Film festivals introduce new names to the public. Sundance, Cannes, Toronto ‘mdash; all provided launch pads for careers that now command the world’s film industry.
The Loft, likewise, was the perfect place to spotlight shorts from nine emerging UCSD filmmakers, labeled ‘promising’ by a panel of local critics and faculty members. The panel debated the perks and shortcomings of each fledgling feature, judging the films and leading a Q’amp;A.
The films ranged from Hallmark-card sweeteners (‘Childlike’) to eyelid-scraping thrillers (‘Nightmare People’), from documentary (‘Robert Koch is 90’) to mockumentary (‘That One Student Film’) and from animation (‘Sais Black’) to stop-motion (‘Verge of Madness’). But the films had one thing in common: They all focused primarily, as panel member and ArtPower! film curator Rebecca Web observed, on ‘the effect of society, and man’s relationship to it.’
After the final showing, the panel awarded each work on the merits of editing, screenwriting, sound design, cinematography, set design, art direction, directing and acting. The audience voted for Best Picture, coming to an even split between James Song’s ‘Nightmare People’ and Royce Choi’s ‘Juiced.’
Silent horror film ‘Nightmare People’ retains a biting wit despite its creepy premise, exploring the surreal creatures behind Fuseli’s 18th century painting, ‘The Nightmare’ ‘mdash; mad scientists, demons and everything else that goes bump in the night.
‘The film was a mixture of three components: film history, art history and my dreams,’ Song said. Winning awards for art direction and audio editing along with the coveted Best Picture title, ‘People”s nuanced imagery evokes the glamour and drama of Hollywood’s golden age.
‘Juiced’ ‘mdash; Choi’s color-soaked investigation of natural energy ‘mdash; shared the Best Picture slot. Set to the commercial-length, effortless bounce of Feist’s ‘One Two Three Four,’ the narrator inserts carrots into remote controls, plugs vacuums into pineapples and ultimately runs a laptop on watermelon power.
Winning Best Script and Art Direction, Edward Kim’s ‘That One Student Film’ is an ‘Office’-inspired, autobiographical comedy, following an egomaniac filmmaker protagonist as he encounters cringingly awkward people and places.
‘How did you get [your actors] to do what you wanted them to do?’ one awe-struck member of the panel asked, after the screening.
‘Hold them at gunpoint,’ Kim replied.
A squirtgun-wielding, fuzzy dressed Artichoke Collective also performed an impromptu play and provided the festival’s opening soundtrack. Stitched with creativity and silliness, the festival gave nine undergraduates their first flash of the limelight.