Barnard students showcase original short films at the Athena Film Festival

The Athena Film Festival, in partnership with the Barnard College Sloate Media Center, screened three short films written and produced by current and former Barnard students as part of the Student Short Film Showcase. Held at the Glicker-Milstein Black Box Theater on February 28, student filmmakers Hannah Ahn, BC 19, Emma Noelle Buhain, BC 20 and Iris Sang, BC 21, had their films screened for a full audience. Ahn and Buhain also joined post-baccalaureate fellows Ruby Mastrodimos and Kory Louko on a panel after the screening.

Now in its tenth year, the Barnard Film Festival at Barnard tells the stories of fearless women who are leaders both in and out of the film industry.

The three student filmmakers have been selected to participate in the Media Center Emerging Filmmaker Mentorship Program, a semester-long program that provides creative support and funding to undergraduate Barnard filmmakers, allowing them to produce their own short films . The program was launched in January 2019, marking this festival as one of the first times that the Athena Film Festival presents work by student filmmakers.

Combining Athena Film Festival with our programs is about making it possible for everyone to tell the stories they want to tell, Sang said. It is also about giving minorities or people who tell very personal or different stories a chance to show their films.

The event started with the film Ahns Poisonberries, which was inspired by Ahns' experiences in college. Ahn, who now lives in Los Angeles and hopes to become a television writer, said the film was also inspired by his dog who helped him manage his anxiety and loneliness and by an active shooting exercise, at during which she and her classmates hid behind instruments in her schools band hall.

The film explores the reasons for loss and grief when loved ones lose a child to gun violence. He follows a young girl of color who does not like college and fears that her dog will eat poisonous berries during a walk. When her mother decides not to take the dog to the vet, the girl locks the dog in her cage and goes to school, concerned about her health. Between the scenes, ambulance sirens and police voices resonate, sounds that highlight, as Ahn noted, the anxiety that many children experience daily with anxiety. 39; school.

In one scene, the girl imagines standing near the coffin of her dog during her funeral. Immediately after, the girl rushes to a computer in the library to find out if her dog will be okay, but the start of a locking exercise forces her to crawl between two shelves, fearing for her life.

After Poisonberries, the film Sangs Qintong (Child Pianist) was screened, exploring the relationship between an older man who works in a piano agency and a young boy who spends much of his time there. Sang is currently studying abroad at the University of Oxford and has previously completed internships at the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival.

Qintong, which was filmed in China, opens to the sound of piano music, as noted by the older man. When you play music, you tell a story. He begins to teach the young boy to play the piano, but the boy has trouble engaging in learning due to the demanding schedule of his math competitions.

The boy and the man are sitting at the piano playing a duet, but the boy suddenly runs away. He later meets the man, admitting that he no longer wants to pursue the piano. Shortly after, the man says: You should never be ashamed of doing the things you love, and the two accept each other's differences.

The owner sees that his dream is rekindled on this boy, and this boy really enjoys the moment with him too, said Sang. It's an intergenerational moment.

The following film, Buhains Wedding Dance, recounts the experiences of a bride after speaking to a nun who gives her advice on how to treat her husband. Before making the film, Buhain went to the Philippines and went to a convent with her mother, where she met a nun and recorded her advice on marriage.

Her film focuses on a bride dancing with a mannequin while the nuns' advice is read in Tagalog. The nun says that a woman should not be bored when her husband comes home late, but should rather offer her food. She thinks that a woman should solve her family's problems herself, because husbands are often less informed about how to solve them. The nun ends her narration by noting that a mission given by the wife to God is to change her husband for the better.

While the nun is talking in the background, the woman interacts with the model in a lively fashion. At one point, the bride picks up the dirt with one of the mannequin's arms and puts it in the mannequin's mouth. Towards the end of the film, the woman again gathers all the body parts of the models, only to step on them and tip her head, expressing her anxiety and disagreement with some of the advice.

I had never seen anything like it (this film) before. I didn't know how it would turn out, and I wasn't sure I was going to do this project that would involve really strange images, vaguely demonic themes, said Buhain.

Ahn and Buhain both commented on how student filmmakers often find it difficult to produce films due to financial constraints and a fear of the unknown in the industry. Buhain noted how difficult it is for women color developers to believe that their ideas will be taken seriously.

However, projections of short films from the emerging film mentorship programs have revealed how, at a time when 43 of the 100 best blockbuster films of 2019 were either directed by women or presented by women, the future is promising for young filmmakers.

On the material level, (the program) helps a lot because it gives you access to their equipment; They give you funding so you can create the shorts, and they have mentors that they have matched with us, said Ahn. This demystifies the whole process for someone who hasn't made a film or has never really seen it as something that you can just stand up and do yourself.

Assistant editor Noah Sheidlower can be contacted at the following address: [email protected]. Follow Spectator on Twitter @ColumbiaSpec.