Sat 1/28
More than a century has passed since motion pictures allowed wide-eyed audiences to feel as though they were taking a worldly journey. That basic premise is still alive today in many forms, including the film short.
The medium is celebrated locally at the Standing Rock International Shorts Festival, which features animation, music videos, short comedy, experimental films, documentaries and more. The 14th annual affair is scheduled for Sat 1/28 at the Kent Stage. Filmmakers are vying for the Juried Choice and People’s Choice awards. The latter includes a $100 prize. The judges are looking for originality, technical skill and cultural relevance.
The festival begins with short films, including a competition where audience members can vote on their favorite. This will be followed by a screening of last year’s People’s Choice Winner “Speed Dating,” as well as a few other films by its director Meghann Artes. The evening ends with the inaugural local spotlights program highlighting shorts from Northeast Ohio filmmakers.
CoolCleveland talked to Standing Rock International Shorts festival director and local filmmaker Cindy Penter about the festival.
What are the origins of the Standing Rock Cultural Arts Shorts Festival?
Kent has a really good arts community there. We used to have several really good film series going on but those are gone. All we have left anymore is this film festival once a year.
Has the event grown over the years?
I think we’ve gotten a lot more attention from abroad. This year, we’ll be showing movies from England, Croatia and South Africa. Also important is, every year whoever won the prize for filmmaker by popular vote, the next year they’d invite them to submit a short compilation of work or a series of work. That helps for people not only just send in films for one time but they start sending us stuff on a regular basis.
How long have you been involved with the festival?
I taught at Kent State University and ran the film program for nearly six years. I’ve been involved with the festival from the beginning as a participant. At one point they ask me to be the invited filmmaker of the year and to show a short retrospective.
What’s the festival’s reputation?
People like to see shorts and there aren’t many opportunities for that. We’ve made sure whatever we pick they are entertaining. There’s been some heavy-hitting films. I remember one we had a couple years ago about immigration. It was kind of like hitting you in the gut but for the most part they are fairly entertaining and crowdpleaser type films.
This year marks the debut of a local spotlight. How did that come about?
Usually every year we’ve had somebody involved with the festival doing some kind of event onstage as the third act. And for many years, it was live music and film. This year we thought instead of having one long film piece with the music, why don’t we make the third act focused on local people?
How does the shorts festival fit into the Standing Rock Cultural Arts mission?
Standing Rock is a cultural organization that has a gallery and is very big on education and bringing more art events to the Kent area. So bringing film in is something that makes sense and is a big opportunity to have in Kent these days: People get to see quality and unusual type of film that you don’t get from the commercial cinemas that are available in Kent.
Finally, for those movie lovers not familiar with the shorts medium, why should they consider taking in the Standing Rock International Shorts Festival?
Because you get to see a lot of different kinds of voices and a lot of different kinds of ideas in a very compact evening of entertainment. It just gives people a chance to kind of go on a world tour. You get to go to a lot of different places in your mind.
Kent, OH 44240