9th Annual UC Davis Film Festival at Davis Varsity May 27-28
05-18-2009
The Davis Varsity Theatre presents the Department of Theatre and Dance 9th Annual UC Davis Film Festival produced in association with UC Davis Technocultural Studies and co-sponsored by Film Studies and Art Studio. The Festival gives students the opportunity to showcase their short films and receive feedback from faculty who are professionals in the area of film, television, and new media. The 9th Annual UC Davis Film Festival plays at the Davis Varsity Theatre Wednesday - Thursday, May 27 – 28, at 8:30pm. All tickets are $5, available at Davis Varsity Theatre Box Office starting May 20.
An innocent and curious young action hero wakes up and goes to school in Hooked, the film that won Best Animation and Best Sound Design in last year’s festival. Undergraduate creator Kevin Okulolo has written 41 more episodes for his character ‘Khale’ who faces intense moral dilemmas and fights for what he thinks is right. Despite the fantasy setting, the series is autobiographical.
Okulolo has launched his own animation studio to produce these and other films. The undergrad has already received sponsorship funding for his films by the flash portal NewGrounds.com. His two newest titles are being submitted to this year’s festival: Puzzle Shoes, a romantic comedy about a boy with puzzle pieces for shoes who is trying to find his place in the world and World Town, a music video where three ‘Old School B-Boys’ dance the night away.
The festival is growing as more and more students representing a variety of majors participate. Michael Sun, last year’s Best Comedy winner, is a fifth year Biology student. Jonah Cox who won two awards for Everything Is Nothing graduated last June with a BA in Psychology. Cox is able to enter the festival again this year with a film he produced in 2008. While last year’s entry revealed the filmmaker’s process of making peace with the untimely death of his father, this year’s submission is a spoof on independent artists titled Eye on Indie.
This year there have been 63 submissions up from 30 last year. In addition to animation, comedy, and drama, submissions include commercials, documentaries, music videos, and other art films.
The festival not only lets students see their work on the ‘big screen,’ it offers participants the opportunity to engage with UC Davis faculty in the Arts, many of whom are professionals in the area of film, television, and new media. Via a pre-submission schedule, students are offered constructive criticism and help with how to take their work to the next level.
Submissions may be no longer than ten minutes including credits. Awards will be given in many categories including Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Costumes. A faculty group curates the program and winners receive prizes. In the past these have been invitations to visit sets and working environments of professional faculty who work in Los Angeles and other industry centers.
Launched in 2000, the festival is directed by three UC Davis faculty producers and one student producer: Professors Sarah Pia Anderson and John Iacovelli, Department of Theatre & Dance, Professor Jesse Drew, Director of Technocultural Studies, and undergraduate Andrea Manners, Technocultural Studies and Film Studies major. Other UC Davis faculty are participating as advisors: Larry Bogad/Theatre & Dance, Liz Constable/Film Studies, Darrin Martin/Art Studio, Maggie Morgan/Theatre and Dance, Pablo Ortiz/Music and Julie Wyman/Technocultural Studies.
Faculty Producer Bios
Sarah Pia Anderson is an award winning director of stage, television and film. She is a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at UC Davis and is considered to be one of the top women directors of English-language drama. She has directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, Abbey Theatre (Dublin), Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh), on Broadway, and The Shakespeare Theater at the Folger (Washington, DC). She has directed episodes of Emmy award winning dramas ER, Ally McBeal, Huff, Grey’s Anatomy. Most recently she directed episodes of Golden Globe winner Ugly Betty, starring Salma Hayek and America Ferrera, and Golden Globe nominated Big Love for HBO Starring Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Cloe Sevigny.
Jesse Drew is Director of UC Davis Technocultural Studies program. His work as a media artist and writer seeks to challenge the complacent relationship between the public and new technologies. His media work has been exhibited widely at such venues as the San Francisco Film Arts Festival, the ZKM in Germany, the World Wide Video Festival (Amsterdam), Incident (Brussels), Taos Talking Pictures, Dallas Film and Video Festival, the Mill Valley Film and Video Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the American Indian Film and Video Festival, as well as international broadcast and cablecast outlets. His writings have appeared in numerous publications and journals as well as several anthologies, such as Resisting the Virtual Life (City Lights Press) and Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture (City Lights Press). Before coming to UC Davis he headed the Center for Digital Media and was Associate Dean at the San Francisco Art Institute.
John Iacovelli, an Emmy Award winning designer, teaches in the Department of Theatre and Dance MFA design program. Professor Iacovelli has designed more than 200 productions at theatres across the nation, including the critically acclaimed, TONY nominated Broadway revival of Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Iacovelli the coveted 2001 prime-time Emmy Award for his art direction of the A&E broadcast of Peter Pan. In addition to his theatre work, Iacovelli is a television and film production designer and art director for such shows as Ed, Babylon 5, The Cosby Show, Resurrection Blvd., and the films Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Ruby in Paradise. He holds an MFA in Scenic Design and Art Direction from New York University.
What: The Department of Theatre & Dance 9th Annual UC Davis Film Festival presented by the Davis Varsity Theatre
When: Wednesday – Thursday, May 27-28, 8:30 pm
Where: Davis Varsity Theatre, 616 Second Street, Davis 95616
Tickets: $5, available at Davis Varsity Theatre Box Office starting May 20
More information: theatredance.ucdavis.edu or thedavisvarsity.com
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