Despite the bitter cold plaguing Western Mass last week, over 155 college students, faculty and community members found their way into a packed screening room at Amherst College for the 26th annual Five College Film Festival. The two hour collection of videos were artistic, eclectic, experimental and occasionally abrasive. But regardless of the films’ conceptual or technical ability, there was an infectious and radiant wealth of appreciation and support from everyone within the space.
“It was established around 2000 to create and nurture a film community and to showcase the filmmaking talent among film and video production students in the Five Colleges,” wrote Professor Bernadine Mellis, a Five College Senior Lecturer in Film & Video Production who serves as a faculty advisor for the 5C Student Film & Video Festival (and has since 2009.)
The curation of films, publicity and overall organizing ultimately relied on a council of 10 student interns, with two student representatives from each college. And although Jackson Lee ’21 and Nam Nguyen ’20 of Amherst took charge as co-directors of the festival, each member played a decisive role in choosing 26 out of the 85+ films that were submitted this year. The students along with assistance from other Five College film and media professors spent over 18 hours curating and deciding awards in one weekend.
“We were flirting with the idea of having a theme but it’s enough that we just wanted to showcase all the different the variety that’s surrounding our community,” Nguyen said when discussing the criteria for accepting films.
It was evident that this year’s council made a point to consider not only the technical aspects of each film, but each director’s background and the schools they were coming from. “I think that every film that’s being screened tonight is a really interesting representation of the person behind the camera” Lee added.
Nguyen echoed, “We want to show not only the filmmaking community but the diverse group of people that are studying within all of the Five Colleges.”
Although the festival had annually received some funding, Nguyen and Lee secured additional funds to ensure this year’s submission fees dropped to $0. The two co-directors also reached out to local media producers to have the winning films be screened on local channels in addition to giving the winning filmmakers a production workshop.
This year’s awards included best narrative, experimental and other genre specific titles. But it additionally included jury prizes, honorable mentions and an audience award, voted live.
“[There was] a lot of emotions being shown on screen and a lot of different tactics being used, which I thought was very impressive,” said Linc Francis of Umass.
Awards or not, the audience gave a plethora of whoops and applause to each film. These videos ranged from non linear animations, to a lost love story between a Russian woman and a cockroach, to an experimental exploration of birthday cake, to a documentary on a doctor in the Changhang Mountain Range east of Tibet. Some brought laughter, boredom, confusion, admiration and overall intrigue. And after each film, a wave of whispers ran through the seats. The discussion and debates of actors, music and story poked at the minds of every audience member, eager to hear each other’s perspectives.
“I’m just flabbergasted at the amount of people who showed up and stayed for this… it just really goes to show the film community around all the Five Colleges” Nguyen said, breathless and laughing at the end of Friday night.
No matter the awards or the rankings of each film, it was incredibly heartwarming and special to be sharing the space of creators and their supporters. The 26th Five College Film Festival will be remembered fondly as anticipation already builds for the 27th.
