The 46th Annual De Anza College Student Film and Video Show, held on June 6 in the Visual and Performing Arts Center, featured an awards ceremony to honor student filmmakers and screenwriters, and a showcase of the best student shorts produced over the year.
The two-hour showcase featured a healthy mix of live action and animation, and a balance of comedy, drama and horror, between the 28 films created by students for film and TV courses over the past school year.
“This year we had around 65 submissions,” said film and TV lab tech Fernando Perez.
Milena Grozeva, chair of the De Anza College Film and TV Department, said the faculty meets behind closed doors to collectively decide which projects make it into the public screening.
Over the course of the two hour showcase, the longer selections — stretching close to the 10-minute limit — were slower points.
However, many films were undeniably engaging and garnered lively responses from the over 100 attendees in the audience.
“The Hand that Feeds,” a one-minute claymation by Miranda Carlberg that gives the audiences the point of view of someone slicing and cooking a grotesque oozing hand, elicited visceral gasps from the audience.
The live action, “Remnants,” by Nika Arasteh, one of the more ambitious stories, received some of the most laughs — some, possibly unintended by the artist. In the relationship drama, the protagonist has a dramatic argument with a cruel boyfriend and later drinks herself into a stumbling episode, culminating in a special effects shot where she is obliterated by a car — all set to the DNCE tune “Cake by the Ocean,” blasting from her headphones.
The film and TV student base in the audience whooped and cheered when certain classmates appeared on screen or in credits sequences.
Showings from De Anza’s animation department were particularly impressive. Films such as “Shelter” and “Beyond the Screen” demonstrate strong understanding of storytelling, especially in the short film format.
“Shelter” by Dennis Tin Nguyen was the most refined product to come out of the show. The two minute short, a polished animation depicting a lowly lizard’s hazardous trek to a coveted pool of water in the desert, wastes no time. “Shelter” arguably had the highest laugh-to-minute ratio.
“Beyond the Screen,” by winner of the Chadwick Okamoto award scholarship for animation Steven Arguijo, comically subverts its suspenseful Slenderman-reminiscent VR horror plot with a warm-hearted ending.
“Leaky People” by Olena Kovtash, with haunting imagery of sad spindly faceless people, was the most emotionally impactful selection, and my personal favorite. Set to the weepy track, “El Jardin” by Hermanos Gutiérrez, the simple animation depicts the gut wrenching pain and subsequent emptiness faced when being overlooked, rejected and ignored.
Another personal favorite — influenced by my bias as a Star Wars fan — was “Bounty Claimed” by Isiah Arcila, an intricately choreographed stop-motion duel between action figures Boba Fett and Cad Bane, all taking place on a kitchen table. I would’ve stayed invested if the one-minute fight went on for another five.
For live action selections, some of the shortest and tightest projects came from the beginning 16mm film production classes taught by Rachel Silveria, such as “The Last Trace of Ink” and “Ka-ching!”
“The Last Trace of Ink,” by winner of the Chadwick Okamoto award for production Jinlong Wang, parallels the movement in tai chi and calligraphy to tell the story of a doctor losing a close patient.
Similarly, “Ka-ching” uses strong visual language and movement to be compelling with lock-off shots. The four-minute comedic commentary depicts an online shopaholic, increasingly overwhelmed with purchases, represented by huge red blobs of anxiety, which fill his house and force him outside.
Many films are unavailable online because of film festival circuit limitations.
I recommend any student or community member attend future showcases. If not for the entertainment value, go to witness the creativity of your De Anza peers from an often overlooked cohort and gauge for yourself how their storytelling talents stack up.
