May 2003 Columbia Film Festival Retrospective

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by Godfrey Powell Columbia Film Festival Retrospective The Columbia University Film Festival is an annual event that runs from April 28 through May 9. The Film Festival features the work of students from the School of the Arts' (SOA) Film Division and has earned a reputation as a place to spot emerging talent. Many Hollywood notables have graduated from the esteemed division such as Tom Rothman (current head of Fox Studios) and director Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon). As Bruce W. Ferguson, dean of the School of the Arts notes, "The 16th annual Columbia University Film Festival offers a glimpse of the diverse work of talented, young filmmakers who are on the brink of major careers. More than half of the films focus on persons of color, putting the Festival on the cutting edge of independent and breakover films. These are not the filmmakers of tomorrow. These are the filmmakers of today." The festival screened a wide range of film and video selections created by the students encompassing visions from around the world. There are 40 selections including those filmed in Italy, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Brazil, New York. Films from the 2002 Columbia Festival went on to screen at prestigious international festivals, including: Berlin, Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand, Palm Springs, Sao Paulo, Sundance, Telluride and Tribeca. The majority of the screenings occurred at the 34th Street Loews (between 8th and 9th Avenues) and included the following samplings: A poignant personal account of the Tiananmen Square uprising ("Personal Rain"); A look at middle class life and family relationships in Nigeria ("Something Else"), Analyzation of 1970s Brazil, when the country was under a dictatorship ("Baseado Em Estorias Reais/Based on a True Story"). A depiction of a young couple from Mexico struggling to find work and survive in New York ("Alma"); The story of two lone visitors to New York, one from Beijing and other from Belgrade, who share a brief moment of tenderness (Pilgrims), The discussion of gentrification in New York neighborhoods, particularly Williamsburg, as depicted in "Fancy Girl" and "Corporate Dawgz", The events of September 11 and their individual reactions ("Life Document 2: Identity."), I attended the Monday night screenings of the Faculty Selects program, featuring films selected by the Film Division faculty as the best of the 2003 Festival. Fine Line Features/New Line Cinema are sponsors of the festival and served as the judging panel to bestow a group of prestigious awards on the student finalists. Amongst the most impressive student films were Dennis Lee’s Jesus Henry Christ, Jessica Weigmann’s Gardening Tips for Housewives, Marianne Demarco's Goose Down and Randall Dottin’s A-Alike. Jesus Henry Christ tells the story of a young boy (Henry) who is ostracized for his radical beliefs in a strict Catholic school. Henry is the smartest boy in the class who knows the answers to all the questions and periodically lectures the class on “one of the smartest men in history, my hero Marx.” For his outrageousness, he is sent to the schoolmaster, a hypocritical priest who is feared throughout the school. Dennis Lee wrote and directed this intelligent political 17 minute short (for which he justly received an award). His restrictive and sterile camera use seems to echo his film’s message of religion as an intolerant and potentially suppressive factor in life. The coolness of his style and the film’s morality tale had similar veins to an excellent feature film, Election. Jessica Weigmann’s Gardening Tips for Housewives has to be the most comically perfect short of the festival. Shot on a grainy Super 16mm (similar look to The Blair Witch Project), this 16 minute film follows an older middle aged couple’s paranoia when a homeless man is discovered living in their backyard. Ms. Weigmann’s script and the couple’s (Jack Davidson, Rosemary McNamara) perfect familial rapport execute a series of hilarious setups based on the couple’s paranoia. Above the laughter however, Gardening Tips for Housewives’ message of the increasing fear between the haves and haves not steadily rings through. What would you do if a strange man sat in the woods of your backyard? Would you extend your hand of humanity or put up your wall of classism? Goose Down tells the tale of a young black couple with a 7 year old boy preparing for Christmas morning. In an effort to “toughen the boy up” the father urges the boy to assist him in killing and plucking a live goose for dinner. Marianne DeMarco’s film refreshes the viewer. From the casting of a positive all black family in a universal comedy to the Christmas time setting as an opportunity for father and son to bond to a goose’s quick pulse wreaking havoc on Christmas presents. Goose Down is lovely and aptly won awards for best titles and funniest film. Randall Dottin’s A-Alike confronts a rarely discussed in-depth issue of black society: Keepin’ it Real. What is Keepin’ It Real? Is it a brother hangin’ with him homies and following them into the destructive lifestyles of drugs and jail? Is a brother that seeks to climb the corporate ladder and in the process conforms to perceived society demands not real enough? Randall Dottin wrote and directed a script telling of a brother just released from parole and his suit and tie wearing brother picking him up. There is an obvious resentment between the two on the drive home as each feels that the other has “sold out.” The film’s best aspect is Mr. Dottin’s use of simmering hurt feelings that continuously erupt in emotional outbursts between the two men. Mr. Dottin does this through quick cuts recreating the jerking tide of emotions between the two. His guidance of the two brothers and their ultimate reconciliation placed against the backdrop against a common obstacle of black men succinctly sums up that blood is indeed the tie that binds. Mr. Dottin’s film does address Keepin’ It Real and refreshingly makes an argument demonstrating the best of both points of view. A-Alike is twenty three minutes and is one of five finalists for the HBO Short Film Competition at the American Black Film Festival. The Columbia Student Film Festival is sponsored by @radical.media, The Bridges/Larson Foundation, Comedy Central, Eastman Kodak, Guoxi Fu, Hallmark Entertainment, HBO Films, IMAX Corporation, Kim's Video, Lifetime Entertainment Services, Eleanor and Eugene Litwak and Family, Loews Cineplex Entertainment, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Microsoft Corp., National Board of Review, New Line Cinema, Pacific Design Center, Screen Actors Guild/SAG Indie, Tribeca Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox.