The Student Film Organization (SFO) will present the 2001 CAN Film Festival at 8 p.m. today in Schwab Auditorium.
The festival will include the highest ranked 150 minutes of film from the more than eight-and-a-half hours of student films submitted.
Judging for the festival took place Sunday. The 54 submitted films from four categories — narrative, documentary, animation and experimental — were judged by a panel of 28 student volunteers.
"It was exhausting," said Scott Bellows (sophomore-electrical engineering), who was one of the student judges who spent more than 10 hours in Carnegie Cinema on Sunday.
"We had a wide variety of judges with very different tastes, so I think that will make for a better festival," said Justin Alderfer, who was formerly the SFO president and CAN chairperson.
The following are the film titles and their respective filmmakers, which will be shown at CAN.
Sunset Road — Dave Ruby, Jason Spelkoman, Tom Salitsky, Brooke Daeche
Fallen Yellow Tears — Theresa Wu
Untitled Animation — David Leopold
Why Do We Dream About Tourists — Krystal Houghton, David Leopold, Matt Kadish, Brendon Whelan
This Is All True/I'm Okay — J. Robinson
Fate's Imagination — Elda Collier, A. Justin Alderfer, Nathan Rodgers, Phil Way
Belong — Jonathan R. Nelson
Eladio — Tommy Caamáno, Missy McIntosh, Michelle Mervos
Timmy Gets an "A" — Dave Ruby
American Flag (The Rocky IV Remix) — Theodore Fogelsanger
Fat Tony's Cancer — Anthony Miccio, Andrew Jones, Brian Ritchey, Brett McKenzie
Social Intercourse — Ryan Miller, Jeff Sheller, Jareth Costello
Paying for Lunch — Ryan Miller, Jim Westrick, Jareth Costello, Anna Steffen
Red Shift — Corey Peterson, Deb Krahulec, Greg Kerwin, Clifton Colman
Let it Snow — Michelle Mervos
Detour — Dave Archer, Doug Krech, Andy Kurilla
Live Transmission — Peter Nickischer, David Leopold, Anthony Layser, Randy Litzinger, Jay Blanchard, Michelle Mervos
Holli Sunderland (senior-film and video) will present the Faculty Excellence Award to Dorn Hetzel. Each year at CAN, SFO awards a faculty member who they feel has been a great influence to the film program.
"Dorn was here before there even was a College of Comm," said Ellie Collier, CAN chairperson. Hetzel has been a member of the faculty for more than twenty years.
For the student filmmakers featured tonight, CAN is just the beginning. Many of the films get used as calling cards, said Film and Video Professor and SFO's Faculty Advisor Kevin Hagopian.
"Students are encouraged to enter other festivals," Hagopian said, adding that many students use CAN as a training ground for their future careers.
Collier, whose nine-minute film, Fate's Imagination, is featured in CAN, has entered a few festivals specifically for women directors. Her film, mostly shot in Victorian bed and breakfasts in Bellefonte, tells the story of a man whose world merges with the world found in a book he is reading.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. festival.
Tickets for the festival are currently available at the Eisenhower box office and are $2 for students and $3 for general public. A maximum of two tickets may be purchased per valid student ID. Tickets will also be available at the door, while supplies last, for the same price, beginning at 7 p.m.
The SFO will also have After CAN at 8 p.m. tomorrow in 101 Thomas Building. After CAN is free, and will include the next 150 minutes of films that were not featured in the CAN Film Festival.
"We didn't get a chance to show everything in CAN," Collier said, "and there was a lot of quality student work submitted."
