Robert Bouffard
Student Writer
Sixteen original films were screened in Parmer Cinema that was packed with excited friends, family and faculty on Sunday. Students from Department of Communication displayed their creativity and originality during the Splice Student Film Festival.
The full house could be pretty intimidating for some of the filmmakers.
“For me, it was pretty nerve-wracking,” senior film major Shaun Kam said. “I’ve never screened anything in front of a large group of people – even though it wasn’t a lot of people – but still, it was pretty nerve-wracking.”
Kam directed the first film of the night, along with Nicholas Chua, Natalie Moey and Andrew Weir. It was a stop motion animation film called Cubesz. This showed the diversity in genres that would be coming for the rest of the night.
Co-Chair of the communication department, Dr. Kate Simcox was happy to see this genre diversity. “I’m really proud and excited about how the quality has improved over the years and the amazing diversity of the films we saw tonight,” she said. “The different film genres we saw from documentary to fiction to experimental… there was even a music video tonight. So I’m just really excited and proud of our students’ accomplishments.”
The students in the department feel a sense of camaraderie at an event like this.
“It was a huge honor!” Sophomore film and English major Bill Friedell said of having his film, Interview 009 in the festival. “Many of us know each other, so we were all rooting, laughing and cheering for friends. It truly felt like our own film community coming together.”
The diversity was displayed in the serious and heartbreaking films, such as Nathan Simms’ In That Moment or Sarah Henry’s The Pains of Sleep. Morning Joe was a fun stop motion film by Zac Stephan about a coffee mug’s morning routine, and Radio Soul by Keara Kobzowicz and Indonesia by Austen and Cayce Bower were personal and reflective.
The filmmakers enjoyed being able to see the films that their peers put together. “I got to see other people’s work and compare it to my own even though they were all in different categories,” Kam said. “I learned a lot through this.”
This positive feeling extended well past the people who were involved in the making of these films. Other people came to enjoy films that their friends made or just films in general.
“I was very proud to see [the films],” junior English major Yosep Youn said. “It was my first attendance because I’m not a movie person. But knowing that some of my friends were directly part of it, either as a director, or cast or something else, it was very heartwarming.”
“This is such an important event for the department because it shows what amazing quality work our film students are doing,” Simcox said after seeing the films. “It’s an important way for them to showcase their work.”