Written by Amanda Toye
A group of students from the film department attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah Jan. 26-31. While at the festival, the students viewed new movies, heard from different producers and attended the Winderider Summit.
Sophomore Kimber Eike attended the festival for the second time in her college career.
“I really like movies–I always have,” Eike said. “In middle school, I would make little iMovies with my friends and little TV shows. It was always fun because they always liked to act and I never liked to do it but I liked to film it and edit it. That all kind of led to this.”
Sophomore Allexia Ferren has been passionate about film and creative projects for years.
“When I was younger, I would always have a camera in my hand,” Ferren said. “My parents bought me a camcorder and so I always just recorded the little things. I was fascinated with that.”
The Sundance Film Festival has become a beloved trip among film students and faculty alike.
“Every morning at nine we would have the Windrider summit which was basically a convention where we would have different guest speakers and they would show off the little projects that they were doing and kind of connect it to their faith,” Ferren said. “That would last from nine to twelve and after that we were kind of our own for the rest of the day. There were four different theaters we could go to for our movies and we would get around on public transportation.”
Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s version of Lord of the Rings, was one of the judges for the projects at the film festival.
“We could also go on main street for events. Elijah Wood was there so a few of us saw Elijah Wood.” Eike said.
Eike said her favorite movie she viewed is called “Deaf President Now!” which will be released on Apple TV sometime this year. Ferren enjoyed “Rains over Babble.” which can be viewed online from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2.
One of the founding film department professors, Dr. Charles Bane, attended the film festival alongside the students this year.
“What I always tell students is we don’t promise you you’re going to be Steven Spielberg, but we will give you the skills necessary to get a job in an increasingly visual world,” Bane said. “There are jobs out there for writers, videographers, editors, ect… Even if they don’t make it in Hollywood they can definitely find jobs creating content.”
