May 3, 2010
Contact:
Leah Seupersad, 404-413-1354
University Relations
For senior Nathan Honnold, the Georgia State University Film Festival will be an opportunity to showcase all the hard work and creativity he has put into making two of his newest films this year.
Honnold, along with undergraduate and graduate film and video students in the Department of Communication, will present films at the festival, to be held May 3 through May 7 at the Cinefest Theatre on the GSU campus. The screenings, which start at 5 p.m. on May 3 and May 4, are free and open to the public.
"This Film Festival is very important to me because I was a part of it from the beginning," said Honnold, who submitted two films. Until now, he said, "GSU had no outlet for film students to come together, celebrate and expose a year of hard work and excellent ideas from its students besides this opportunity. I want to take advantage of it to its fullest."
In its second year, the GSU Film Festival has been extended to three days and will be judged for the first time by GSU film faculty. Judges Daniel Robin, Alessandra Raengo and Jennifer Barker will review 90 submissions and the finalists will be presented at 7 p.m. May 7.
For Honnold, the Film Festival is a way to display the development of his personal voice within his films. His first film, "Until Dust," is a fictional story about how his parents met and their relationship, while "The Blue Lights at Chabannes" is a personal documentary about growing into a man.
"I enjoy taking specific everyday activities of events that might not be the most interesting, somewhat mundane to watch a film about, and then creating a fantastic fictional world around these situations while letting the simple message still pass through not too heavy handedly," Honnold said.
Robin, an assistant professor of film and video and the festival creator, said the judges will not only be looking for films with competent production work and vision, but for works that represent the very diverse student body at the university. Robin's recent film, "My Olympic Summer," won the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize for Best Short Filmmaking, the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short at the Florida Film Festival and Best Documentary Short at the Nashville Film Festival.
"This festival is a celebration of Georgia State film production work," Robin said. "Georgia State is one of the only schools in the area with an undergraduate and graduate film program and this festival allows students to get their work seen outside of the classroom. A lot of these films are beautiful and have certain magical qualities to them, and they deserve to be seen by their peers, friends, family and the community."