Student filmmakers are showing their work at the Fourth AnnualUniversity of Memphis Student Film and Video Festival.
U of M students and alumni will screen their films duringFOCUSFest Wednesday, April 21, at Muvico Peabody Place 22.
In its fourth year, the festival received more than 30 entries,said Barbara Cook, FOCUSFest director and assistant communicationprofessor at The U of M.
"We had to omit some of the submissions," she said, "but we havea remarkable collection of work this year."
Although the entry deadline has passed, Cook encourages all U ofM students, regardless of their major, to enter their work nextyear.
"This is meant to showcase films of all University students,"she said. "This year, we have a piece featuring a dance student. Wewant to reach out and encompass the works of all students."
Graduate student Sarah Fleming is co-writer and co-director ofDas Corpse, a film playing at FOCUSFest.
"There's a lot of effort put into the graduate work that's apart of this festival," Fleming said. (Das Corpse) represents sixmonths of work condensed into 13-and-a-half minutes."
The film is a dark comedy presented in a light-hearted manner,she said.
The festival, which is noncompetitive, offers an opportunity forstudents to view their work outside of classroom screenings.
"Feedback in the classroom is limited," Cook said. "Studentfilmmakers need to watch their work with a larger, nonbiasedaudience. That way they can see direct reactions from people in thetheater."
Listening to audience reactions is an invaluable experience fora filmmaker, she said.
U of M graduate and film director Brad Ellis agrees.
"The filmmaking process isn't complete until you sit down withan audience," he said. "It can be rewarding or very frustrating,but it defines who you are or what you will become as afilmmaker."
This is the first year FOCUSFest will be showing alumnifilms.
Ellis will be showing his film Hustled 2 at the festivalWednesday.
Hustled 2 is a full-length feature shot in Memphis and onlocation at The U of M.
"It's about a couple of pool hustlers going to Vegas for the bigscore," said Ellis, the film's director. "Their vengefulex-girlfriends, who they didn't pick up for prom, are trying tostop them."
It's kind of a live-action cartoon with absurd situationalhumor, he said.
Ellis and U of M part-time communication instructor JosephWatson's The Path of Fear won the Best Narrative Feature HometownerAward at the 2002 Memphis Indie Film Festival.
The event is designed to screen a variety of work from all skilllevels, Cook said.
"We've got some of the best films from our graduate students andworks representing beginning filmmakers," she said.
Eric Yang's The First Generation will be shown at this year'sfestival.
"This is an extraordinary film," said Cook. "It looks at howChinese nationals are finding themselves in the United States."
The quality and polish of these students' work is amazing, saidCook.
FOCUSFest begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Hustled 2 will show at9:30 p.m. Admission is free. There is a post-festival party at DanMcGuinness in Peabody Place.
