“Last year I had a film shown in the festival and I had a great time at all of the presentations,” Baum said. “So I decided to take on a more active role this year.”
Missouri Western State University senior Sara Baum is a convergent media major heavily involved in this year’s film festival. Her more active role this year will be to give a student presentation on famous film maker Kathryn Bigelow. Bigelow recently won picture of the year for her latest film “Hurt Locker”.
Baum’s presentation will be a short 10 minute introduction. “It will discuss how she came to be a director and just an overview of her life as a filmmaker” said Baum. Her presentation is going to be followed by Bigelow’s early 1987 film “Near Dark”.
Besides the Kathryn Bigelow presentation Baum is also involved in other aspects of the film festival. “I am helping organize little things and ushering the presentations” Baum said.
Baum is a lover of all types of films that is another reason she is volunteering to do this presentation. She couldn’t point out her favorite film. “Oh goodness, I honestly don't know if I could choose,” Baum said. “I love so many different films for different reasons, whether it's the story, the cinematography or even the editing. I just genuinely love it.”
Baum is not the only student planning presentations for this year’s film festival. Other directors being showcased are Michael Moore and his 1989 film “Rodger and Me”, Robert Rodriguez’s 1993 film “El Mariachi” and David Lynch’s 1976 film “Eraserhead”. The final student director presentation is still to be announced.
Kelly Wittenberg an assistant professor for Communication Studies and Theatre is in charge of the film festival. “The film festival is an opportunity for the students and the community to view films from around the world” Wittenberg said.
Wittenberg explained how she used an online website called Withoutabox which is a division of IMDb. Here they advertise the festival and seek submissions from film directors all over the world. This website even allows the film festival holder to request certain types of films or subtitles in a variety of languages.
This year’s film festival received 88 entries from all across the globe. These films are then judged by Wittenberg and a group of students. “We pick from numerous entries to figure out the gems” Wittenberg said. There are nine students and Wittenberg involved in selecting the films and figuring out which ones will be showcased during the week of the festival.
“It’s a nice thing for students to come to and see some free films and it will be educational” Wittenberg said.
Prior festivals have featured guest speakers that were invited to talk about films and their experiences in the industry. But this year the festival wanted to focus more on famous film makers, their history and early films. This year's theme is "No Excuses: The Early Films of Famous Filmmakers."
The film festival has been getting quite the excitement from students on campus and members of the community.
David Church is a Saint Joseph resident that is planning on attending a few of the showings this year. “Last year I really enjoyed the films, me and my wife would like to make it to all of the films if time permits” Church said.
Shana Stout is an art major who has many friends in the theater department. “I much rather see my fellow students give presentations on directors they really have a passion for, than to hear some scripted Hollywood speech from a famous director,” Stout said.
Destiny Owen is a MWSU student that is very excited about getting the chance to watch some of the films. “I am really looking forward to this year’s film festival,” Owen said. “I missed last year because of an illness in the family.”
“Working on the film festival is an experience I will always remember,” said Baum “Films are great ways to spend time and relax your mind.”
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