To be followed shortly by the Senior Overview Showcase on May 10th. Hosted by the Webster Film & Video Society in the Winifred Moore Auditorium on Webster University starting at 7pm. Admission is FREE and open to the public. Consider this as a Film Geek Weekend.
Sometimes you need to save the date or you’ll never get the time of day at all. For that we have a calendar, but we ought to share some film festivals to look forward to this year. Or at least these are the ones we already know about.
Attention students of school, be you undergraduate, graduate, or still in high school (sorry doctors to be): You probably already have your own domain name, but now interactive media and animation students have their own festival. Introducing the first annual Kinematifest, in which a Webster University chapter of SIGGRAPH have organized a juried collection of 2D and 3D animation, sequential art, digital compositions, and Interactive media. Yes, that could mean you might submit your website (provided you’re still a student).
Although submission deadlines are fast approaching, the festival is on track to begin the weekend of May 2-4 at Webster University. Since students for all schools are invited, there will be networking opportunities scheduled that weekend for students from various campuses (and off campus). Of course all films will be screened on Webster University, most likely in the Winifred Moore Auditorium. Check their website for further details, since it’s probably worth the LOL animation on the index page alone.
As a film students, I’m always looking for stories to tell and opportunities to get my work screened. So when I got this message this morning from Highway 61 contributor Lauren Reid, I thought I’d pass it along not just to film students and geeks but animal lovers as well:
“Here’s something to do if you are a filmmaker: Cinema St. Louis and the Animal Protective Association of Missouri invite filmmakers living within a 120-mile radius of St. Louis to create a short film about the bond between people and their pets. Finalists will be showcased on the APA website, the APA MySpace page, YouTube and at the APA’s Grand Reopening Party. Cinema St. Louis will then choose one of the films to screen at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase in July. The entry deadline is April 1, 2008…
Here’s something that would be cute, a story about you and James. Could be fun since you two don’t really have quite the typical relationship between pets and owners. He’ll claw you during the day and sleep with you during the night.”
Besides my passive-aggressive cat, which you’re either unlikely or just unlucky to meet, you can catch other Screwball Comedies this and every proceeding Wednesday this semester. ”Topics in Film Studies: Screwball Comedy” will be screening a series of films as part of a class on this film genre. It will start off at 7:15pm this Wednesday with the Frank Capra classic “It Happened One Night“. All of the films will be screened in the Winifred Moore Auditorium, and admission is FREE. We expect you show up for class on time every week, that is unless you get lost in a series of seemingly disconnected misadventures which lead you to where you actually need to be that night.
This week more documentaries are heading our way than the True/False Film Festival was prepared to deal with. Let’s get started right away (ie tonight) for a quick rundown of some films you might want to check out if you’re of the persuasion to call yourself a film geek.
Last week, 122 filmmakers from 16 countries set out to make a documentary in 5 days as part of the KDHX-produced International Documentary Challenge. They were assigned a documentary genre (character study, music, political, etc.) and the theme of “Change”. Tonight, we will present a free screening of the St. Louis area produced films (along with some other standouts) at the Webster Film Series.
And with a theme like “change” you know Obama supporters are bound to show up in droves, so show up early.
With there being an extra day this year (this Friday to be exact), we know you’ll be looking for something to do with all your new found time. So in preparation for this upcoming Film Geek Weekend, in which the 5th annual True/False Film Festival will take place in Columbia (Missouri), we made a little True-False quiz of our own for you to take.
We’ll wait for the class to put your pens down before we grade papers.
For those who failed their quiz (or those not interested in taking it), let’s have a quick study session about this film festival. True/False is an annual Film Festival taking place for the 5th year in Columbia, MO. Unlike other film festivals this one is just for documentary films, attracting filmmakers from across the world. This festival isn’t so much juried, but sometimes films show up here before making it to a larger release - past examples include films like Murderball, The Corporation, and last year’s breakout The King of Kong.
This year’s festival is going to be a little bit different since their largest venue, the Missouri Theater, is closed for renovations. Also passes for the festival have already sold out, and ticket reservations have ended online, so there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be waiting in line to see films if you haven’t made plans already. Even the events’ organizers consider this years’ fest a leap of faith.
In spite of these inconvenient facts, at least about 15,000 people make the trip each year. We suspect attendance might be a bit higher for this year’ festival, which begins this Thursday February 28th and will continue through Sunday March 2nd in 2008. Check their schedule for the details too numerous to list here. And unless you’ve already made reservations for lodging, or have arrangements with a friend in Columbia, you’ll be losing your whole weekend in Columbia rather than gaining a day because of your own leap of faith this year.
Extra credit? Check out the organizer’s blog, add your pictures to the group’s FlickR photo pool, or add this event (and others we cover) to your calendar.
Film is magic. I’m not just saying this as a film student either. Rather there is something special about this medium that attracts storytellers and magicians to try their hands at daft illusions. The stories that can be told through this form affects us differently psychologically than any other method. That being said, there is a big difference in storytelling that’s easy to over look; film goers sit in a dark room silently and begin to suspend their sense of disbelief as to what is happening on screen in a subjective environment.
Unlike any other medium, this magical form forces us to have a solitary experience. So why then should millions of people celebrate this art form alone in their living rooms? Cinema St. Louis is offering an alternative this Sunday February 24th with an Oscar party of their own. Starting at 6pm you can join the festivities (for a cost), or at 7:30pm you can join other film fans on a budget (for FREE) downstairs for free in the Pageant. More information is available on that event’s webpage.
Saint Louis International Film Festival
November 8-18 2007
‘Nuff Said.
http://www.cinemastlouis.org/fest.html
(Check your local listings)
See you here, there, everywhere.
Recharge your batteries overnight with a little “Robot Rock” or impress your date to inspire some “Digital Love”; Daft Punk’s “Electroma” is playing in the Reel Late film series at the Tivoli Theater. As far as we know, this is the only road trip movie about French robots that takes place in America, so catch it this weekend only for it’s St. Louis Premier Friday-Saturday October 19-20 @ midnight and Sunday October 21st @ 10pm in the Tivoli Theater. And as this box art suggests (albiet for a whole another film), when the robots take over “where else would you bury Rock’N'Roll?”
All is Quiet on the Western Front this weekend after Meramac Community College plays “Gallipoli” as part of the One Book/One College series. It will play on Thursday morning October 18th @ 11am in the Kirkwood Public Library.
Open your weekend with a song and dance routine in “Laaga Chunari Mein Daag“, which will play Friday October 19th @ 9pm in the St. Charles 18 Cine thanks to our Bollywood connection through Seema Productions.
Sure none of them may have their own thrift-store Jackson Pollock painting, but the truck drivers in “Big Rig” do participate as accidental artists this documentary as part of the Webster Film Series . You could call it the ultimate road trip movie this Friday-Sunday October 19-21 @ 8 PM in the Winifred Moore Auditorium.
Whereas I could not give you a Film Geek post last week, this weekend is actually the Last Weekend for some of the film series we’ve been following. From near the onet of this blog we’ve been following these series, which will close for the season. Good thing SLIFF is coming up (more on that later).
This is also the last weekend for the Kompletely Keaton series in the Webster Film Series, which follows the films of master film director/actor Bust Keaton. Ironically for this master of silent story telling, this last weekend will go out with a bang, crash, and other associated sounds provided by a live folley artist. To say nothing of the live, authentically scored musical accompaniment, Kompleting an accurate re-Kreation of the original screenings of these Keaton films.
STL Community Arts & Media Project will run a few films of their own, including “Paris is Burning” next weekend. It opened it’s new film series last Thursday, but intends to take place at the CAMP building on Cherokee every other Thursday around 7:30 for the indefinite future.
Frontyard Features has ended in Septmeber. Cinemania @ Grand Center has also finished its run.
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