Whenever I’m giving a tour to a prospective family at Fieldston, I always focus on the arts in our school as much as possible. I spend a good stretch of time talking about the fashion show (and the families are always duly impressed), and when I get to the film room filled with posters from past film festivals, I always dub the festival “the fashion show of the film department.” Full disclaimer: I’ve been making this pitch for four years despite the fact that I’d never actually been to the film festival. This year, my final year at Fieldston, I decided to change that. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but by the end of the show, I was both pleasantly surprised and unfortunately disappointed.
First the surprised part: there was a great variety of films, each of which contained different and interesting components. Some had very cool animations (which I had no idea were within the capabilities of high school students), some displayed remarkable cinematographic skills, and some had great scripts and acting. A number of the story lines were moving, funny, or exciting, and for the most part, it seemed as though the directors really put work into their pieces of art. The wide range of films included a documentary created by Josh Kauderer (V), co-founder of the Elephant Highway (an organization devoted to elephant protection), about the illegal ivory trade, a comedy about a student’s efforts to “4:00nicate” brought to us by Jonas Weitzman (VI) and Sammy Koppelman (VI), and an entirely silent saga of epic proportions with a hilarious ending courtesy of Jacob Cader (V).
When asked about the film festival, Roma Murphy (IV), Director of The Present, said “I liked the films the most, of course! They were really high quality this year. As for things that were missing, I’d say, like always, I want more introspective films about women. Not even necessarily “strong” women who always do the right thing. I want films about women who make mistakes, women who aren’t the “good” character, feminine women, women who don’t fit the model of how women in film are “supposed” to be. I think we’ve made a huge leap in that regard, but I myself am guilty of not providing nearly enough representation, and I think we all need to work on that.”
Now for the disappointing part: the first thing I noticed when I walked into the auditorium was the depressing absence of people. According to one filmmaker, the turnout this year was significantly greater than last year; however, less than a fourth of the seats in the room were filled. Considering how entertaining some of the films were, it was a shame that such a small percentage of our school opted to attend the show. Jefferson Randall (IV), director of Unfortunately, agrees with this sentiment and has ideas on how to change this lack of attendance. “I think there could be more promotion around the festival, and a more organized panel for when the filmmakers go up to answer questions,” he says.
The one redeeming factor is that most of the films are eventually posted online, which means that the majority of Fieldston’s student body gets the chance to view the films at some point, but I would personally have loved to see more of my classmates and teachers at the festival.
Outside of the festival itself, another thing I was disappointed with was the reaction of many at Fieldston to the film festival in general. When I spoke to my peers, few seemed to regard the festival as a pinnacle of any sort of artistic expression at Fieldston. When asked what aspect of the Fieldston film festival he would like to see changed in the coming years, Babe Howard (V), director of Jr., said that “I’d like to see the film program more fully seen as equal to the other excellent performing arts programs we have at Fieldston.” It would be awesome if we as a school were able to give our film department the recognition it deserves – after all, as Sammy says, “Larry Buskey is God.” All it would really take is showing up one day a year to watch the work of our peers, which really isn’t asking for much; then, maybe, we’ll be able to add another hallmark to the already impressive array Fieldston has to offer.
You can view all of the films from the spring festival here: http://vimeo.com/user11954418/videos/sort:date
