Film festival editorial unjustified

The Dec. 12 issue of the Sun Star ran a very questionable editor's opinion on my short film submission for the fall UAF Film Festival.

The editor chose to give some strong opinions regarding a shower scene that involved one of my peers and a theater student whose breasts were briefly exposed. My primary purpose is to show her how sorry I am about including the scene without double-checking with her to make sure she would be okay with it being shown. I consider her a friend and a very good actress, and my intentions were to make the film a positive yet provocative experience for everyone involved.

The Theatre Department is a very tight knit group who normally enjoys pushing the boundaries, but never would anyone in our department or I want to mistakenly send the message that we would be insensitive to anyone while pursuing our art. I should have shown her the footage after it was edited and using a model release form would also have been the appropriate thing to do.

The editor's opinion also attacked the film festival and I believe that it was very unfair. The UAF Film Club works extremely hard to put on a great festival for our campus and did not have time to view every film. We actually considered shelving "Morbid Buried Secret" so that we could finish editing it, but because film submissions were low, we wanted to fill the festival out more. We were editing up to a few hours before the festival so it was by no means finished. Nevertheless, I consider Nate Raymond's article to be slanderous and one sided so I hope to set the record straight.

Raymond states, "Just from viewing that movie it should have been obvious the woman didn't give permission." This is a very serious and false accusation. The actress was very much aware that she was exposed during and after the scene. By chance, evidence of this was recorded in a conversation immediately after the scene. I can only imagine how it would have looked if the camera had not happened to record this conversation between the actress, myself and another actress.

Raymond could have learned this had he taken the trouble to contact me in hopes of seeing if there was any explanation to the controversy. Someone named Naomi did call me but did not identify herself as being from the Sun Star; if she had, I would have known to immediately call the Sun Star. [Ed.: Naomi Hagelund is layout editor at the Sun Star.]

This sort of journalism is highly questionable and does not bode well for students who wish to make a career in the field by being both newsworthy and defensible. Raymond also chose to offer further criticism of the film even though it was reviewed in the Sun Star the week prior. As a former reporter for the Sun Star I am very disappointed by this negative and fictitious form of journalism. We want our paper to be interesting but we also want it to respect all of the individuals involved as well as the field itself. An attack such as this one reminds us of the infamous rant by Raymond's predecessor regarding ASUAF. I doubt an apology is forthcoming, but we can all at least learn from our mistakes and prevent any future misunderstandings.

-Jonathan Williams, Student Directors