Get Ready!

  

      Now is the time to start buttoning up your edits on the 2007 movie submissions to the Big Screen Showcase. We have made the festival slightly more competitive this year by moving up the CALL FOR ENTRY to March 14, 2007. All producers that want to compete for prizes must have their movies in by the deadline. Go here to enter your movie, print entry forms, and mail them in with your media.

        Winners from the Big Screen Showcase are automatically entered into the Chicago Film Festival. Last year, three movies from the 2005 Big Screen Showcase were selected for screening. Its a huge deal because they solicit world wide and received 581 submissions. Of all those movies, Humboldt County based Chisa Hughes won a Certificate of Merit for her first movie, "Working to Survive Behind Barbed Wire: The Nisei Interned." Her documentary portrays the living conditions for Japanese Americans in the interment camps set up in the United States during WWll.

         Central Recycling Agency- Director/producer Caleb Price gives up a sci-fi twist to this educational movie about the importance of our recycling effort. Good acting, great special effects, and conceptually sweet.


       Another noteworthy movie that entered itself into the Chicago film festival, after screening at the 2005 Showcase is Wiggyman Productions' "Waking Up," a spellbinder about a young man capable of seeing the future. Producer/director Rameen Aryanpur, good writing and good acting. The editor was really paying attention.

Another News Article

 

A News Article, by The Eureka Reporter.


      A 16-year-old budding filmmaker’s work featured in Young Media Makers 2006 Big Screen Showcase has garnered a Certificate of Merit from the 2006 Future Filmmakers Festival, which was presented by Cinema/Chicago June 16-18.

      Young Media Makers founder/director Barbara Domanchuk submitted North Coast Preparatory and Performing Arts Academy student Chisa Hughes’ documentary “Working to Survive Behind Barbed Wire: The Nisei Interned” and the film was one of 581 submitted to the festival from across the United States.

      The documentary is about the second-generation Japanese Americans, the Nisei, interned during World War II. Her film research included interviewing her grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends, who were all interned.

      Hughes made the film at age 14. It was a culmination of a research project, completed during the first semester of her freshman year at the Arcata-based North Coast Prep.

      Hughes said that she hopes to educate fellow teens through her film.

      "I believe that it's easier for teens to absorb and learn through visual means than through text," she said.

Click here to view the original article

News Article by the Times-Standard

  

A News Article, by The Times-Standard

      Young filmmakers converged at the College of the Redwoods last Saturday to present their work at the fifth annual Young Media Makers Big Screen Showcase. Shot and produced by Humboldt area students, 23 short films were shown at CR's Forum Theater to a small but attentive audience. The event not only gave young media artists a chance to show off their wares, but a diversity of film styles and methodologies where clearly in evidence.

      In her introduction, Showcase director Barbara Domanchuk explained that the program began in 2001 and was aided in part by grants from the Northcoast Cultural Trust and other organizations. Domanchuk has spearheaded a movement to bring media awareness into area schools, and has worked with others to develop programs at Arcata, Eureka and Fortuna High Schools. Also, speaking about a related media program at Bridgeville School, instructor Virginia Howard-Mullan explained how she uses technology to support the standard school curriculum.

      Brent Rasmussen of Cox, Rasmussen and Cross kicked off the Showcase with a lively discussion of the role of film in media advertising, and described the world of a commercial media producer. His agency-produced “Start Here” was shown to demonstrate how some of the tools of his trade are utilized in the business of promotion. In a phone interview, Rasmussen said he has to stay open minded because the technology changes so fast.

      ”Video software becomes more intuitive as it advances and improves,” said Rasmussen in a phone interview, “and I always like to see young people using this sophisticated software because they're going to be the ones to do something new with it.

      ”People who are in their 20s are the ones cranking this stuff out because they have the energy.”

      A high point of the media showcase was a documentary on civil rights activist Shirley Chisholm featuring an interview with her campaign manager of 1972, when she ran for president. Other memorable moments include a glimpse into a large Portuguese family, animation shorts lasting only a few seconds, and a comedy featuring local actor Rick St. James. All short subject media projects were presented in filmless digital format and put on the big screen by means of a DVD projector.

      Student participants included Anita Law, Genny St. Charles-Monet, Pat Flannery, Eli Purpura-Pontoniere, Mark Bradford, Alicia Butler, Cris Weiderman, Lars Rasmussen, Alex Church, Clark Parvis, Nic Flenghi, Mathew Salano, Markis Shirley, Alan Norton, Zack Loheed, Dara Katzdorn and Desi Adams. Special honors were passed out for “best music video” to Genny St. Charles-Monet; “best documentary” to Dara Katzdorn; and “best in experimental film” to Pat Flannery. With Chris Weiderman, Flannery won best in animation.