a wall.