Film students prove that their art matters

In spite of some initial technical difficulties, Saturday night’s An evening of film at the DeSeve Theatre highlighted some original and thought-proving works made by Concordia film students.
The event, sponsored as part of the Art matters festival, showcased films by Stefan Verna, Freya Mackenzie, Laura Dudek, and Karl Raudsepp-Hearne. It was eclectic in nature, as the six films presented varied greatly in tone, style, mood, subject matter, and technical effects.
The evening of cinematic achievement began with Freya Mackenzie’s Small Beauties, which had a retro feel reminiscent of experimental films pioneered by the NFB during the 60’s. The film was a semi-psychedelic exploration into the form and movement of everyday objects captured on film in an abstract visual light.
In her film, Mackenzie interweaves, contrasts, and blends different textures and objects together, setting them in movement and juxtaposing those that are man made with those that are found in the natural world. She does this in order to capture “the charm of certain phenomena of the mundane world.”
The second film, Stefan Verna’s Beat It, was one of two short films shown in place of Breath and Booty, his latest film project that couldn’t be shown due to technical difficulties. Shot with a High 8 video camera as a mandatory project for one of his classes, the film is an exploration of the body through dance.
In this film, Verna makes use of techniques such as overexposure, out of focus shots, and image overlaps to accentuate the twists and turns of the dancers as they move to the music of Michael Jackson’s Beat It.
On the Corner, the second film shown by Verna that night, was also a side-project for a film class. It too featured break-dancing. However, this film was an exploration of dance in a public place, and the reaction of viewers to the art. During this film Stefan dances in the middle of St. Laurent Boulevard, while cars whiz by him and pedestrians react to his presence.
While the film starts off rather slowly with the lone Stefan break-dancing like a star as he crosses the street, it soon picks up momentum and tension as beautiful close-up shots and skillful editing combine to dramatize Stefan’s interaction with the motorists and pedestrians in his external environment.
Laura Dudek’s The Spin Cycle, was evocative of the experimental mood and style. In this short film, Dudek uses split-screen technology to guide the narrative by showing the tensions between the mundane reality of the principle character and her yearned reality.
The two screens, which run parallel to one another in contrasting colours of intensely sickening shades of red and blue, do much to heighten the drama of a young women’s journey to the laundromat, which is also an exploration into her own loneliness.
The next film, Karl Raudsepp-Hearne’s Lonania, was a delightful confrontation with a young man’s prepubescent venture into his own sexuality. The film, both dramatic and humorous, made little use of spoken narrative. Instead, most of the story was told through beautifully captured images and the gestures of its actors. An excellent choice and use of music in this film served to create a sense of rhythm and balance that carried the plot forward with natural grace. Also, the fine acting skills of the two main characters helped make the film non-pretentious and believable.
The last film, Stefan Verna’s Chocolate City, was the longest of the evening, running at approximately 20 minutes. However, due to the tight script, interesting subject matter, excellent acting, beautiful music, and outstanding cinematography, it captivated the viewer’s interest and seemed to whiz by in no time flat.
The plot revolves around the protagonist, a moody but likeable composer who is down on his luck because he is such a terrible musician. Throughout the course of the film, we are led to follow scene after scene of escalating tragedies in his life, exacerbated by a strange sympathy for him. This sympathy develops in response to his drive and determination to succeed, in spite of his genuine ignorance of how terribly untalented he is.
For those students who missed last Saturday’s screening, there is a chance that Verna’s Breath and Booty will be shown on Friday March 15th at the closing gala of the Artmatters festival – provided that the technical difficulties are ironed out by this date. For further information, contact: [email protected].