One of the best, most diverse events held every year on campus is the student-run Hopkins Film Festival, and this year, it's happening this weekend. Established in 1997, the Hopkins Film Festival aims to show independent works from student, local and international filmmakers.
The weekend kicks off on Thursday with the opening night party in the Levering courtyard. A DJ will be spinning all night, and PJ's will provide food and beer.
The screening of films begins on Friday with In Short Order, the first series of short films for the weekend. The first film to be screened is a student-made film called Straight White Men, by Towson student Ricky Johnson. Following that will be The Molky Way, a film about an elderly Iranian woman who embarks on a solo journey to visit relatives, and Héroes No Hacen Falta Alas Para Volar, a Spanish-language film about a man born without arms ... who works as a techno DJ.
The weekend boasts a plethora of short films from just about every genre and covering the full spectrum of experience levels. The Festival committee enjoyed a strong response from Spanish-speaking filmmakers in particular.
"Some of them are very creative, though slightly bizarre," committee member sophomore Alexandra Byer said of the Spanish films. "We had to weed out the good films, but we all had differing opinions on them so it will be intriguing to see how the audiences react to them."
It'd be easy, almost automatic, to lump all the Spanish shorts into the "foreign film" category, but the films to be screened range in subject matter from a man with a superhero for an imaginary friend (Manual Práctico Del Amigo Imaginario (abreviado)) to children trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border (Una Vida Mejor).
Some of the festival, naturally, will be devoted to the showcasing of student-made films. Four brave Hopkins students submitted their work for screening on Sunday afternoon. Senior Annie Holstein, sophomore Aljosa Zovko and senior Dikega Hadnot each have one short in the festival, and senior Hannah Sternberg has two.
In addition to the wealth of short-subject movies, the film festival includes feature-length films from some big names in independent film. Director-writer Ari Gold sent his release Adventures of Power for screening on Friday night of the festival and will be on the line for a phone Q&A session after the film.
Adventures of Power has already made the festival rounds, including Sundance, and stars Adrian Grenier (Entourage), Michael McKean (of the Christopher Guest team behind Best in Show, This Is Spinal Tap, etc.) and Jane Lynch (Role Models, The 40-Year-Old Virgin).
The film follows Power (played by director Gold) as he leaves his small mining town in favor of a cross-country search for the nation's best air drummers. In Byer's opinion, the film is perfect for the college audience.
"I hope it attracts a lot of students, because it's a Napoleon Dynamite-esque film that should be quite entertaining," she said. Though Adventures of Power has already been screened, Gold has edited his work since it was an official selection at Sundance, making the Hopkins screening technically a premiere event - not bad for a school where the humanities tend to fade into the background!
Another feature-length film at the Festival is the documentary Home. Directed by local filmmaker Brian Plow, Home tells the story of York, Pa., a city just on the other side of the Mason-Dixon Line, and its recent reinvention.
Plow holds a faculty position at Towson University's College of Fine Arts and Communication as an assistant professor of electronic media and film. He will be in attendance for Saturday's screening of Home.
On Saturday night, the Festival will take a time-out from the indie flicks to bring a classic back to the big screen. Hitchcock's masterful, chilling Notorious. The 1946 suspense classic stars Cary Grant, Ingrgid Bergman and Claude Rains.
Over the course the weekend, there will be screenings of more than 30 shorts and features ranging from documentary to experimental to animated. The screenings will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Shriver and Merganthaler. Most events are ticketed ($5 per screening, $10 for a day pass and $20 for a Festival pass), but admission is free for Hopkins students, faculty and employees with ID.
For a full schedule and film synopses, visit http://www.hopkinsfilmfest.com.
