Creative Ambition Runs High At 12th Annual UC Davis Film Festival
The Davis Varsity Theatre presents the Department of Theatre and
Dance’s 12th Annual UC Davis Film Festival, produced in
association with UC Davis Cinema and Digital Media and
co-sponsored by Art Studio. The festival of short films plays at
the Davis Varsity Theatre Wednesday and Thursday, May 23-24, at
8:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 and $10, available at the Davis Varsity
Theatre box office starting May 16.
Film festival advisor and Art Studio Professor Darrin Martin,
says there is much for audiences to be excited about as UC Davis
student work continues to grow in both quantity and quality.
“Student enthusiasm for more sophisticated approaches to
expressing themselves through filmmaking is on the rise as they
strive to master the language of a media-saturated culture,” he
said. “Curiosity for the voices of tomorrow’s storytellers,
animators, and moving image makers should be the motivating
factor to get the public out for two evenings of entertaining and
thought provoking works.”
This year’s submissions include a mockumentary about a washed-up
child star, a comedy where three twenty-somethings attain mundane
abilities after eating a very old casserole, an existential drama
about a woman struggling with her life’s purpose, an animated
action hero adventure and a documentary about finding the perfect
bone marrow donor. The films will undergo a rigorous
selection process to determine which make it to the festival
screening.
2011 winner, Anna Hossnieh (Best Documentary “Standing
Compassion”) has partnered with 2010 winner Meredith Sward (Best
Experimental “Oh Dear”) in a joint 2012 submission of “The
Irrelevant and Shallow Life of Birdie Peacock.” This mockumentary
concerns a has-been child star and the filmmaker who struggles to
make a movie out of her life.
Michael Figlock has entered the existential drama “Satisfaction”
on behalf of the Filmmakers’ Ambitions club. It follows a woman’s
disorienting journey as she is thrown into other peoples’ daily
routines and struggles to cope with the demands asked of her in
each of these scenarios.
In Kealani Kitaura’s animated submission “Journey” we travel with
a superhero who is followed by mischievous objects including a
stuffed devil-bear and fold-up camping chair into a magical land
where the moon replaces the sun and pink mountains line the
horizon.
Film Festival student lead-producer Ngoc Le has submitted her
documentary “A Perfect Match” about Janet Liang, a UCLA student
suffering from leukemia, and her journey to find a perfect bone
marrow match. The film was inspired by Le’s own recent
struggle.
“When I was diagnosed with a life-long autoimmune disease last
fall, I was told that I might eventually need a bone marrow
transplant,” said Le. “During my treatment I became inspired upon
reading media accounts of Janet’s story. Her YouTube cry for help
brought me to tears because she only had a few months to live and
that made think ‘that could have been me or that will be me one
day.’ I hope my film will somehow encourage more people to
participate in the bone marrow drive to save her life as soon as
possible.”
In addition to Le, the festival is directed by three UC Davis
faculty members: Professors Sarah Pia Anderson and Jesse Drew,
Cinema and Digital Media, and Professor John Iacovelli,
Department of Theatre and Dance. These producers serve as
advisors along with other UC Davis faculty: Darrin Martin, Art
Studio; Jaimey Fisher, Cinema and Digital Media and German;
Maggie Morgan, Department of Theatre and Dance; Pablo Ortiz,
Department of Music; and Julie Wyman, Cinema and Digital Media.
These faculty members are professionals in film, television and
new media who offer important feedback to the student filmmakers.
The student team includes technical producer Todd Kaiser and
producers Michelle Rossi and Sharon Gonzales.
Faculty Producer/Advisor Bios
Sarah Pia Anderson is by profession a director
of theatre, film, and television. She 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). Professor Anderson also directs for film and television.
Work includes (Emmy Award-winning television series) “Prime
Suspect: Inner Circles” (starring Helen Mirren) for Granada
Television in Britain, and in the U.S. “Nothing Sacred: Roman
Catholic Holiday” (Winner of the Peabody Award for Television
Drama Series, and a Prism Award for Directing), episodes of Emmy
award winning dramas” ER,” “Ally McBeal,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and
“Huff,” Golden Globe winner “Ugly Betty,” and Golden Globe
nominated “Big Love” for HBO.
Jesse Drew is a professor in the UC Davis Cinema
and Digital Media 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. He previously 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 UC Davis Department of Theatre & Dance Master of
Fine Arts 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 a Master of Fine Arts in scenic design and art direction
from New York University.
Darrin Martin teaches video and media arts at UC
Davis. He creates videos, sculptures and installations that
explore how technologies are used to attempt to measure and
augment our daily perceptions. His works have exhibited and
screened internationally including the Museum of Modern Art (NY),
Pacific Film Archives (CA), the European Media Art Festival
(Germany), Migrating Forms (NY), WRO Media Arts Biennale (Poland)
and the Impakt Festival (the Netherlands). Martin also
collaborates with Torsten Zenas Burns building diverse
speculative fictions around re-imagined educational practices.
Their works have been included in screenings and
exhibitions in venues including the International Short Film
Festival Oberhausen (Germany), Scanners: New York Video Festival
(NY), the Madrid Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Spain),
the Paris/Berlin International, Champ Libre (Canada) and Eyebeam
(NY).
What: The 12th Annual UC Davis Film Festival, an
evening of unpredictable and exciting short student films
including comedy, drama, animation, documentaries and more
Where: Davis Varsity Theatre, 616 Second Street,
Davis 95616
When: Wednesday–Thursday, May 23-24, 8:30
p.m.
Tickets: $7 each night; $10 two-night pass
available at Davis Varsity Theatre starting May 16