![\"TFF-2013-overview\"](\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/files\/2014\/02\/TFF-2013-overview.jpg\")
<\/a>by Mary Howard<\/i><\/p>\nThe idea for a Trinity film festival started as many great ideas do\u2013serendipitously.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sequence of events was uncanny,\u201d says Dean of Students Fred Alford. \u201cIn October 2011, Rick Cleary \u201985 approached me with the idea of hosting an intercollegiate film festival at Trinity. He argued there could be no better venue in the country than Cinestudio\u2013\u2018It would be like playing intramurals in Fenway Park.\u2019 He just needed a campus champion.\u201d The next day, John Michael Mason \u201912, then a senior, walked into Alford\u2019s office with the same idea.<\/p>\n
Across campus, Milla Riggio, James J. Goodwin Professor of English, Cinestudio board member, and active proponent of Trinity\u2019s emerging film program, was anticipating a visit from the founder of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, which has a tie with The University of the West Indies. Riggio thought a student festival might be created at Trinity if Mason could be engaged to organize it. Soon after, Assistant Professor of English James Prakash Younger, Riggio\u2019s film studies colleague, met with Cleary and Mason to discuss bringing a film festival to Trinity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to watch a great idea flourish and take fire in someone\u2019s mind, heart, and soul,\u201d says President James F. Jones, Jr., who has supported Mason\u2019s vision from the beginning. \u201cEach year, the quality and number of entries has gotten better. John Michael Mason is the Pied Piper of student filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a>Amy Poon \u201912 greets patrons of the inaugural Trinity Film Festival in 2012.<\/p><\/div>\n
Now in its third year, the Trinity Film Festival (TFF) attracts some of the country\u2019s most talented collegiate filmmakers. The festival boasts critically acclaimed judges and the backing of notable industry professionals, including Hollywood director Stephen Gyllenhaal \u201972.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that shines a spotlight on our unique assets here at Trinity,\u201d says Mason. Those assets include Cinestudio\u2013the 500-seat, volunteer-staffed, state-of-the-art theater located on campus. Operated and managed by James Hanley \u201972 and Peter McMorris \u201973 since they founded it as students, the 1930s-style movie palace has been a second home to many film lovers at Trinity, including Mason and Gyllenhaal. \u201cTrinity Film Festival is the premier venue for student filmmakers to show off their work,\u201d says Mason. \u201cIt couldn\u2019t happen without Cinestudio.\u201d<\/p>\n
TFF 2013 received more than 40 submissions from students as far away as Texas and California. Of these, 21 short films were featured at the event. \u201cAt first people assumed the festival was only for Trinity students, but right from the beginning, we had a broader vision,\u201d says Mason, who was a Karl Kurth Scholar.<\/p>\n
To be considered, films must be no longer than 10 minutes. And that\u2019s difficult, says Cleary, COO of a Boston-based investment firm. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get your message across in just 10 minutes. These students do a fantastic job.\u201d<\/p>\n The festival awards several cash prizes thanks to Cleary\u2019s support. In 2013, the top prize went to Charlie Redd, a junior from New York University, for his comedy, Reservations<\/i>, about a young man who discovers that heaven is actually an old and overbooked hotel. \u201cThe Trinity Film Festival not only offered me the chance to screen my short film in front of a responsive audience at a beautiful venue, it was also an opportunity to meet other young filmmakers, to learn from their work, and to be inspired by them,\u201d he said at the awards ceremony.<\/p>\n The birth and rise of the festival comes as no surprise to Cleary. \u201cThis is the quintessential Trinity story,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about how a student can come up with an idea, collaborate with Trinity peers, faculty, staff, alumni, and the president of the College, and make it happen. There are few places where a student can do that. It also helps that John Michael is one gifted individual.\u201d Riggio echoes those sentiments. \u201cJohn Michael has vision and an amazing capacity for organization. He\u2019s the kind of person who makes things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Mason, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, designed his own interdisciplinary major in American cultural history. He captained the varsity track team for two years and founded the Trinity Film Society, which holds film-related events at Cinestudio. \u201cHe\u2019s an exceptional young man,\u201d says Jones. \u201cHe ran with this idea\u2013as fast as he ever ran for a track meet.\u201d In fact, the idea for TFF came to Mason when Cinestudio held a special screening of Stanley Kubrick\u2019s The Shining<\/i>. Mason had produced a 12-minute film that was shown before the classic thriller. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t going to win an Oscar, but I loved seeing my work on the big screen,\u201d he says. That\u2019s when Mason approached Alford.<\/p>\n John Michael Mason \u201912, director of the Trinity Film Festival<\/p><\/div>\n Now a graduate student at Trinity studying for a master\u2019s in American studies with a focus in American history and serving as an assistant coach for Trinity\u2019s track and cross-country teams, Mason had no idea how much work putting together a national film festival would entail. \u201cThe short answer is that I put in a lot of hours,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Mason, who grew up outside Boston, spends much of his time pitching the festival to talented film students and recruiting student volunteers. As TFF\u2019s director, he oversees everything from the selection of judges to the catering for the awards banquet. Fortunately, he has help from students, who this year include computer science major and Thomas J. and Frank A. Hagarty Scholar Liam Doran \u201914, who, working with graduate Scotty Eckenthal \u201912, is building the 2014 TFF Web site. \u201cIt\u2019s really about the team,\u201d says Doran. \u201c[TFF] has the same vibe as a start-up. It\u2019s young people building something from the ground up.\u201d<\/p>\n As Mason and his team look forward to the third festival, which is scheduled for May 3, 2014, at Cinestudio, efforts are under way to make the event self-sustaining.<\/p>\n \u201cTrinity Film Festival is about so much more than screening movies,\u201d says Mason. \u201cIt\u2019s more than just the film\u2013it\u2019s about the atmosphere, the overall experience, and the magic around the movies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trinity Film Festival to mark third year by Mary Howard The idea for a Trinity film festival started as many great ideas do\u2013serendipitously. \u201cThe sequence of events was uncanny,\u201d says Dean of Students Fred Alford. \u201cIn October 2011, Rick Cleary … Continue reading <\/a>Trinity talent is also represented\u2013in 2013, filmmakers Erik Bloomquist \u201914, QuestBridge Scholar Bettina Gonzalez \u201916, and K.C. Clark \u201913 took part. In 2012, Four Miles<\/i>, a film by Brian Plungis \u201914, came in second place, and Intervention: Smartphone,<\/i> by Anson McCook \u201912, received Honorable Mention in the audience choice category.<\/p>\n<\/a>Award-winning director and writer Lauren Wolkstein, a judge at the 2013 festival, says the event is \u201ca wonderful showcase of the emerging talent coming out of undergraduate film programs around the U.S.\u201d Wolkstein was named one of the top 25 emerging filmmakers at the 2011 New York Film Festival.<\/p>\n<\/a>