The 2006 UAF Spring Film Festival most likely began last Friday with a sigh of relief. Everyone's hard work had finally paid off; the final step was to present the films.
As last minute changes were made in the projector room of the Salisbury Theatre, the audience was put to its wits end waiting for the show to start. "The Film Festival Reloaded" was the title of this year's film fest. Matrix-esque shorts by Film Club members were weaved throughout.
Before it began, Marta Mueller, UAF alumni, expressed her hopes for the film festival. "I expect to see a wide variety of genres," Mueller said, "A couple parodies, action, sentimental, and a lot of creativity."
"I want to see lots of sex and violence," said UAF senior and biology major Lysandra Hutton. Katie Adlam, first-time film fest judge, exposed her iron-fisted expectations of the film fest. "It has to grab my attention quickly with a basic plot, hopefully with a surprise ending."
A trailer for Starship X-13, a campy sci-fi thriller, featured the incompetent Captain Douglas Lazarus Horatio Lothar Mark of the Starship X-13 Energize (the longest name in film history) as the film's protagonist. Thankfully, X-13 was shown in three separate episodes throughout the film festival; a full half-hour dose of X-13 would have proven fatal for audience members with short attention spans. Plaid-clad Nazis stumbling through the thick underbrush of Alaska temperate forests, an epic light saber battle, and a guest appearance of Indiana Jones earned the film a place in many a heart.
The winner of best cinematography, I Once Was Lost, portrayed a hiker and his encounters with Mother Nature. His adventure ends with his refuge within an outhouse. With classical music as the score and graceful camera movements, this film had its artistic merits.
Spook Chasers was the winner of both audience choice and best acting group awards. It poked fun at those who make a career out of investigating the paranormal, and under the guise of a serious documentary, followed the activities of the P.A.P.S. team. The team consisted of three verifiable dimwits and their severely Christian female associate. Filled with subtle humor and downright nasty gags, Spook Chasers bagged the most laughs.
Another audience favorite was Sandwich, the winner of the Wooden Oscar, submitted by Chad Meyer. Sandwich is a multi-chapter story of one man's tragedy in the making of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It began and ended with a shot of the jelly-splattered floor, panning up to him cradling his inedible mush.
Unfortunately, this year's only stop-motion film, Socks, was not on the audience choice ballots. Instead, Socks was honorably mentioned as the judges' favorite.
Another appeal of the films fest are the music videos. The Janet Jackson music video was put together carefully, as the dancers in their shadows and silhouettes went right along with the music. Another music video, done to "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Lauryn Hill, was a dialogue-free film that, in a way, went right along with the song. There is no award for best music video, however. Maybe next fall's film fest will include one.
After the show, Paul Gentemann, film fest impresario, compared this year's festival to past shows.
"It started out bad, but it ended up being quite successful. We had to prepare a lot at the last minute. We had one submission 10 minutes before the film festival started, so we were scrambling to fit it in there. This year it was a lot easier because we put all of the movies on one computer, rather than making one tape of all the submissions."
"This year, we were upstairs in the projector room rather than being set up in the Salisbury theatre seats. The outdated stereo system was suffice for the film fest, but a full Dolby system would have been highly beneficial."
For those who missed the festival, submissions will be on the film club's website by June. As for the upcoming fall film fest, Gentemann will be running the show again. He eagerly awaits your submissions (due by Dec. 5). Your UAF stardom is one film club submission away.
