Come April, the University of Oregon will be hosting Cinema Pacific, an annual film festival and University-wide collaboration of film screenings, multimedia, art and culture.
The festival, which is in its fifth year, takes place April 23-27. Every year, the festival focuses on a Pacific-bordering country or two. Past focuses have been on Japan, China and Korea. This year’s screenings will focus on Taiwan and Chile.
A unique aspect of the festival is that, except for two UO staff members, undergraduate and graduate interns organize and run the entire festival, offering a chance for both Cinema Studies and Arts & Administration students to learn the ropes of the film festival world.
“My favorite part of the festival is working with student interns and providing mentorship to them as they step into the festival world and see what it’s like. Most of them haven’t had experience with festivals before so it’s fun,” Cinema Pacific Operations Director Larissa Ennis said.
“I didn’t know if a teaching festival could really work and now we’re going into our fifth year and it seems that it has,” said Richard Herskowitz, a long-term film fest professional who is also an Arts & Administration and Cinema Studies instructor as well as the festival’s director.
The festival also features three events. Cinema Pacific, The Adrenaline Project and the Fringe Project.
The Adrenaline Film festival is an intensive workshop where students have only 72 hours to produce their own short films, culminating in a screening at the end of the festival. The winning films receive the Kalb Jury Award and a Viewers Award is given as well.
Because Adrenaline is such an intense project, students have the option of taking it as an Academic Extension course, which falls under AAD 410 for up to three credits.
“[Adrenaline is] our centerpiece and it’s absolutely fundamental to what a film festival should do, especially a regional festival. It should really be quality filmmaking in it’s own backyard,” Herskowitz said.
The other sub-festival that takes place as part of Cinema Pacific is the Fringe Festival. The Fringe Festival is the more experimental and avant-garde part of the festival, next to Red Bull-infused adrenaline.
The Fringe Festival is a film remix competition. Every year, students submit two to five minute films with sound and images remixed from a classic film. This year’s pick is Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan. Fringe is accepting submissions until March 14. The best films will be screened and the top three will receive cash awards. Fringe opens the festival Friday night with a multimedia party, featuring live performances, food and projections of the winning films.
“Not a lot of people just sit down and remix a film. Adrenaline is like the governor’s ball and the Fringe Project is kind of like a hip-hop concert, we’re sampling something from a country, so it’s very different,” said Keith Hoskins, a senior Cinema Studies major who is Fringe’s undergraduate assistant coordinator.
Cinema Pacific officially announces the details of the program’s lineup on April 2 at 10 a.m. at UO’s Downtown Baker Center (975 High Street). @@http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu/@@