By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com

If you were picking a single word to describe the operations at Spring Lane Cinemas, you could do a lot worse than “curation.”

General Manager Jared Campbell’s love of film has helped him create a unique experience at Sanford’s only movie theater in several ways – whether it’s the Wayback Wednesday or Throwback Thursday promotions in which customers can take in old and sometimes cult films for the cost of a concession, or Spring Lane Video, the theater’s new in-house video store, Campbell’s connection to the medium has helped him think outside the box and keep folks coming through the doors in spite of what can be charitably described as a challenging landscape for the business.

On Saturday, Campbell and Spring Lane’s approach to “curating” an approach for film lovers comes together in the Spring Lane Film Festival, an all-day event featuring independent movies you won’t see anywhere else from filmmakers in North Carolina, the United States and beyond.

The festival will include 20 competing films – presented in two blocks of shorts and one block of features – and begins at 11 a.m. Tickets are $10 (those under 17 must be accompanied by an adult). In addition to the competing films, with names like “The Alien,” “Vapor Trails,” “Tales From the Shiny Diner,” “The Devil’s Lettuce,” and more, the festival will culminate with the premiere of “Lady Parts,” Campbell’s latest film.

Campbell has been making movies himself since he was a child, although he considers 2014 the start of doing so on a professional basis. Starting the Spring Lane Film Festival was an outgrowth of making films and entering them into other festivals.

“We’d made a short called ‘Candle Smoke’ that got a lot more traction than we’d ever gotten – it was getting into festivals and winning some awards – but we still weren’t getting into everything we wanted to,” he said. “I realized my movies are good enough because I’d done something no one else can do – I fulfilled the vision I had. That’s when we decided to start our own festival.”

The festival takes place entirely inside just one of the facility’s theaters, so seats are limited – the festival sold out its first year in 2022, as well as in 2024 and 2025.

“We’ve had films play here that have been bought by studios, some of them now appear on (streaming service) Tubi, so our little theater has definitely had some premieres,” Campbell said. “We’ve had submissions from all over the place, Canada, even Russia.”

Campbell said he watches every submission himself and takes the time to reply with positive feedback to each – even those that don’t make the cut – because it’s what he wants out of the festival experience himself.

“We really want to cater to indie filmmakers,” he said. “Out of anything I do in this building, (the festival) is easily the most fun.”

Although Campbell’s film isn’t a part of the festival’s competition, the event will close with its premiere at 7:30 p.m. Written and directed by Campbell, and shot entirely locally, it’s a sequel to a previous film of his called “Migraine.” Campbell has described it as “a combination of 1980s B-movie chaos disguised as a 1970s giallo,” a horror subgenre popularized in Italy in the 1960s and 70s. There will be a Q&A/meet and greet with some of cast and crew following the movie.

“I feel like we’ve made a very fun movie,” he said. “I’m incredibly grateful for the cast and crew and everything they went through.”

For more information about the Spring Lane Film Festival or the purchase tickets, visit https://www.springlanecinema.com/movie/spring-lane-film-festival