A film made by Jeffry McGuire, of Arlington, will be shown in the Seattle True Independent Film Festival.

A 2001 graduate of Lakewood High School and 2006 graduate of the Vancouver Film School in British Columbia, McGuire created the film that was chosen for the prestigious.

The film, “Bad Kung Fu (BKF)” is an action comedy fantasy film, said McGuire. The genesis of BKF started eight years ago when McGuire was a student at Lakewood High School. It was the winter of 2001.

“I was bored one Sunday and decided to phone up a couple of my friends to make a short film,” McGuire said.

“We gathered up what costume, prop and mask items we had and shot an hour of footage that day. I then cut the project together and showed it the following Tuesday at school where it was very well received,” McGuire said, adding that the two sequels were also very popular.

After graduation McGuire started film studies at Everett Community College, but the program folded.

After watching a documentary on Director Peter Jackson’s first film “Bad Taste,” McGuire discovered it was possible to make a spectacular low budget film.

“I decided to take matters into my own hands and set out to purchase a camera capable of professional results,” he said.

The young film maker worked at the Marysville-Tulalip Walmart for two years to pay for his camera. A feature length BKF grew in McGuire’s mind during those two years.

“Three good friends of mine helped write a script and another pulled together the $15,000 required to fund the picture,” McGuire said.

This time they had an original screenplay, musical score, costumes and characters and the goal of having a movie we could sell.

They started filming in April 2004 and finished in the fall of 2008.

“The project took a lot longer then anticipated due to schedules, school, funding and weather,” McGuire said.

The visual style of the film is that of Lord of the Rings meets Monty Python, he said. It took 650 visual effect shots to help transform Washington into ancient China and McGuire spent more than a year’s worth of eight-hour days working on the visual effects. It took nine months to score and mix the final tracks of the soundtrack.

McGuire attributes the final product to support of family and some talented friends who helped make his dream come true.

He submitted the film to a couple of festivals and got rejected, but then it was ready for the Seattle True Independent Film Festival.

“I’m very excited we got in,” he said.

The festival, which runs June 5 – 15 at various venues in Seattle, receives close to 1,000 entries for it’s 10-day showing of films from independent film makers around the world.

McGuire’s film will be shown to the public for the first time Saturday, June 6.

“I’m hoping to meet a lot of filmmakers there,” McGuire said.

“I’m hoping this film will help generate good vibes to help me and my friends make more spectacular films.”

He admits, however that the economy has taken a bite out of his film making.

“I put off a lot of potential work in Washingtons film industry to complete this film because it was my passion. It was a labor of love.”

He said his film making ambition is slowed by the lack of jobs in Washington and he has no ability to fund a stint in California.