MOND AY, FEBRU ARY 10, 2014 + VOLU M E 24 . IS S U E 10
OPINION
FEATURE
SPORTS
Tips on dating, love for Valentine’sDay
Cautionary tales for students
Panthers dominate all around
The Revenge of the Chaffey Review Festival strikes audiences with a vengeance
MICHELLE MENES
Faculty advisors Michelle Dowd and Mohammad Shahisaman present golden VHS tapes to the directors of the films featured in the Revenge of the Chaffey Review Film Festival.
ROBERTO HERNANDEZ The award-winning Chaffey Review literary magazine hosted its second annual film festival on Saturday, Feb. 1. In addition to serving as a platform for independent filmmakers to showcase their talents, the event also celebrated the release of the 11th volume. “We wanted to add film submissions as a way to expand the definition of narrative,” Professor Michelle Dowd said in describing the reasons for starting the festival. With all that the magazine has done to promote literature, visual art, poetry, and music, motion pictures seemed like a logical progression. The festival featured a wide variety of genres and styles, including an animated feature, two music videos, and a documentary. At 6 p.m. the eager crowd began to be seated, leaving few empty seats. “We almost had to start turning people away for fear of creating a fire hazard,” said Mohammad Shahisaman, half jokingly. “We might even need to implement a ticketing system next year. Or move to a bigger
venue, maybe AMC.” That may actually be necessary considering how well-received the event was. The audience responded favorably to the movies shown. Among them, not a single boo or tomato thrown. Among the audience’s favorite films was “Young Adults,” a romantic comedy directed by Anthony Troli. The short was funded on kickstarter, successfully surpassing its modest goal of $1,500 with $1,569. From the first shot, the movie delivers big laughs from the crowd, often drowning out a few lines of spoken dialogue. There were even a few sentimental “awws” during one of the film’s more dramatic moments. The last film shown was a documentary called “Dogtags to Textbooks,” a surprisingly sentimental look at student veterans. The film was directed by Professor Charmaine Phipps. It was partially inspired by Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” influencing the director to ask what each veteran carried on their respective campaigns. During some of the interviews, several of the veterans found themselves in tears, recounting heartfelt stories of near death,
friends lost, and even happy times in the service. “Don’t ask me if I ever killed anyone,” several of them responded, when asked what questions one should never ask a veteran. When the final film concluded, all of the directors took to the stage and were each presented with a golden VHS, one of which (allegedly) housed the buddy-stoner comedy “Dude Where’s My Car.” After the screening, a second post-event event took place. Pizza was served, live music was performed and everyone seemed to enjoy the merriment. The two bands that performed were Future Love and Pixikill, both of whom had their music videos featured in the festival. Both were directed by the multi-talented sister duo Pixikill. During the after-party, “Young Adults” was presented with the audience choice award. The 11th volume of the Chaffey Review, which was named the best multi-genre california two-year college literary arts magazine of 2013 by the English Council of California Two-Year Colleges, is now available for purchase.
MICHELLE MENES
Jeremy Law performs on the violin in the theatre lobby before the film festival on Feb. 1.