2005, 38TH ANNUAL HUMBOLDT INT’L FILM FESTIVAL
Welcome to the thirty-eighth annual Humboldt International Short Film Festival! The oldest student-run film festival in the world, HISFF was founded in 1967 by Humboldt State University students and continues to bring new experimental and independent works in cinema to Humboldt County each year. We strive to promote the art of filmmaking as well as to support and acknowledge independent and student filmmakers.
The festival begins in the fall of each year; the film festival committee hosts fund-raisers and issues a Call for Entries to filmmakers around the world. Filmmakers who are respected within the cinema community and whose work inspires the three student co-directors are sought to act as the festival’s judges. They are invited to spend festival week in Arcata and make the final awards decisions. Submission deadlines are set for the end of the year and entries are screened and rated by the student committee during the spring semester. Entries with the highest ratings are passed on to be screened by the three festival judges. Award winners are selected here.
The week-long festival features workshops with the judges and screenings of their work followed by People’s Choice Night and Best of the Fest.
FILM FESTIVAL CO-DIRECTORS
MICHEL SARGENT
Michel Sargent was raised in the small Northern Sacramento Valley Town of Red Bluff, CA and has lived in Humboldt County for over eight years. He has been part of the local activist and music scene including playing synthesizer and tapes for numerous bands. While designing fliers for the local all-ages venue the Placebo, he fell in love with the collage process which he then transferred to found sound and eventually film. Michel will graduate in May 2006 and plans to move to a faraway land with his wife Julie and raise a large family of furry non-humans.
CHRISTA DICKMAN
Due to the malfunction of a van, Christa Dickman was born and raised on the Gulf Coast of Florida. She developed a relationship with visual composition while studying at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She moved to California in 2002, where she spent a year and a half in Yosemite National Park. Soon afterward she found herself in Arcata by way of another van and is currently a Senior at HSU in the film department. Her post graduation plans are too numerous for this margin to contain.
AMANDA BLANCHARD
Originally from New York, Amanda Blanchard moved to California eight years ago. She is a Junior at HSU majoring in film. She began in creative writing and photography and has translated her passion for visual storytelling to film. Plans for the future include Cal and Arts and/or creation of Columbia films. University to continue her study and creation of films.
FILM FESTIVAL FACULTY ADVISOR
MARY CRUSE
Mary Cruse is an edit away from an M.A. in Film at HSU. She has been involved with the Film Festival for four years, serving as Co-Director last year and stepping forward as this year’s festival advisor and hero. The Co-Directors cannot thank her enough for her hard work, dedication, support and friendship.
FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS
AWARDS
Best NarrativeAll Fall Down – Rebecca Ormand
Ledo Matteoli AwardLegends of Echo Park – Dr. Jules Medina
Best Documentary
Purify – Marisa Pearl
Best Experimental
Spam Letter + Google Image Search = Video Entertainment – Andre Silva
Juror’s Choice: Doug Wolens
My Most Important Self-Portrait – James Barany
Juror’s Choice: Nami Uman
Phantom Limb – Jay Rosenblatt
Alice Guy Blache Award
Post-Industrial Symphony – Jason Middleton
Best of the Fest
Uso Justo – Scott Coleman Miller
Best Animation
Whan – Jaehung Ju
Dorothy June Romano Robertisini Banana Slug Award
It Could Happen to You – Elizabeth Henry
Jim Demulling Speak Out Award
Struggle in the Woods – Remedy (Jen Card)
Juror’s Choice: Craig Baldwin
Reckless Eyeballing
ABOUT THE AWARDS
In addition to each category’s top winners, honorable mentions and Best of the Fest, HISFF features four additional awards for merit in filmmaking.
The Alice Guy Blache Award for Celebration of Film
was created in honor of Alice Guy Blache, who began making films in the 1890s and is known as the “Founding Mother” of Cinema. This award is for an entry which was specifically shot and screened in film and that showcases the beauty of film as a medium.
The Ledo Matteoli Award for Best Immigrant Story celebrates the contribution immigrants have made to American culture. The son of Italian immigrants, Ledo Matteoli was raised in Arcata and graduated from Humboldt State College, was a WWII veteran and had a long career as a teacher here in Humboldt county.
The Jim Demulling Speak Out Award promotes consciousness-raising films or digital videos. It was created to celebrate the life of Demulling, an activist, conservationist and lover of life until his passing ten years ago. A resident of Humboldt County for fifty years, he believed it was an obligation as a citizen to speak out for the truth of one’s heart, soul and mind.
The Dorothy June Romano Robertisini Banana Slug Award for Surrealism was established over twenty years ago by Romano Robertisini, a great film enthusiast and a lover of all that is surreal. We thank him for his continued support of our festival across the decades.
FILM FESTIVAL JUDGES AND GUEST FILMMAKER
Naomi Uman
JUDGE
Celebrated experimentalist Naomi Uman is an independent filmmaker in the truest sense; she films, processes and edits her own films by hand. Her award-winning work has been shown at festivals around the world.
Doug Wolens
JUDGE
Wolen’s work has been screened at film festivals throughout the world, including Sundance, Seattle, and Mill Valley. The successful self-distribution of his feature documentaries WEED (1996) and BUTTERFLY (2000) yielded theatrical screenings in over 80 cities.
Craig Baldwin
JUDGE
Baldwin’s work represents a political engagement with film; his use of found footage raises important questions concerning the ‘authenticity’ of the document and the meaning of copyright and so-called ‘piracy.’ Baldwin teaches at San Francisco State University and organizes film screenings at A.T.A. (Artists’ Television Access) Gallery, an oppositional, underground screening space in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Chuck Hudina
GUEST FILMMAKER
Underground Filmmaker Chuck Hudina will make a special appearance at the 38th Humboldt International Short Film Festival.