The annual student-run Diamond Screen Film Festival doesn’t kicks off until May, but this year’s planners are presenting a pre-festival screening on March 18. During the pre-festival screening, audiences are treated to highlights from the 2003 festival.
“We had so much great work that we screened last year that we felt that it deserved a second screening,” said faculty advisor Cynthia Baughman. “We have new students, including freshmen and transfer students, who weren’t able to see last year’s festival screenings, so we like to give them a second chance to see the work as well as get everyone excited for the upcoming festival in May.”
The March 18 pre-screening festival will showcase a wide range of undergraduate and graduate student films. Pant Leg Right, a Derek Freese Award finalist from recent graduates Rodney Woolsey and Michael Del Polito, follows the humorous story of a man having a nervous breakdown.
From director Amy Olk comes the very personal, very well-made Jack’s Garden, a combination of both humorous and touching thematic elements. The movie even includes home movie footage of the director’s father.
Graduate student Mark Scalese takes a look at the choice of celibacy made by a priest in a humorous film titled The Deal of Your Life. Karen Carpenter, another graduate student, will also showcase her film, Twenty Questions. Her experimental film about a young girl has been entered in a few festivals since its screening last year.
In addition to feature films, the pre-festival screening will premiere different trailers for student film pieces set to debut at the Diamond Screen Film Festival in May. The trailer for the new, re-edited version of last year’s festival hit Divine Lorraine will be among them. Jeff Elstone’s documentary about the Divine Lorraine hotel began as a senior project, but has transformed into a highly-publicized effort that will premiere in the upcoming Philadelphia Film Festival in April.
“We will be kicking off our PR blitz at this year’s festival,” Baughman said. “We will be setting out press releases with a trailer of this year’s festival on DVD as well as posters of the festival entries.”
Baughman herself has been a part of the Diamond Screen Film Festival for three years. She occupies the role of faculty advisor, but for the most part, the festival is in the hands of a student director and the festival planning committee. This year’s festival is the result of planning from co-director Wes Bernstein and committee members Kevin Nolty and Caitlin Andrea, who focus on publicity and organizational details.
“It takes a great deal of dedication to plan the festival, and I think the committee has done a fantastic job this year,” Baughman said. “The bar is set very high for the Diamond Screen Film Festival.”
For more information on how to offer help or enter a film into the 2004 Diamond Screen Film Festival, e-mail Cynthia Baughman at Cynthia.Baughman@temple.edu or visit the Film and Media Arts office in Annenberg Hall and pick up an application.
The pre-festival screening will take place March 18 in Joe First Media Center inside the new Atrium in Annenberg Hall.
Marta Rusek can be reached at mrusek@temple.edu
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