Eighth annual Iris Film Festival comes to IU Cinema

Every year, students and community members have the opportunity to share their films with the Bloomington community.

The Department of Communication and Culture’s eighth annual Iris Film Festival will be featured at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the IU Cinema.

The event will exhibit short films created by members of both the University and the Bloomington community. This program is free and open to the public.

This year’s festival was organized and programmed by the combined efforts of Russell Sheaffer and Landon Palmer, graduate students in the Department of Communications and Culture.

“The Iris Film Festival is a space to bring media work from across academic departments and the local community to the Indiana University Cinema,” Sheaffer said. “It’s a really exciting event because it works to spotlight the kind of film and media making that is happening locally both on campus and off.”

The program offers an array of exclusive films separated into three categories: documentary, narrative and experimental, Palmer said.

Narrative films are the movies people see in mainstream cinema, Palmer said. They follow a conventional story line with a beginning, middle, climax and end.
 
Experimental films, on the other hand, go against conventional film style and place emphasis on editing and visual elements, Palmer said.

A film in each category will receive an award.

In addition, the audience will be allowed to give away the Audience Award by voting for the film they enjoyed most.

The best film for a communication and culture course will be given the Brian Friedman Award, named after the communication and culture student who died in an automobile accident, Palmer said.

Fifteen films and 12 directors will be featured at the festival, including the work of Colin Denhart, a senior in the departments of communication and culture and telecommunications. He was also last year’s recipient of the Brian Friedman Award with his horror film, “The Devil Woman.”

Seeing his own films on a large screen with high-quality sounds makes him feel like he’s in the film, Denhart said.

“The experience is special because watching a film on the big screen makes me feel almost as if I’m on the same level as a professional director,” he said.

Denhart said he usually feels anxious and nervous just before and during film premieres because he never knows how the audience will react.

But once the credits roll and the audience shows appreciation in the form of applause, that anxiety and nervousness is replaced by relief and joy, Denhart said.

“It is at that moment that I know I’ve done a good job,” he said.

Denhart will be showing two films this year, a documentary entitled “A Night in the Forest” and an experimental film entitled “Humpty Dumpty.”

For a full movie lineup and a list of the directors who filmed them, go to irisfilmfestival.wordpress.com.

Denhart’s award winning short film “The Devil Woman” can be found on YouTube.
The festival is considered an outlet for students and community members to share their work.

“It provides a way that allows individuals the chance to see, vote for and celebrate the media making community,” Sheaffer said.