Home to dozens of working artists, the Pomona Art Colony seems the perfect setting for the Smogdance Film Festival, which features 23 working filmmakers.

Some, like Rancyo Cucamonga native Brian Barnhart, make films in between shifts at their day jobs. Others, like riverside filmmaker Damion Dietz, have independent production companies behind them and are flirting with wide releases.

Barnhart's film, "Pray For Dawn," pays homage to his hero Sam Raimi, the Tennessee-based director of the "Evil Dead" trilogy. Like the Raimi films, "Pray For Dawn" deals with a Zombie takeover.

Barnhart filmed "Pray For Dawn," his first feature-length film, in his parents' garage, Terry Burger's in Rancho Cucamonga and a cabin in Joshua Tree National park. The scenes at Terry's were filmed in the middle of the night with a crew member watching for police.

"I didn't have permits or insurance or anything like that," Barnhart said on a break from his job at Starbucks in Pasadena. "It was total guerrilla filmmaking."

For inspiration, Barnhart looked to Raimi and his crew, who startedout in the low-budget, "guerilla" vein.

"These guys did it in Tennessee; away from Hollywood, away from the scene, and they really made it happen with nothing," he said. "I felt compelled to that story, because I don't have parents that were in the industry, I don't have friends that were in the industry; I had to figure out how to do this by myself."

Raimi's use of camp and humor, which included Three Stooges-style physical comedy, also inspired Barnhart's work in "Pray For Dawn." While there are campy elements, including characters that speak in one-liners, Barnhart said his film gets darker as the action progresses.

"It's very, very campy, very funny, but there is a point where it does turn very dark, as one-by-one the heroes fall," he said. "As the movie goes on, the more serious it gets."

Smogdance will mark the premire of "Pray For Dawn." While Barnhart finished it before the September 11 terrorist attacks, he said the film contains certain elements which might strike a chord with people in light of recent events.

For example, the people become zombies as a result of a chemical "attack" on the water supply.

"We'll see how that goes over; it's going to be interesting," he said. "You have to fight the zombies with toxic gear. It's almost like the exact same suit that these guys are wearing on the news."

Copyright 2001 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. All rights reserved.

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