Clarissa Stewart
Triangle Reporter
Nineteen students will display their films in the Broad Street Film Festival through a three-night event this weekend in downtown Chattanooga.
The festival began at Bryan seven years ago as a means for film students to showcase their work. Through the years the event has expanded and moved from Bryan’s campus to downtown Chattanooga with multiple showings of the films and an awards ceremony held at the Tivoli Theater.
The Broad Street Film Festival is now a not-for-profit organization under the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and features the films of students from Bryan College, Covenant College, Lee University, Chattanooga State Community College, Southern Adventist University and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Broad Street in downtown Chattanooga lent its name to the festival because it is the street where the Tivoli theater, the theater where the awards ceremony is held, is located.
Last year the event was smaller with only one night of film showings and no awards ceremony. However, the multiple day event promises to live up to former years with three event packed evenings coming this weekend.
On Thursday night student films will be shown at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Carmike Majestic 12 in Chattanooga. The film festival also includes an educational component where film students can learn from an independent film maker Friday night. The festival will conclude with an award ceremony at the Tivoli Theater on Saturday night, including awards for best actor, best actress, best director and people’s choice award. Attendees are also invited to an after party hosted by Covenant College.
Bryan junior Amy Morris is the event coordinator for the Broad Street Film Festival and has worked with a leadership team of students and professors from Covenant, Chattanooga State and Southern Adventist to plan the festival. Morris became involved after a recommendation from Dr. Randy Hollingsworth, professor of communication studies at Bryan College.
Morris has worked since the end of last semester to gather information, raise funds and begin planning the festival events. She is hoping to have over 1,000 people attend over the three nights.
The Broad Street Film Festival’s three goals are regional, educational and original work, and Morris highlighted this motto as the reasons students should attend.
“It’s great to see because of the fact that it’s your friends’ work. They’re learning and you get to enjoy that.” Morris said, “You don’t often, going to a small Christian school in Tennessee, get to go to something really classy in the Tivoli. So the awards night is just fun even if you don’t know any of the film makers or don’t get to go to the showings on Thursday night.”
Senior Nicole Thomas, a communications major with a film emphasis, submitted a film in the Broad Street Film Festival for the first time this year.
Thomas said she began writing and planning the film last semester after Chris Clark, assistant professor of communications studies, gave her and fellow senior film major Derek Batt a great opportunity to work with alumnus Matthew Rogers.
According to Thomas, Clark told her and Batt to “come up with something really good to film” because Rogers was going to let them use some of his equipment free of charge.
Thomas explained that Rogers owns a RED camera which is “the best on the market.”
“This particular model is called the Epic, if that gives you any idea how amazing this camera is. It’s a $58,000 camera, top of the line and gives really great quality footage,” said Thomas.
This semester Thomas coordinated a cast, crew and location for the one day shooting of her film. Thomas worked with an actors’ forum she found through Facebook to cast the three actors for her film “Just a Game.” Once the shooting was complete, it took Thomas almost a full month to edit her almost five-minute short film.
Thomas went to the film festival her freshman and sophomore years and said, “The film festival is great for Bryan students because it is really fun… There are some really great short films shown. I was blown away by some of the films; even if I didn’t love the film, there was something to be appreciated.”
Students who wish to buy tickets for either the film showings or the awards ceremony can visit www.showtix4u.com.