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As the Heritage Film Festival grows each year, it attracts a more diverse group of applicants from not only Prince George's County, but from across the country and outside of the United States.

Filmmakers submit films on a variety of different topics — there's something for everyone among the festival's 35 films.

O.F. Makarah, a Largo resident and director of the Heritage Film Festival, said that after moving from California to Maryland a few years ago, she missed being around filmmakers and decided to create a film festival.

"It started out as just an idea," she said.

The festival, which was founded in 2006, grows each year, with applicants from as far away as Australia.

This year's submissions included documentaries, how-tos and public service announcements, in addition to traditional narratives.

"I'm surprised by what people do and don't like. It's refreshing," Makarah said.

Submissions come from people of all ages, some of whom have never made a film before.

Films also vary in length — from 60 seconds to 40 minutes. Because of time constraints, the Heritage Film Festival doesn't show any feature-length movies.

"I try to balance male and female, the content and length, where [filmmakers] are from — it's just a matter of trying to find that balance," Makarah said. "I've been happy and gotten good comments about the way things fit together. I don't just show things I like — that's hard to do sometimes, to see things that appeal to different audiences."

Some veteran filmmakers, like Faraday Okoro, Jason Stefaniak and Chris Lynn, keep submitting films to the festival year after year.

Faraday Okoro

Faraday Okoro, 22, of Riverdale entered the film festival for the second year.

Okoro, a Howard University sophomore majoring in film, has produced three films and is an aspiring director and screenwriter.

Okoro said that when he was a sophomore at Parkdale High School in Riverdale his interest in film really began to develop. In the first two days of a film history class at Prince George's Community College in Largo, he knew that he wanted to major in film.

His latest film, "Rivers of my Father," is a story about a father and son. The father wants to take his son fishing one last time before he goes off to college.

"I find father-and-son stories easier to tell," Okoro said. "In terms of a relationship, a parent-child bond is stronger than any other bond. People relate to these types of bonds."

Okoro said he can't identify his source of inspiration, because it isn't consistent.

"I find myself maturing more and see myself approaching [film] stories differently. They're more technical-based," he said.

With experience, Okoro's films are getting longer, but he isn't placing an emphasis on time.

"As I learn with experience I don't focus on time to get my story across," he said. "I try not to pass 20 to 30 minutes if I don't have to."

Jason Stefaniak

Jason Stefaniak, 23, of Manassas, Va., is a 2008 graduate of Towson University, where he majored in film.

He is currently a New York University graduate student studying film production, with the goal of becoming a filmmaker.

At age 14 he made his first film; at age 19 he submitted to the Heritage Film Festival.

Stefaniak is entering the festival for the fourth year.

During his sophomore year of college he found out about it and decided to submit a film.

"It was the first festival I ever had something screened at; it was significant," he said. "Film is something I can use to learn about different cultures, for example."

He believes the Heritage Film Festival is a great place to submit films, because there aren't any criteria or a buzz around the festival, like there would be in New York or Los Angeles, for example.

Stefaniak's films are short — no more than 20 minutes, he said.

"[The film] doesn't have to be spectacular, it's OK to make mistakes," Stefaniak said. "It's a way to show it to people and to get feedback. There's a homegrown community feeling that definitely attracts me to keep coming back."

His entry for this year's festival is "The Garden." The film, 4 minutes and 30 seconds in length, is a black-and-white film that was shot in a New York City garden.

"The garden was one of the first things I saw in the city when I moved in," he said. "It was visually pleasing to film — it was a practice in visual storytelling."

Stefaniak said he's feeling a shift in himself, making his desire to create films not only about relationships, but also about larger world issues, like climate change.

He was raised by mostly women, and has a great interest in relationships, which he said his three other films are about.

"I think it's something I've had experience with. I was in a relationship for a long time," he said. "I was raised mostly by women [so I'm] attracted to a story that explores women and relationships."

Chris Lynn

Chris Lynn of Silver Spring, a self-taught filmmaker, is entering the film festival for the third year.

He is a film and 12th-grade English literature teacher at DuVal High School in Lanham.

"My films tend to be more experimentally based with image and sound. They're longer, meditative pieces," he said. "It's not a deliberate, aesthetic choice."

For at least the past 10 years, Lynn has been making films, but in the past four years he's been doing the filming, editing and sound on his own. He makes his films with only him and his camera — no actors and actresses.

"I've been pretty passionate about film — I grew up watching a lot of films but I wasn't serious about filmmaking until college, when I took world cinema, looking at film as an art form," Lynn said. "We watched films from different countries. The audience treated it as something that was artistic and not just for commercial [monetary] value."

At the University of Maryland, College Park, Lynn majored in English literature and took film classes, where he learned to cut 16 millimeter film.

Lynn, who has made nearly 30 films, said he films both inside and outside the United States. His films range from 2 minutes to 20 minutes in length.

After filming he spends his time editing sound.

Lynn said the Heritage Film Festival is so successful and enjoyable for the audience because Makarah does a good job of curating films that fill well together.

IF YOU GO

Heritage Film Festival

When: 7 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Rennie Forum, Prince George's Community College, 301 Largo Road, Largo.

Admission: Free

Information: E-mail heritagefilmvideo@yahoo.com or visit www.heritagefilm-videofest.org.

E-mail Liz Skalski at eskalski@gazette.net.