A clip of English department chair Steven Krueger playing the game 2048 flashes across the screen. A frustrated Krueger attempts to deal with the incompetent leaders as he begs them to find a villain. But the leaders have a better idea—they’re going to lose the video. The 18th annual film fest brings changes this year as it juggles new leadership and ideas while still continuing to be the hilarious event that we know and love.
Film Fest started in 1998 as a suggestion of former student Phil Markunas ‘00. Markunas approached Krueger and brought to Krueger’s attention that the school didn’t have anything that showcased film. Krueger jumped at the idea, and Film Fest was born.
The first year of Film Fest consisted mostly of Markunas and his friends’ videos. Krueger said, “We had a small number of films originally. The quality was all over the map; some were very good and some were not quite as impressive.”
Markunas even convinced a film critic from The Orlando Sentinel to judge the first Film Fest. Krueger said the event started as a competition, but over time, it drifted away from the competition model and stopped giving awards.
“I just felt more comfortable with it being more of a celebration of art on campus. I thought [Trinity] was competitive enough in other areas,” he said.
Early on, the leaders of Film Fest also decided to have a charitable component to the event. To this day, all of the proceeds are donated to UCP (United Cerebral Palsy) in Orlando.
“We wanted to have a positive impact on the community, not just to showcase our talents as filmmakers but as something to give back to the community,” Krueger said.
The iconic “stolen Film Fest video” idea first started with student and head of Film Fest David Michaelson ‘04. Originally, a stuffed monkey stole it, but eventually the villain transformed into Mr. Milsten. As time went on, each new leadership attempted to outdo the previous year’s by creating even funnier and more unexpected villains. Last year’s Film Fest had one of the best twists to date, with the Park trio stealing the video and making the audience sit through a “Park trio concert.”
This year, the heads of Film Fest—seniors Eden Smalley, Lauren Nix and Sam Rizzo—decided to switch up the classic tradition of having someone who steals the video—this year, the leaders lost the video instead. Nix said that they wanted to continue with the tradition while adding a twist. However, they still included a villain—the new athletic director Steven Bluth.
Krueger likes the challenge that the main Film Fest video presents each new set of leaders.
“You’re trying to work within a tradition, but you have to think of a way to put a new spin on it,” he said. “It’s fun to see students every year debate what are the different ways we can be true to the tradition without being too derivative. We’ve never had anyone on purpose lose it.”
Film Fest has changed a lot in its 18 years. The number of films entered has tripled, and Krueger said the size of the audience has exploded over time. He said that most films come from Film Fest club members, but many come from outside the club.
He credits the increased involvement to the computer science department chair Ralph Mazza.
“A lot of people have either had a class with him, or he’s helped them edit or troubleshoot,” Krueger said. “Because of his interest in film and his technical skills, he’s been able to up the level of quality as far as editing on campus.”
Although the leadership, humor and style of the event change every year, this year sees more changes than most others with Nix and Smalley as the first female leaders. For all three leaders, however, making movies is more of a hobby, and they will not be majoring in film in college, whereas other heads have continued onto film school after graduation.
Nix also says that they have been more relaxed this year as leaders. They have encouraged the underclassmen to get involved with making the main Film Fest video, and they have also had the younger members of the Film Fest club lead club meetings.
“I hope that [the leaders next year] encourage the underclassmen to get involved in the club and include them in the intro,” Nix said. “I think this year we’ve done a good job with getting them involved in the production.”
She also said that she hopes next year’s heads understand that they don’t need to follow tradition and that it’s good to experiment with different film styles.
Some of the highlights of this year’s event included Nix’s video about “pottery master” Keith Van Allen and junior Joshua Kahky’s more serious film about a telemarketer.
Sophomore Ethan Kobrin made one of the best comedies this year, which is a short, mock movie trailer about Waldo from Where’s Waldo finding his true self after losing his job, and sophomore Brandon Israel used excellent visual cinematography in his flick about a photographer hired to catch a criminal.
This year’s Film Fest was a huge success, and Krueger looks forward to seeing more of its achievements in the years to come.
