Marianopolis Film Festival Kicking off the End-of-Year ArtFest
The Marianopolis ArtFest returns to campus from April 25 to May 4, where all types of arts created by students across all programs of the college are showcased around the college throughout the weeks. This is the first time ever the exposition has taken place since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mari Film Fest, hosted by the Mari Film Club, is the first in-person event on the lineup. This year has a total of nine entries, including two extra films produced by the executive teams which are not part of the competition. The film category includes fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental pieces with an award for each track.
The winner for the best fiction film is Ethan Auerbach, and his final project for the course Art and Activism—RoomM8s Global Warning—uses animation’s dramatic presentation to explore the environmental issues of overproduction while at the same time bringing forth packs of laughter from the crowd. The same film was selected by the judges, Adam Reider and Professor Matthew Hays for the Judges’ Selection prize. The Best Documentary award goes to Shaoyu Ba’s West Coast, and animations by Man Ning received the Award for Best Experimental, through which she presented the animation sketches she has created. The film Silence by Genevieve Alexander was selected as an honourable mention.This film explores the life of young adults with depression: the long, lower angled shots of the main character’s emotionless figure are used to represent how depression causes emotional despairs, which at last leads her to commit suicide.
The complete list of entries is as follows:
Fiction:
Where Did You Go To, Rudy? by Nika Khan-Lau, The Listener by Lu Meng, RoomM8s Global Warning by Ethan Auerbach, Silence by Genevieve Alexander
Documentary: West Coast by Shaoyu Ba
Experimental: Killer Love by Victor Guo, Animations by Man Ning
Extra: Interpretations by Elna Lanri-Collard, Chimeric Agitation by Vanessa Nseir
A special shoutout to the Art and Activism course professor and the ArtFest initiator Selena Liss and the student animator Adam Reider for hosting this event. The FilmFest provides a platform for Marianopolis students to create films and showcase their productions to a large audience. Having the films shown live to the fellow students also provided an amazing chance for filmmakers to get direct feedback from viewers. The screening had a good crowd that engaged themselves in the emotions each film presented.
The Marianopolis Film Club aims to spread the fascination of film and filmmaking to the college. “[This end-of-year festival] is like a testimony of our passion for film.” said Vanessa Nseir, President of the Mari Film Club. As the 2022-2023 school year is coming to an end, the Mari Film Club encourages any students interested in films and filmmaking to join the club in the upcoming semester..
The next FilmFestival will take place around the same time next year and summer break is a great time to start working on new projects. The club encourages any prospective participant to start planning their film now!
The complete list of ArtFest events and dates can be accessed through the the Instagram page @mari.arts.fest, and the official website as follows:
