SWFC's silver screen hasn't ever seen a weekend of all student-made films before now.
Thursday through Saturday, the ASUNM Southwest Film Center will host its First Annual Student Film Festival.
Roxy Traino, a Media Arts major, entered her experimental film, "Echoes Through the Eyes of Narcissus" into the competition.
"It's a collaborative work between Sarah Loft and I," she said. "It links three different environments, and it is edited in such a way that it became a rhythm of dance, rather than a traditional narrative. It makes a circle, and the characters identify with one another at the end."
Traino said she is excited to present her work in this new tradition at the Southwest Film Center.
"It's cool because in previous years they've done student showcases where teachers picked stuff from their classes," she said. "But in this situation, a lot of people who are not necessarily in the Media Arts Department have submitted things."
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Thomas Andrews, SWFC director, said from what he has seen of the films, there in some real talent in this state.
"Hopefully, the next directors of the Center will continue the festival and it will become a tradition of ASUNM and UNM," he said.
Andrews, along with Assistant Director David Herman, planned the event in order to motivate young filmmakers from around the state.
"There are a lot of artists and filmmakers here (in New Mexico) but nothing to look forward to every year," Andrews said. "I thought we could encourage more people to actually do something and increase their ambition in the artistic medium of film and video."
The directors of the event were very excited about the number of entries and the quality of the pieces that were submitted, Andrews said.
"In the past, the Film Center has tried to have a student film festival," Andrews said. "But it never got off the ground because there were not enough submissions."
This year, there were more than 35 submissions, about half of which were from UNM students. The SWFC chose 20 of these films to show on Thursday and Friday night. On Saturday, the Film Center will screen the winners of the festival.
Apple Computers, a sponsor of the event, will give away software prizes to the winners as well as hold an editing program demonstration.
All of the participants were required to be enrolled in either a high school or college in New Mexico. Their works were encouraged to be less than 20-minutes long and in the categories of experimental, narrative, documentary or music video. A panel of seven judges, all of whom have expertise in film, will judge the students' films, Andrews said.
"The judging will be based on content, editing, sound, scene setup, structure and the film as a whole," Andrews said.
What: Student Film Festival
When: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 4 p.m.
Where: Southwest Film Center
Price: $3 students, $5 general admission
