This year's Ivy Film Festival promises to showcase some of the most impressive and diverse student films seen since the festival's inception, according to the festival's publicity coordinator, Victoria Hoen '06. The festival will be held at Brown from April 5-9.
Thirty-six student films on subjects ranging from a soldier's struggle upon returning home from the horrors of Iraq, to a man imprisoned within multiple layers of photographic illusion to premature midlife crises will be screened at various locations on or near campus. These films were culled from a total of 150 submissions.
"This is the strongest submission pool we've ever had," Hoen said. She added that the publicity coordinators made an extra effort this year to spread the word about the festival and to reach out to a large number of schools.
Fellow publicity coordinator Nicholas Axelrod '06 echoed Hoen, saying narrowing down the "amazing" applicant pool was a lengthy process. He said the festival coordinators have tried hard to break the stereotype of the festival as being limited to Ivy League schools now that "we've gone national and international." The publicity coordinators were also in charge of ensuring local and national media are aware of the event.
This year's festival will also be screening seven soon-to-be released feature films, beginning Wednesday with the film "Iraq in Fragments," which won three awards at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film, directed by James Longley, attempts to create a picture of a country divided along religious and ethnic lines by looking in turn at the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
The festival will close Saturday, April 8 with a screening of "Half Nelson," directed by Ryan Fleck, which was an official selection at this year's Sundance. The film examines the friendship between an inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit and one of his students. Both screenings also include question-and-answer sessions with the films' creators.
Other feature films being premiered include Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta's "Water," a controversial drama set in colonial India. The film examines the plight of a group of destitute widows at a temple in the holy city of Varanasi. Another highlight includes the 2006 Sundance selection "Black Gold," a documentary about the desperate conditions of people, some of whom are near starvation, in regions that produce the world's finest coffee beans. The hit British film "Kinky Boots," a comedy about a cheeky, cabaret-singing transvestite named Lola and a shoe-factory owner named Charlie who strike up an unlikely friendship to save Charlie's ailing family business from financial ruin, will also be screened.
Daniel Brown '06, the festival's executive director, attended this year's Sundance Film Festival and spoke to directors, expressing interest in bringing their films to campus. As a result, this year's program includes the largest number of Sundance award-winning movies ever shown at the Ivy Film Festival.
This year's celebrity speaker is Michael Showalter '92. Showalter got his start in show business by writing and performing on MTV's mid-1990s sketch comedy show "The State." In 2001 Showalter co-wrote and starred in the cult classic "Wet Hot American Summer," an inspired send-up of 1980s teen comedies. Showalter is also one-third of the comedy trio "Stella," which airs on Comedy Central, and he wrote, directed and starred in "The Baxter," a romantic comedy released last summer.
The festival strives to facilitate interaction between aspiring student filmmakers and industry professionals, and with this end in mind, festival coordinators have arranged a series of panels and workshops throughout the five-day long festival, where industry insiders will share their advice and experience. Panel titles this year include "Doing Business in Hollywood" and "Breaking In: An Alumni Panel," in which Showalter will be participating.
Showalter is also slated to judge the student films, along with director of "Black Gold" Marc Francis, director of "Children of Chabannes" Lisa Gossels and other industry professionals.
