by Billy Findley
Sports Editor
The hour is waning. All those months of writing, planning, filming, editing and sweating will hopefully pay off for Bryan film majors anxious to see the results of their latest films at the Broad Street Film Festival in Chattanooga, April 22-24. According to the film makers and those planning the event, the festival should be a dandy.
“I think there are a lot of reasons to be excited about this because there are such a great variety of films coming from Bryan this year,” senior Phillip Johnston said.
Last year, Bryan broke with tradition and featured films not only produced by the Bryan College film department but also by students of Covenant College (Lookout Mt., Ga.). This year, the festival alterations are even more significant.
First and foremost of these alterations is that the festival is no longer going to be a Bryan College event. Rather it is hosted by a separate non-profit organization funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and will be featuring films not just from two schools this year but three (possibly four counting UTC): Bryan College, Covenant College and Southern Adventist University (Collegedale, Tenn.). Southern Adventist has had an established film program for the last 10 years, according to Bryan Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Chris Clark.
Another noteworthy change is that the films will literally be showing on the big screens at the Carmike Majestic 12 movie theater in Chattanooga. This is a tremendous change from last year’s venue at the Bijou.
“This is the biggest step the film culture has taken in presenting its work to the Chattanooga community at large,” Johnston said. “It’s great for the filmmakers and the students.”
The film festival is a three-day event which begins with the showing of the films in the Majestic theater on Thursday, April 22. All the viewings are open to the public. The second day, film students will get the privilege of meeting and listening to independent film director Scott Teems, director and writer of the film “That Evening Sun.” And of course, the awards ceremony will take place the final day of the festival at the grand Tivoli Theater in Chattanooga.
“We stepped it up last year, and I think it’s going to be even better this year,” Clark said.
The awards ceremony will include many of the same elements included in last year’s awards night, according to Clark, with multiple school bands performing, clips shown of the films and obviously the awards and the speeches and lots of tuxedos and fancy gowns. There will also be three new awards offered for this ceremony including awards for Best Documentary, Best Original Screenplay and Best Music Video.
One major alteration to the award’s night as opposed to last year’s will be the length of the actual ceremony, according to Clark. What was three hours long last year will hopefully be trimmed to about one hour and 45 minutes this year. There will also be a professional master of ceremony’s hired for the event as well.
“We’re trying to pull in the city,” Clark said. “We’ll be hitting the media outlets in print, on the Internet, television… many people have given money for this event from corporations and organizations.”
Clark said he highly recommends students become fans of the Broad Street Film Festival on Facebook. Student tickets for the festival will go on sale April 14-16. The ticket will cover the cost of both the film viewings at The Carmike Majestic 12 as well as the awards ceremony at the Tivoli.