Show us your shorts
Jeanette Burman shows off her shorts, symbol of the film festival. / Photo: Ken BendiktsenWhen her communication and culture professor suggested she volunteer in a local film festival, Jeanette Burman took the idea a step further. She decided to coordinate her own and the result is Show Us Your Shorts, an international festival of short film running in Calgary March 26 – 28.
“It was like a light bulb went off for me when I realized there is a lot great [short] film being made out there and not necessarily a forum for the public to view it,” says Burman, a fourth-year film student. “It is exciting to see there is actually a market for this type of festival and a venue for artists with these types of films.”
The Show Us Your Shorts competition is the only one of its kind in Calgary. It is open internationally and accepts film shorts of any genre, from cell phone video to full animation, 10 seconds to forty minutes in length. Films are classified into categories— small, medium and large—like underpants.
Jeanette Burman (centre right) recruited four classmates, Beth Sawatzky, Emma Levine, Jessica Fralick and Immanuel Nwachukwu, to volunteer with her festival, Show Us Your Shorts—a class project for Film Studies 441. / Photo: Jenn Myers
Basing the structure of the event on a study of five international and national festivals, Burman has incorporated a jury selection process, awards, legal aspects, marketing, and a mandate to bring more arts and culture to audiences in Calgary. Festival participants will also have the chance to attend workshops presented by copyright authority Wendy Stephens, media artist and technician Joe Kelly and local animator Ann Koizumi.
A panel of film students turned festival volunteers will screen every submission and participate in selecting which films will be entered in the festival. The selection process involves analyzing the films for merit, suitability for the intended audience and films that will help build community and culture.
Film screenings will be at the Plaza Theatre, Saturday, March 28 at 4:30–7 p.m. For more information visit www.showusyourshorts.ca.
|
March 24, 2009