School of Art and Design to host Short Film Festival

The West Virginia University School of Art and Design will be screening the third annual West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival on campus April 20-22.

The festival opens Friday in the Gluck Theater of the Mountainlair from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Films will be screened in the Creative Arts Center Saturday from noon – 4 p.m. in the Antionette E. Falbo Theatre and from 7:30- 11:30 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall.

The festival will conclude Sunday with the awards ceremony from 2-4 p.m.

During the course of the weekend, the film festival will be showing approximately 100 short films from five different categories: narrative short, documentary short, student submissions, animation/experimental and the theme category this year, which features works that look at our political discourse.

The range of works in the theme category is extremely diverse, even including a film that focuses on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"What I’m really excited about is the sheer diversity," said Gerald Habarth, the organizer of the festival.

Not only will the festival feature films and videos from these categories, but many of them are international offerings.

The festival will feature original works from many countries, including Russia, Poland, France, India, Spain and Belgium. These international pieces give attendees the chance to see the world of independent filmmaking from a global perspective.

While most of the submissions are either narrative or animation, Habarth said that there really is something for every taste.

"Whether you’re interested in a more fine arts approach to film or narrative, there is something for everybody," Habarth said.

In addition, the festival is not only an opportunity for WVU students. Students from other universities will also be featured during the film festival.

The festival gives attendees a chance to experience something completely new.

"We tend to see things that are blockbuster productions that cost millions of dollars to produce that are usually characterized by special effects, which is great," Habarth said. "But the festival is a different view. It gets back to storytelling as an art form."

The festival is meant to provide a different cinema experience for viewers, and give artists a chance to show their work.

Each film has a maximum running time of 20 minutes, and viewers can come and go as they please.

For more information on the third annual West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival, visit www.mountaineerfilmfest.org.