Last year, Utah locals Callie Crofts and Ryan Margetts took home awards for their music video “Sacrament” from three music festivals: FilmQuest, West Sound Film Festival and Utah International Film Festival. Now, they’re on the lineup for Utah Queer Film Festival (UQFF) this weekend with their latest project, “Embalmed.”
UQFF has been ongoing for 22 years now and is on its second year after previously being “Damn These Heels.” As part of the festival’s programming, music videos now have a place in the film festival space. Crofts and Margetts both spoke to this and said film festivals are usually narrative and feature film storytelling and that they’re grateful for the opportunity to share their music video in this space.
The making of “Embalmed”
Crofts and Margetts met each other at a show and began their creative collaboration a few years ago. They describe it as a “partnership.” This summer, the creative duo stumbled upon the festival during the 2025 Utah Pride Festival which Croft’s band, Die Shiny headlined. After previous success from the year before, they submitted “Embalmed” and are continuing their streak.
The making of “Embalmed” was entirely volunteer-based, and much of the involvement was from the surrounding LGBTQ+ community.
“After [Sacrament] did so well in the festivals last year, I guess people were really excited to be a part of the next one,” Croft said. “So, yeah, I was so grateful to the volunteers. There were people in the industry that Ryan knows, and I also reached out to friends and even fans. And it was kind of a magical experience on set to show up and have so many excited people like volunteering their time.”
Margetts added that the community in Utah and the film industry were a surprising gift to the process. “I’ve been impressed too by the amount of nonbinary and trans people in the film space in Utah specifically,” he said. “So that’s just cool to have that perspective always present.”
Croft described the making of the music video as a “peak gender joy moment.” While it doesn’t have specific queer themes, it has a political message that’s tied to the queer community. “It’s such a weird time to be a human,” Croft said. “A lot of the queer community kind of gravitates to that liberation, revolutionary mindset, because we understand being othered. So yeah, it’s not necessarily like I’m using video about my queer experience, but it’s definitely fully on display and feels like just a deep part of who I am.”
The two hope that “Embalmed” will open a space for the queer community and activists to have a space to be seen and heard. Margetts added that he hopes people relate to its themes, but also sit in uncomfortable satisfaction. “It relates to a really deep part of the soul, whether it’s religious or political or personal,” Margetts said. “I think with this one, a little bit of me wants people to be freaked out. It kind of shows the creepiness of monetizing every single aspect of the human experience. It’s gross.”
Margetts and Croft are planning a new music video and along with this, Croft’s band, Die Shiny, has a new album to be released in the spring. You can follow along their journey on social media @calliecrofts and @ryanmargetts.dp. The festival is this weekend, Oct. 24 through the 26. Tickets for UQFF are on sale now. You can find out more about the festival at their website here.
