Film Festival Spurs Creativity
By Katherine Chow
The Genesis Film Festival is taking a new angle this year as student films revolve around the human condition and social justice. A jury of faculty members as well as outside professionals judge these films based on creativity.
The festival will kick off on June 14 at 7 p.m., debuting work of students in the communication department. The festival will be held in the Recital Hall on campus.
The Genesis Film Festival is a production by the Montage Film Club, started in February of 2010 by professor Jonathan Fung.
It remained mainly underground for a year before it became an official Associated Student Government club, now known as the Genesis Film Festival.
Fifteen student-produced films are selected each year to be screened at the festival. They are chosen from a variety of film production courses, ranging from capstone projects to courses in studio production.
An open category of film is chosen by the production faculty as well. The films are filtered by the production faculty, consisting of Fung, professor Michael Whalen and professor Yahia Mahamdhi, as well as an outside jury.
"The outside jury is different every year," Fund said. "Last year I brought in professional screenwriters, a filmmaker from Pixar, a programmer from Cinequest, and the curator of the de Saisset Museum on campus."
The festival also allows students the chance at prizes, which are sponsored by a variety of companies, from companies like Kodak, Avid Technology Inc. and VMI.
The process of creating the festival starts in the winter quarter of every year. The ASG has generously donated money to help fund the festival through holding fundraisers.
The communication department also has contributed to making the festival a reality every year. Senior communication major, Vanessa Delgado, said, "I'm one of the montage student leaders."
About five student leaders coordinate the festival. Delgado's main tasks are composed of creating the flyer, the program and the logo design. "We're all coordinating the event, trying to make it nice. For all the people that make the films, it's a big deal for them."
Fung hopes to inspire people within the community to work together to bring about more artistic events, like the Genesis Film Festival. He describes the movement behind the event as the "beginning of creativity and global awareness and perspective that continues to grow and transform students."
He also described the name 'Genesis' within the film community at Santa Clara as having, "planted a seed within filmmakers and in the university."
Contact Katherine Chow at Klchow@scu.edu or (408) 554-4849.