When you think of the Ivy League, the first thing that comes to mind is probably NOT great cinema. Yet I was surprised to learn that among the seven Ivies, Princeton is one of only two that have neither a film major nor minor (Brown is the other, and Penn has only a minor).
This is not for lack of interest, mind you. At Princeton, I'm quite sure the popularity of a film major would exceed that of Slavic Languages and Literature. (Not to put down the Slavic Department in any way — I'm actually a big fan — but let's face it: It's tiny.)
A while back, a small group of students from Brown (ironically enough) decided that what the Ivy League really needed is a film festival. Soon thereafter the Ivy Film Festival was born.
Last weekend 25 Princeton students from all four classes traveled to Providence, R.I. to attend the first of what many hope will become an annual event.
The Ivy Film Festival aims to provide an outlet for creative students interested in film to present their work to their peers and professionals. It received 150 entries from liberal arts colleges throughout the United States. The festival was not limited to the Ivies, and included work by students from NYU and UCLA, two of the top film programs in the country.
The Princeton group was led by Jane Han '02, president of the Princeton Film Foundation, who entered an abbreviated version of her documentary "Urban Scribe," which premiered here at Princeton last spring. (See the April 26 issue of the 'Prince.')
For the festival, Han chopped her hour-long documentary into a 10-minute piece that more closely resembles an "experimental" work, than a documentary. Still, "Urban Scribe" was one of the most original and engrossing pieces screened.
Another Princeton entry, from Ben Lehrer '02, was "Purity, Phalli & Fromage" entered in the drama category. This five-minute video features footage from the World Trade Center, as shot in January of this year. The towers are the focus of the light-hearted narrative, and the film hit the audience with chilling affect, like a kind of living memorial. However, the piece was completed well before Sept. 11.
The festival's 46 "films" were actually a mix of film and video, reflecting the modern reality of student filmmaking. Video is less expensive and faster to shoot with and enables complex editing on a PC without the need for costly film-to-video transfers.
After seeing real film presented alongside video, the weaknesses of video are apparent. When projected on a large screen, video resolution just looks bad. The continuous tone of film allows it to scale easily, and its color representation and ability to capture various lighting conditions remains unmatched by video. Some of the film work screened made those of us who have shot exclusively on video drool.
One entry from Princeton that was real film came from Nick Confalone '03. A six-minute black and white short, "On Borrowed Time" is a quirky mini-Western set to music.
Confalone adapted a short story by Ambrose Bierce called "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" for the screenplay and edited the film.
Confalone actually entered four other pieces and said "On Borrowed Time" was not his favorite. All can be seen daily, from 10:30 p.m.-12 a.m., on Tigervision. Confalone and others have begun regular programming.
"On Borrowed Time" has a nice rhythm to it and exhibits the best use of music among any of the festival entries I saw. Although, judging from the suite of professional scores used, the piece could have been titled "On Borrowed Music."
Borrowed music was common to many of the student films screened, including the other Princeton entry, "Gym Short" a film by Doug Schachtel '01. Funny and beautifully shot on 16-millimeter color film, "Gym Short" narrowly missed the prize for best comedy, but did garner an award from the director of the festival, Dave Peck. Schachtel's short included performances by Charles Alden '03, Carolyn Goltra '03, Tommy Dewey '01, Laura McPherson '00 and Josh Boak '01. Co-written by Schachtel and Noah Haidle '01, the film was a crowd favorite and one of the most polished works in the festival.
Other events included question and answer sessions with writer and director Oliver Stone and independent filmmaker James Toback. Toback's new film "Harvard Man" made its American debut at the festival.
The festival suffered from organizational problems, such as time and location changes for screenings and provided fairly poor housing. But despite these shortcomings, a good time was had by all. There has even been preliminary discussion about hosting a similar event at Princeton next fall. Macauley Peterson is a contributor to The Independent Film and Video Monthly and the Princetonian Access Arts columnist. He can be reached at macauley@princeton.edu.
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