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A still photo of Weber State University alum Dustin Michael Bessire starring in the student-produced short film "Quiet, Arlo."

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A still photo of Weber State University alum Dustin Michael Bessire, left, starring in the student-produced short film "Quiet, Arlo."

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A still photo of Weber State University alum Kimberly Mancuso starring in the student-produced short film "Quiet, Arlo."

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The movie poster for "Quiet, Arlo," a short film produced through Weber State University's Studio 76 and screening at the Gateway Megaplex in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025

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A short film produced through Weber State University’s Studio 76 collective will screen at the Zepstone International Film & Music Festival, or ZepFest 2025, an annual event hosted in Salt Lake City by the nonprofit Zepstone Arts Foundation.

The film — “Quiet, Arlo” — was directed by WSU student David Guerrero and stars WSU graduate Dustin Michael Bessire, who also wrote the screenplay. Its screening at Salt Lake’s Megaplex at The Gateway is slated for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 11 — a date of special significance for Bessire.

“Sept. 11, when it premieres, will mark five years from when I got out of residential treatment … five years from when I started my journey in recovery,” Bessire told the Standard-Examiner. “I immediately went back to school and thought I was going to go for criminal justice because I have a background in investigation, but something was just like, ‘Nah, you got to follow your passion.'”

Bessire went on to earn his degree in digital media production, finding his creative tribe and learning under professors Aaron Atkins and Andrea Baltazar along the way. That series of events also culminated in the production of “Quiet, Arlo,” in which he and Guerrero explore themes of addiction, bipolar disorder and recovery.

“My very last semester in college, I decided to just write something from my own personal experience and try to capture that. So, in September of last year, we pitched it and it seemed to resonate with people,” Bessire said. “There’s a lot in the film that I’m just kind of letting out in the open. You do a lot of lying and cheating and stealing whenever you’re in the throes of addiction and it’s part of my story. I’m trying to just wear it as part of my journey.”

It’s a journey that spoke to Guerrero as both a friend and an artist.

“As soon as I heard the story, I could see it. I could see what the story was about and what it wanted to say,” Guerrero told the Standard-Examiner. “I don’t like to make movies just for making movies; making something that’s just for the sake of it. I want to tell real stories. I want to tell people’s stories and this seemed a real story that came from struggle that was grounded.”

When “Quiet, Arlo” was pitched for production through Studio 76 — a student-led organization that seeks to provide opportunities for direct experience in all aspects of media production — it was intended as a 10-minute short. Over time, though, as Guerrero and Bessire’s collaborators shared their own ideas and the overall vision grew, the project evolved into a full-on featurette.

“I went to all the people in this Weber community that I respected as writers and I just had them redline it and we just kept revising and revising. Then, when we cast it, we worked with our actors to try to get the dialogue to be something that they would say. A lot of the story changed and David just believed in it a lot, so he kept saying, ‘Well, what if we do this?’ and I never once wanted to say no. If it felt like it came from somebody who believed in it and it felt like it served the story, I was just open to it.

“So, in a way, this film was written by all of us. It’s rooted in my experience, but every person has a little garnish in there that drove it to be what it is.”

For Guerrero, seeing the project through has been particularly rewarding. There were points during his own journey when he was unsure he would be able to continue his education at WSU. However, with the support of his professors and fellow students, he has remained at the university, brought multiple projects to fruition and solidified his path as a filmmaker.

“Those are things that I don’t think are easy to find at other universities, that I will never be able to repay,” Guerrero said. “And I’m not just talking financially. They gave me the opportunity at the right time to meet the people that I now know, like Dusty, and to really follow my passion.”

Guerrero and Bessire founded Many Ways Films in February, a production company first conceptualized by the former as a teenager growing up in Mexico. The group has already done work with organizations and events such as the Ziegfeld Theater, Ogden Arts Festival and Ogden Downtown Alliance, and future projects are being discussed on a weekly basis.

In the meantime, Guerrero and Bessire are excited to see “Quiet, Arlo” find its audience.

The film’s synopsis is as follows: “Fresh out of the hospital, failing writer Arlo Fisher faces addiction, bipolar disorder and his own fractured reality as he struggles to rewrite his own story of a man drowning in his own mind and the quiet grief of those trying to pull him from the depths.”

For more information on ZepFest 2025 or to buy festival passes, go to https://www.zepfest.org/.