Monday, March 07, 2011

Filmmaker Isaiah "Izzy" Powers, co-director of the Student Academy Award-winning animation "Dried Up," will kick off the inaugural VISIONS Film Festival & Conference at the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a keynote address on Friday, April 1 at 9 a.m. in Lumina Theater. A recent graduate from the Kansas City Art Institute, Powers will share his personal experiences as an undergraduate filmmaker, how he found his current path and what it takes to succeed in the film industry.

A screening of Powers' artistically triumphant animation "Dried Up" will precede his address. This short film tells the endearing story of a quiet old man who is surrounded by desolation and apathy, yet perseveres to remain true to the nature of his own beliefs and character. He toils daily to forge a last-ditch effort to bring hope and life to a faithless, drought-ridden old town."

Hosted by UNCW's Department of Film Studies, VISIONS is the first ever international film festival and conference showcasing exclusively undergraduate filmmakers and scholars together in one forum. The film scholars' conference will follow Powers' address with two sessions, one at 10 a.m. and one at 1:30 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.

The 2011 film scholarship presentation line-up includes:

"Carole Lombard as a Transcendental Comic" by Olympia Kiriakou (Florida Atlantic University) Examines Carole Lombard's influence on screwball comedy and the ways in which her characters challenged conventional notions of screwball femininity.

"Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge: The Function of Song and Dance Sequences in Bollywood Cinema" by Christina Simon (University of North Carolina Wilmington)
Looks at the origins, sources and functions of the musical numbers used in Bollywood films, as well as the influence of censorship and culture on Bollywood's creative approaches.

"Michael Snow and SSHTOORTY: The Collision of Two Spheres of Avant-Garde Cinema" by Jacob Mertens (University of North Carolina Wilmington)
Analyzes Michael Snow's SSHTOORTY and how its aesthetic principles pay homage to structuralism while still expressing the visions of post-modernism.

"Hotel Chevalier and the Lancelot Proper" by Alexandra Flores (University of Florida) Examines Wes Anderson's short film Hotel Chevalier and its curious similarities with the medieval French Arthurian romance the Prose Lancelot.

"Lose Yourself in Oz: Memory and Nation in Baz Luhrmann's Australia and the 'Come Walkabout' Tourism Campaign" by Carolyn Lake (Flinders University, Australia) Explores the creation and exhibition of Luhrmann's Australian narrative(s) and questions the function of these stories on Australian public memory at home and abroad.

"Echoes of Alienation: Nostalgia in Transnational Cinema" by Melika Hadziomerovic (University of Florida) A contemporary look at Transnational Cinema, which argues that a yearning for cultural identity is the root cause of urban alienation.

"Character Empathy and Moral Judgment in Pre-1908 Cinema" by Matthew Hepburn (Warwick University, UK) Argues that, contrary to Tom Gunning's theory, films belonging to the 'cinema of attractions' did indeed have the capacity to elicit empathy and evaluate the morality of their characters' actions.

"Hollywood Responds to Sexual Modernity: The Comedy Films of Ernst Lubitsch and Buster Keaton" by Jesse Maiman (Yale University) Uses three films, The Marriage Circle by Ernst Lubitsch and The Navigator, as well as Sherlock, Jr., both by Buster Keaton, to compare and contrast how the two directors used sexual modernity as a source of comedy.

"The Digital Void: Using CGI and Cinematography to its Full Potential in Enter the Void" by Royce Marcus (University of North Carolina Wilmington) Analyzes how Gasper Noe's film Enter the Void (2009) utilizes computer-generated imagery to enhance the overall film unlike other contemporaries who may be misusing CGI effects.

VISIONS will bring to Wilmington scholarly works and well-crafted films from the next generation of academy and industry leaders from across the U.S. plus Europe and Australia, to foster an inclusive undergraduate community and provide an enriching film experience.

All sessions of the VISIONS Film Festival and Conference are free and open to the public. A more detailed schedule will be released at a later date.

Media Contacts:
Dana Fischetti, media relations manager, UNCW, 910.508.3127 or fischettid@uncw.edu
or
Andy Myers, student festival and conference contact, 910.599.7447 or atm2865@uncw.edu