March 28, 2011

‘Baltimore, Film and the Arts’ panel kicks off film festival

The 14th annual student-run Johns Hopkins Film Fest returns to the Homewood campus on Thursday, March 31

The Academy Award–nominated ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ is one of five feature films that will be screened during a film-filled week on the Homewood campus.

The 14th annual student-run Johns Hopkins Film Fest returns to the Homewood campus on Thursday, March 31, with a special panel discussion, “Film Fest Forum: Baltimore, Film and the Arts,” with Film and Media Studies lecturer and filmmaker Matthew Porterfield, film and video artist Jimmy Joe Roche, multimedia artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrom, musician/photographer Andrew Laumann and multimedia artist, filmmaker and writer Stephanie Barber, who will moderate the panel. It will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Gilman Hall’s Marjorie M. Fisher Hall, Room 50.

The festival, hosted by the Johns Hopkins Film Society, continues through Sunday, April 3, with a showcase of student films, five 35 mm feature film screenings and two programs of short films from across the country and around the world, all in Shriver Hall Auditorium.

This year’s festival theme is Intersecting Arts, a concept allowing audiences to explore what it means for film, paint, sculpture, sound, creative writing, graffiti, fashion and all genres in between to coexist. The student organizers say that the theme reflects Baltimore’s arts scene and recognizes the importance of artists of various media uniting to form one true community.

On Friday, April 1, the festival features the young filmmakers’ showcase of student films at 6 p.m., followed by Beautiful Losers (2008) at 8 p.m. and the Academy Award–nominated Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) at 10 p.m.

The events on Saturday, April 2, begin at 1 p.m. with a screening of the film Turkey Bowl (2011), followed by shorts programs at 3 and 5 p.m. The 3 p.m. program will feature the work of nationally known filmmakers Vin Grabill, Cathy Cook, Fred Worden and Eric Dyer, all media art faculty members at the UMBC Department of Visual Arts. The evening ends with the Jean-Luc Godard film Pierrot Le Fou (1965) at 7:30 p.m.

The festival wraps on Sunday, April 3, with a Film Programmer’s Showcase at 1 p.m. and The Wizard of Oz (1939) at 4 p.m.

As a teaser to the festival, the film society is presenting Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 29, in Shriver Hall Auditorium.

Admission is free for JHU students and affiliates with proper ID. For the public, screening passes are $5, day passes $10 and festival passes $20. All tickets can be bought at any show.

For more information and a complete schedule of films, go to the group’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/event
.php?eid=192635210776779.