Student films play together

It is back. It is here. It is now. It is "happening." It is - the annual student film fest. And it's here to stay.

April 23 and May 1, OFS and IFS are joining forces in an effort to resuscitate a fading tradition: the screening of student films en masse. There will be two full evenings of free viewing pleasure, with a wide variety of films to ensure your entertainment.

Since the decline of FRAME, a student film producers' organization two years ago, there has been a tremendous lack of visibility for student films, with a few exceptions. Among the most widely known of these independent efforts were Andy Sappora's Life is Like a Garbage Truck, or Oberlin: The Movie, two years ago, and the Security film shown as a study break on Mudd wall last year during finals. Yet this is the first time in three years that there has been an organizationally sponsored event which provides a space for the work of many students.

The feature presentation on April 23, as printed in your Film Series calendar, is IFS Liaison and Conservatory senior Evan Rapport's Voland. When asked about his experience as an actor in the film, college senior Daniel Burt said, "I got to wear a horn on my head for, like, a minute." The other 49 minutes of the film are certain to be just as stimulating.

Speaking of "stimulating," this year's film fest will also include an Oberlin first, just one more to add to the list of many for which this fine establishment is so famous. An independent project, "A Kiss After Dying," is a necrophilia porn flick conceived by Joy Smith and produced with a camcorder by Sarah Meckler, Dara R. and Dave Schwan. Though, like several other of the films being presented, it is a work in progress, the film hopes to include scenes in Mudd, on the track, of lesbian and straight sex, masturbation, rape and other forms of violence, like necrophilia. When asked her reasons for making a pornographic film, Meckler said that in our society, "I think that sex and `deviant' sex isn't talked about enough," and that "not everyone gets off on touchy, feely sex," as glamorized in mainstream Hollywood films and on television. Clearly, the presentation on May 1 will not be fun for the entire family, and viewer discretion is advised. Yet Meckler does maintain that her film "is not seriously erotic; it's just basically a comedy."

Other films of interest which will debut in the Festival include: college sophomore Ben Zelkowicz's fully animated version of the Poe classic, "The Tell-tale Heart;" Double-degree senior Alex Jones' 25-minute video "Exasperate;" two films by college junior Ed Helms, one of which is on 16mm film and will be shown on a projector; Double-degree junior James Wolcott and college junior Ric Lin's 15-minute video entitled "A Short Film;" a project by Claudia von Vacano about queer women of color; and possibly several others.

Advertisements will be posted around campus soon listing the films that will be shown on each date. The extravaganza begins at 8 p.m. both evenings in Kettering, and is free. So forget about buying into the capitalist establishment and renting a Hollywood overproduction. Revolt by actually supporting the creative efforts of your fellow students. Or, if you're a conformist, remember: "Low budget is cool."