Film and Digital Media’s annual Fall Showcase

David Jerome
Correspondent

The Idyllwild Arts Academy Film Department has until now held its annual showcase of student work in the spring, at the end of the academic year. Students have watched as their colleagues in music, dance, theater and visual arts present their works, and had to wait their turn. With the pandemic, even that was unavailable, and this year the Fall Showcase was born to alleviate the “bottleneck.”

The program thus includes works from this semester and earlier years. Due to the continuing public health emergency, this year’s Nov. 23 event was not open to the public, but the films are all viewable online through Vimeo.

The works are almost all collaborations, and each student may act as the director of their own film, the producer of another, an actor in a third, a technician for others. “Delegating” is an important skill for an aspiring filmmaker. The students introduced the showcase in pairs, some in scripted dialogs, some improvising, some bobbing and weaving with opening-night nerves. Through these mini-collaborations, they described the elements of the film making process, from idea and story to script, then screen play, location and costumes, blocking each scene, cinematography, sound, editing and post-production.

The student presenters described the way writing problems may seem impossible until a creative spark shows the way. “Finding the narrative, we find ourselves… The goal is to thrive in creation and in ourselves,” said one. As in all the arts, the object is to move the viewer and the young filmmakers are handling the tools of art to that end; a cinematographer shoots caring about what will appear on screen, creating the right mood for the film. An editor can make an audience feel something with every cut and seeks out the best version of a film.

Working hard on the projects of other students helps them achieve their own goals, and the fast-paced schedule is an introduction to the time-is-money world outside school. Ella Garnes, a senior, said, “I just produced five films at the same time.” They learn about stress, about the accidents that can happen, and about putting safety first and looking out for their people.

The films ranged from under a minute to over 20. Some were self portraits, some narrative mini-features. A self portrait can be a student sitting in a chair with their thoughts appearing in handwriting, (Demir Koksal’s “Me”) or a collage of childhood video and stills bringing us to the present (Sarah Sicad’s “Self Portrait”). “What It’s Like To Be A Teenager,” by Amira Kopeyeva, tells us exactly that, for those who have forgotten or haven’t experienced it yet.

When the film is not explicitly autobiographical, there is often the question in a viewer’s mind: Where does reality end and fiction begin? “Worst Critic” by Isabella Bastos takes self doubt and multiplies it kaleidoscopically, one of several projects that follow simple ideas to a satisfying and virtuoso conclusion. Zach Russo’s “Self Portrait” is an ambitious weaving of inner turmoil and wildfire-driven anxiety familiar to Idyllwilders. Lulu Chiang’s “Vinyl Beginning” shows an older man brought back to his youth by the music in his collection of LPs.

Film can also reach out to the static visual arts and music; the brief but beautiful “Portraits” is a pair of painterly scenes. Skyler Lee’s portrait of mourning and letting go, “Bye” exists in between narrative and painting. Ella Garnes’ “IDY Desk” is one of a series of band showcases inspired by National Public Radio’s “Tiny Desk” concerts.

In the narrative films we feel we are in good hands, stories unfold and we go along willingly. There is sardonic and poignant humor (Isabella Bastos’ “Midnight Art Class”, Lenny Borzov’s “A Small Review of a Complicated Life”) and brutal realism (April McDonald’s “Rotten”). Several films treated relationships, from a very real and claustrophobic mise-en-scene on sisterhood (Athene Strebe’s “Adelphes”) to imaginary companions (Molly Ritter’s “The Angel” and Tristan Kim’s jazzy “Earth Angel.”)

Longer narratives included the computer animation “Space Engineer” by David Liu, the gritty and otherworldly “Memento Mori” by Wyatt Rosenthal, Jae Jeon’s animated fantasy “Taking a Shower in the Morning.”

Max Popov’s “Pavlik” is a startlingly mature one-act set in communist Russia; a son announces he has joined the “young pioneers.” The father reveals the uncomfortable truth about the fate of a neighbor. Here all elements of the collaboration produce a consistent feel and sense of place and time that, like the best in the showcase, doesn’t look like a student film.

The whole collection can be viewed at Vimeo.com/showcase/9031693. The password is FDM2021. idyllwildarts.org also provides a link.