First screening features alumni filmmakers as SUNY Film Festival opens

Screenings of more than a dozen student-produced films, together with presentations by award-winning filmmaker Kevin Everson, the premiere of a feature by two SUNY Fredonia alumni, and showings of films made by faculty from SUNY campuses, will be featured at the inaugural SUNYWide Film Festival.

The three-day event, to be staged at SUNY Fredonia at 101 Jewett Hall, opens Thursday, April 2, 8 p.m., with “Drawing with Chalk,” the debut of SUNY Fredonia Theatre graduates Todd Giglio and Christopher Springer. A question-and-answer session follows presentation of their film.

On Friday, April 3, beginning at 6 p.m., guest juror Everson, who teaches student filmmakers at the University of Virginia and has won multiple awards, will show several of his own films and then host a discussion.

The student showcase, with 13 short films made by students from across the SUNY system, opens at 8:30 p.m., also on Friday. Four SUNY Fredonia students will be among those presenting films. They are: Heather Personett, “The Starfish,” the story about efforts to save starfish that have been stranded along a beach; Bryan Darrow, “05.12.2020,” which explores the discovery of a government conspiracy; Shinji Matsuyama, “Back Beat,” which demonstrates how a back beat has never sounded so painful; and Kaydee Weeks, "Creating a Circle," a documentary about creating a cancer support group for young women.

Students from Dutchess Community College, SUNY Oswego, Niagara County Community College, SUNY New Platz and SUNY Purchase have also entered films. Run times of all student films range from one to 22 minutes.

Films by three faculty members from SUNY campuses will be featured in the faculty showcase. They are:

• “A Horse Connection,” a 40-minute documentary that concentrates on an organization that provides equine-assisted therapy to persons with special needs, by Gregory Bray, who teaches in the Communications and Media Department at SUNY New Platz and is a doctoral candidate.

• “Alice Sees the Light,” a seven-minute experimental documentary that delivers an artful elegy to New York’s missing constellations, by Ariana Gerstein, of SUNY Binghamton.
   
• “The Oldest Mother on the Block,” a 60-minute film that conveys the stories of three older women who struggle to achieve pregnancy, cope with the unique problems associated with being older mothers and ultimately redefine the image of motherhood, by Virginia Orzel, of SUNY Brockport.

SUNY Fredonia’s student-run Media Arts Club is sponsoring the festival to showcase the best student works in film and video.