Cinephile Film Festival shows off local directorial talent

Local aspiring filmmakers don't have to relocate to Hollywood or move to Cannes -- they may be able to find outlets to express themselves right here in Bloomington.\nIU senior John Landis and recent alum Colleen Jankovic decided to create Cinephile Filmmakers' Forum two years ago to provide a network for local filmmakers to share resources and help create each other's films.\n"We wanted to bridge gaps for filmmakers, and in a general way, our goal was to raise enough money to have a film festival to show their work," Landis said. \nWith the first annual Cinephile Film Festival set to begin at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Landis and Jankovic have realized their goal. \nThe festival will showcase unique and locally produced film and video projects from the Bloomington community. The festival will also screen the films from seven winners of Cinephile grants, which were awarded to filmmakers whose work was selected by an independent panel headed by Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan. The seven winning films also gained an automatic entry in the festival. \n"We think it's very important to show that there is a film community in Bloomington much like the local music community," Jankovic said. "We hope the festival will be what the Lotus Fest is to the music scene."\nLandis, a communication and culture major, said getting a major film festival off the ground while being a full-time student has its challenges.\n"It was hard to balance the festival and class at times, but I was able to get intern credit for the project," he said. \nWhile Landis is still a student, he and festival co-organizer Dave Pruett both stressed the festival and grant money wasn't strictly limited to students.\n"This festival is unique because it's not just another student film festival," Pruett said. "It's open to anybody in the community and to all genres of films."\nBloomington resident David Orr, a Cinephile Film Grant recipient, said the festival's nurturing of the local filmmaking community makes it an important organization in Bloomington.\n"The festival gives me an audience, and without the grant money, it would have been impossible to even make my film, let alone have the opportunity to screen it," he said.\nOrr, who describes his film, "Gulf War Syndrome," as "crossing the lines of comedy, surrealism and dream narrative," attended Columbia College in Chicago, and lived in northwest Indiana, where he said he never came across a film community as organized as Bloomington's.\nAlthough the festival embraces the entire community, there is not a lack of student entries. \nSenior Aaron Waltke was asked by the festival to enter his film, "Rupert Grimfront's Omniverse in Miniature." Waltke described the film as an "experimental tragic comedy that will definitely go against your expectations."\n"The charm of a festival like this is in the fact that you'll get to see people's work that you may never have the chance to see again," Waltke said. "That makes it an intimate spectacle and an exciting atmosphere which lends itself to a fellowship and kinship between the audience and filmmaker."\nWaltke and Orr's films are just two of the films to be shown at the four-hour long festival. Other entries include Anthony Ragucci's stop-motion adaptation of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and Ricardo Alvarez's interpretative dance piece "Around the Table."\n"These films will challenge people's ideas about independent filmmaking," Jankovic said. "It's not just a low-budget version of Hollywood; these filmmakers are doing different things and experimenting with film."\nLandis agreed with Jankovic's sentiments.\n"We started with the belief that Bloomington was filled with creative filmmakers, but we were really surprised at the quality of work we received. Everything is just fantastic," he said.\nTickets for the festival are on sale for $5 at the Sunrise Box Office, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave. Door s to the Buskirk-Chumley open at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and special jury prizes will be awarded to winning films following the screening. \nCinephile Filmmakers' Forum meets at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday at the Indiana Memorial Union. For more information visit www.cinephileforum.com.