The Lancaster Area Film Festival, being held Saturday at Liberty Place, almost wasn't going to happen.

But thanks to Plan B, it will.

Last summer, Bryan Schaefer, Mark Pennell and Jason Prugar, who often collaborate on films, went to a film festival in Virginia and came back believing they could do better.

"We started talking about it and things snowballed," Schaefer says. "But then my wife had a baby in September and with everything going on, the film festival got pushed aside."

But nobody told Wayne Thompson, the lead singer for Plan B, who announced on his website that the group would be playing at the Lancaster Film Festival.

"We decided we'd run with it and the response has been great," Schaefer says. "It was like a flood of films."

Indeed. The festival will feature 38 films, running in three different theaters at Liberty Place.

The festivities kick off with a reception beginning at 6 p.m., where, of course, Plan B will be playing.

Cylo will be paying a visit and horror authors Brian Keene and J. F. Gonzalez will be signing their books.

Film awards will be given out, then a little after 7 p.m., the screenings will begin. The screenings will be divided into three blocks of time, the first two blocks being an hour and a half and the third about 45 minutes.

Ticket holders can switch from the three different theaters any time they'd like and Schaefer notes that family-friendly films will be featured in one theater during the first block.

"We thought that was only right since one of our filmmakers is 9 years old."

That's Dylon Prugar, who used Legos and stop action to retell the story of "Jaws."

Schaefer would rate the rest of the festival "between a PG-13 and an R, with everything clearly marked."

"We have two feature films, but most of them are shorts between three and 30 minutes," says Schaefer, who is featuring three of his own in the festival, including "Mixed Nuts," about a man's odd experience in a bar; "Ironicality," about a man contemplating suicide who finds a reason to live and then discovers fate has other plans, and "Who Drank My Beer," about a crime scene investigator who goes to great lengths to discover who stole his last bottle of beer.

Local filmmakers include Mike Lombardo, of East Petersburg, who's made two horror/ comedy films, "Dr. Blood's Cinema Dungeon," and the zombie-influenced "Demonstration of the Dead."

Other local filmmakers include Ryan Mast, of Lancaster, with several music videos; Michael Andre, of Denver, whose "Psalm 51" is about a man on the run who stumbles into a church to await his fate and forgiveness, and Pennell's comic pursuit for a new source of special toppings in "Soylent Pizza."

"The LaPaule Murders" is a 27-minute drama by Andrew Bailey of Lititz, about a detective trying to crack a murder case in a small town.

The two features are "Purgatory Comics," directed by Ralph Suarez, of Long Island, N.Y., about a young woman who hides out in a comic book store rather than face the responsibilities and challenges that come with young adulthood, and "Schism," directed by John C. Lyons, of Erie, about about a man's descent into Alzheimer's, as told from his perspective.

Lancaster Area Film Festival.000

Sat. 7:15 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m.

$15. Liberty Place, 313 W. Liberty St.
www.lancasterareafilmfestiv...