After narrowing submissions sent from across the world down to 15, Cinequest notified two De Anza College students their films were selected for the film festival March 8.
“We are the only community college in the United States represented this year which is really a testament to our program,” said Susan Tavernetti, Film/TV instructor.
De Anza students Samuel Cheung and Gustav Asplund will have their films “Laundry” and “In Search for I,” respectively, shown at the fesival. Each film was shot on 16 mm film and is under four minutes.
Cheung, 29, has a computer science degree and is pursuing an associate’s degree in film, based his film off a comic by bay area artist Adrian Tomine. Cheung said “Laundry” is about a “socially awkward” man seeking to return an attractive woman’s undergarments after she leaves them in a laundry machine.
“He has good intentions but he kind of ends up scaring her away,” Cheung said. “The whole movie is about him trying to find her eventually, and what would happen if he were able to do so.”
Asplund’s short film is about self-discovery, Tavernetti said. It has a unique cinematic style and very sophisticated visual effects, she said.
“Their films will be shown along films from UC Los Angeles, University of Southern California and Stanford,” Barak Goldman said, a Film/TV instructor.
Last year two student films were selected for the festival.”De Anza has had a really good track record in terms of being included but it seems that in the last seven years there has been at least one De Anza film that has made the cut, sometimes two,” said Tavernetti. De Anza has never won the competition.
Furthermore, Tavernetti and Film/TV instructor, Zaki Lisha will serve on the narrative jury which is regarded as the highest award, and the Cinequest shorts competition, respectively.
Goldman will co-chair the screenplay competition, which involves over twenty screenwriting students to judge the first round of the competition.
Goldman said De Anza students, along with other individuals from the area, were in charge of narrowing a pool of 650 submissions down to 200 from June to Novemeber of last year. Subsequent to that, Goldman and other judge, Bob Phelps, narrowed the submissions to 10 between November and January.
“The top 10 are being judged right now by the ‘hollywood big names.’ They will be announced on the panel March 6 at the day of the writer,” Goldman said. The names of the judges can not be revealed for legal reasons Goldman said.
According to a press release, Goldman will join Oscar winning screenwrter Diablo Cody of “Juno” and other “screenwriting gurus” for “Day of the Writer.” He will also moderate a panel called “The Writer’s Mindset” featuring other Hollywood screenwriters.
It has been an honor for De Anza to be included in the film festival along with other four year and graduate institutions, Tavernetti said. “Many of the students from these other institutions spend $35,000, and they have all kinds of resources,” she said. Cheung said he spent $200 on “Laundry” and spent a weekend to shoot the film.
“The faculty is really proud for what we’re doing and especially proud of the students,” Goldman said. De Anza’s participation in Cinequest is “constant validation” of the film and television department’s work and serves as tangible results, he said.
