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The festival begins with the presentation “Marina of the Zabbaleen,” at 8:30 p.m., April 15. The portrait of childhood and family is revealed through the eyes of a seven-year-old girl living in the never-seen-before Muqqattam garbage-recycling village in Cairo.
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The second annual SUNYWide Film Festival, which opens with the screening of a critically acclaimed foreign documentary film that ties in with SUNY Fredonia’s Earth Week observance, will present 19 student-produced films during its April 15-17 run.
A team of jurors, comprised of students, faculty, staff and members of the community, culled these 19 films, based on quality, story and technique, from a field of nearly 80 entries from students across the SUNY system. All screenings will be held at 101 Jewett Hall.
Four categories – animation, documentary, experimental and narrative – along with a showcase, or non-competitive category, for SUNY faculty and staff, comprise the Thursday-Saturday festival. With six films, animation contains the largest number of entries, followed by narration, five, and documentary and experimental, each with four. The non-competitive class contains two films.
“We’re very excited about the festival; there is a nice showcase of student work,” said Phil Hastings, adviser to the Media Arts Club, the festival organizer. “One of our goals was to have a little bit of everything for everybody; if one film is not your cup of tea, then wait and you’ll probably fall in love with the next film.”
SUNY Fredonia's sponsorship of the festival is made possible by a grant from the Carnahan Jackson Humanities Fund of the Fredonia College Foundation.
The festival begins with the presentation “Marina of the Zabbaleen,” at 8:30 p.m., which offers an impressionistic portrait of childhood and family, as revealed through the eyes of a seven-year-old girl living in the never-seen-before Muqqattam garbage recycling village in Cairo. The film also conveys the story of a Coptic Christian community of recyclers that utilizes an entrepreneurial system to achieve the world’s highest recycling rate, and how Egypt’s reaction to the Swine Flu devastated the foundation of that very successful recycling system.
Seven of the festival’s 19 films to be shown were produced by SUNY Fredonia students, while SUNY New Paltz students accounted for four. Also making the festival’s final cut were films by students from SUNY Oswego, SUNY Buffalo and SUNY Purchase.
“We’ve seen a good amount of interest from Fredonia students. I think they’re very excited to have something like the SWFF here at Fredonia. It’s great being able to give them something so unique to submit to that’s right here,” said Dallas Anne Green, Media Arts Club vice president.
The guest juror invited to evaluate this year’s crop of films is Tricia Regan, a New York City-based award winning director, producer and cinematographer of documentary film and television. Regan’s feature-length film, “Autism: The Musical,” which she directed, produced and filmed, won a Primetime Emmy for best documentary, among other awards, was premiered on HBO and also short-listed for an Academy Award nomination.
Regan’s film work has been theatrically distributed and broadcast on five continents and translated into six languages. Her first film, “A Leap of Faith,” narrated by Liam Neeson, had its 1996 premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Regan’s work includes directing, producing and shooting for ABC, Fox, NBC, MTV, VH1, A&E, Lifetime and TLC.
The holder of a master’s degree from NYU, Regan has been recognized in the industry with numerous honors, including two Cine Golden Awards, the Aurora Award, Strive Award, WIN Award and nearly a dozen film festival awards from around the world.
Regan, who will be introduced Friday at 6 p.m., will present “Autism: The Musical” and conclude the evening with a question/answer session. Student films, which range from one to 30 minutes in length, will be screened beginning at 8:30 p.m. The faculty showcase will be held Saturday, 1:30 p.m.
A new feature follows on Saturday at 3 p.m. with the showing of stop-motion films, which resemble Claymation movies, that were created by members of the Dunkirk Boys’ and Girls’ Club with assistance from Media Arts Club students. These children and their parents have been invited to see these films that feature clay models on the big screen.
Later on Saturday, the “Best of the Festival Awards” will be announced at 7 p.m., followed by encore presentations of these top films to wrap up the festival.
Members of SUNY Fredonia’s chapter of American Institute of Graphic Artists designed this year’s poster, which features a squid whose wandering tentacles – interspersed with film strips – reflect the festival’s outreach to the greater SUNY community, said Joe Lopez III, Media Arts Club president.
“The AIGA club on campus has given us a lot of help with designing our new poster for this year which looks amazing,” Greene added.
The festival is sponsored by the Media Arts Club, with support from the Department of Visual Arts & New Media and College of Arts and Humanities. There is no admission charge to the festival, but donations will be accepted to help defray expenses. Door prizes will be awarded.
