This week marks the beginning of the 4th annual City University Film Festival, a CUNY wide exhibition of remarkable short work produced by students and alumni, at a variety of CUNY venues. The festival begins March 14, 2012 and continues through Sunday March 18. In addition to showcasing some of CUNY’s best young filmmakers and productions, the festival also boasts some great workshops for up and coming filmmakers.
Opening night will be at CUNY’s Graduate Center in Midtown. In addition to the opening reception, the evening will boast a DSLR and film camera workshop, and Resource Fair for all CUNY based filmmakers, production companies, and screening series. Thursday night, Hunter will present a special collection of work by CUNY Faculty, including Rooftop Alum Sarah Christman’s Broad Channel, as well as feature documentary Living River by Vinit Parmar.
On Friday the Macaulay Honors College will host a Kickstarter/Fundraising panel hosted by festival coordinator Nick Shimkin, with a number of special guests, including Kickstarter’s own Elisabeth Holm from the department for Filmmaker Outreach. Other guests include CUNY alum and past honoree Adam Besheer (director of “Tribe“), and MFA candidate Sasha Wortzel, director of the upcoming documentary “We Came To Sweat” – both of whom have recently lead successful Kickstarter campaigns for their projects.
Back in Febrary, the fest hosted their own OCCUPY film series to highlight student work about, as well as their continued participation with, the NYC OCCUPY movement. The school’s own OCCUPY CUNY has been among the most present and active student protests, as students face tuition hikes and funding cuts in the coming years. The series included works by two Rooftop alumni from our own Films for the Occupation: Martha Colburn’s Occupy Wall Street and We the People Have Found Our Voice, by Iva Radivojevic and Martyna Starosta.
If you’re not yet convinced to attend this exciting (and free) festival event, head over to the CUFF website and have a look at the series past selections. This is a great opportunity (especially for CUNY students and alum!) to meet and network with independent filmmakers, and to be exposed to a collection of exceptional work produced by CUNY students and alum, representing the city’s most diverse student population from all 23 CUNY schools.
For a look at the full festival schedule head over the CUFF @ Macaulay website. Events begin TONIGHT and last throughout the week. See you there!