Where: Natural Science Auditorium
When: Today 4 pm – 12 pm
What: Student films made throughout the semester
Film range from narrative to experimental, silent to noisy, black and white to explosions of color.
Hosted by Chad and Riley of “The Secret Show” fame, today promises to be as good, if not better than yesterday’s festival.
A selection of what you will see:
Your Hosts
Aside from the lack of popcorn, Lightworks Winter 2014 was remarkably better than its fall semester counterpart. Not only were the films more polished, but his time the audience was granted the pleasure of actual hosts. The festival programs, were entirely correct this time around, and by the end of the first night, the audience itself was close to filling the entire Natural Science Auditorium.
The key difference between Lightworks and other festivals is that you often see professors sitting down the row from students, just as exciting to see the finished product as the student. Since these films were all made for classes, you can tell which class they came from by their nature.
Films from the 400-level classes are reserved for the end. These films—Toast and (?)–deserve their place at the finale of the festival because their production quality is astonishingly close to a professional big-budget film. Below this are the 300-level films, which entail the intermediate production classes. These categories emphasis narrative, are coherent, and overall films that you would feel comfortable watching with your parents.
Other films get weird and experimental and, in many cases, exciting. One of the best reasons to go to a film festival is to experience all of the avant-garde student films that display raw talent. When I say raw talent, I mean films that make you question what you just watched, yet you want to watch them again. Fancy animated projects manifested themselves as psychedelic dystopian computer work and kaleidoscopic aesthetics. There were also wonderful hand-drawn animations, of a dog disrupting Santa as he gets ready for Christmas Eve.
The animations were juxtaposed with live action pieces that leave you breathless. It is unbelievable the talent that is displayed in these films, both in the dancers moving their bodies on screen and in the plethora of editing techniques that make the films a psychedelic wonderland. They are a comedic, talented, astonishing.
A change from previous years is the influx of silent films. While seeing student projects made on real 16mm film is wonderful, last night seemed to alternate them with their sound-equipped video counterparts. In some instances this meant an awkward transition from a modern video to a more classical art-house piece. I enjoyed both types, but I wonder if it would be possible to separate the categories completely: all of the films in one section and all of the videos in another section. This way the audience could get into a certain mood for one or the other without constant disruption.
The hosts, Chad and Riley, have made quite a name for themselves. Veterans of the acting circuit and appearing in several of the Lighworks films, they made a name for themselves as a duo by appearing in The Secret Show, a quirky underground video podcast that premiered earlier this semester.
Like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, these comedians were a welcome change from the regular hosting by FVSA students. Keeping up with the fashion of reading live tweets during intermissions, they interacted with the audience and created an organic, relaxing atmosphere for everyone.
Small technical difficulties seemed to plague the projectionists. Since there were so many transitions between 16mm films and videos, the projectionist was constantly changing from one format to the other so the audience would often be waiting in the dark for longer than normal. On top of that, a few of the films were blown out to the extent that one could not tell what was in half of the shots. Most alarming of all as a trace of lag that I saw in a couple of the films. Since most projects are exported in high definition format, I assume the computer has trouble rendering them fast enough sometimes. At any rate, it was a disappointment to see impressive special effects lagging because of the very technology that created them.
To end this on a high note, I only need to remind readers that Lightworks is 100% free. This is a two day festival, over eight hours long, and you can walk inside with nothing but the clothes on your back. It was a pleasure to watch these amazing films knowing that I go to school with the students that make these films. As always, I recommend Lightworks to everyone.
A Couple Samples of the films shown last night:
Kickstarter Video for “George O. Duncan”
What? Free comedy to relieve the stress of your exams if you pick up a passport to the arts! Yeah!
When: Tonight(!) at 8 pm
Where: Mendelssohn Theater
How: bike, drive, camel, crawl, etc.
COMCO is one of U of M’s oldest and best comedy groups so check them out at their show!
If anyone of you has grown up watching Rocky and Bull Winkle- then they must have caught glimpses of Mr. Peabody and Sherman. People might have noticed a very smart- scientist, who sounds a bit dry like a droopy-looking dog, and they would also see a very outspoken, cheery, bouncy, little boy!
Judging from this trailer, it seems like Mr. Peabody and Sherman stick to the original cartoon series’ character types! But, Mr. Peabody is father in this movie, unlike in the series. But the trailer seems very funny yet intriguing. So I wanna go to see this movie! If you grew up on the series reruns and would like to see if this movie matches the series, then go and see it!!
The lights dimmed in the Arthur Miller Theatre, the audience hushed and I quietly grabbed for the bag of Twizzlers hidden in my purse. Just as I had ripped open the bag, the collage of light bulbs hovering above center stage began to flicker. I looked up to the top window of the rusty building set, only to see an angel. But this wasn’t the angel that I’d read about in my in my illustrated children’s Bible. This was a punk angel. Her hair was naturally curly and voluminous. Her nose ring glimmered under the spotlight as the sleeve of tattoos covering her arm was illuminated. She was dressed in a leather vest, looking absolutely ruffian. She watched silently as a young, Puerto Rican, woman named Marisol, tucked a knife under her pillow in her shady, Bronx apartment. While the angel’s appearance was a shock, that wasn’t the only surprising part of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance’s production of Marisol by José Rivera.
I had the opportunity to view the final performance of Marisol on Sunday, April 13th at 2pm. This was the second weekend that the show had run, so the audience was small, but that didn’t stop the performers from giving every scene their all.
The show begins on a subway commute home from a long day at work. Marisol is exhausted, reading a newspaper, when a dirty man with a golf club approaches her. He mumbles about angels and crazily presents an “end of times” scheme. As Marisol is protected by her guardian angel, she is quickly snapped back into her small apartment in the Bronx. The dangers of her street arise as the sun sets over New York. Yelling, slamming doors, and gun threats echoed throughout the theatre as Marisol’s is banged on by a senseless woman with a gun. Marisol drops to her knees and prays, opening the door to find a pile of salt…
Marisol’s guardian angel, played magnificently by Melissa Golliday, reveals to Marisol that God is old and dying, too senile to take care of His creation. The guardian admits that she is leading the angel revolt against God, ready to uproot God’s rule and rejuvenate the failing earth. The angel leaves Marisol with an unsettling lack of protection and a choice. Will Marisol stand with God or fight with the angels?
Throughout the play we see how the earth disintegrates through lack of food (only salt), gender roles begin drastically reversed (pregnant men), and extreme violent tendencies, including setting others on fire. Marisol fights and struggles to understand where she is, where she belongs, and whose side she is on. I don’t want to give away all of the details of this play, because it is so fantastic, but in end, Marisol joins the angels in a victorious battle against God. Billions of angels lost their lives in this celestial war, as did the millions of earthly warriors, but the earth returns in triumphant light.
While I’ve grown up being a musical type of girl, this play might have me converted! This play was perfectly chilling; I felt my shoulders shake as Marisol’s guardian dropped her wings into Marisol’s hand and turned for the audience to see bloodied wing-bones emerging from her bulletproof vest. I could barely scribble notes as Marisol struggled with her identity and associations with the other characters. This play was absolutely enthralling. Everything, from the realistic set with garbage rumbling about the stage to the realistic costumes and props, was gripping.
I would highly recommend seeing Marisol if you ever have the chance! It was a strangely attractive play and I guarantee you would enjoy it! Great job to the cast and crew, especially the director- Linda Goodrich.
Sunday is usually a time for rest. To recuperate from a crazy week, be thankful for what life has given you, celebrate in any faith you may follow, and prepare for the days to come. Having grown up with Christian parents, I have experienced the traditional Sunday mass and religious hymnals that come engrained in every service. However, these songs never had much effect on me. I never felt connected to any supreme being or holy spirit by singing the Catholic hymns I was raised on. Of course with every faith and even each individual church there comes a different type of worship music. For example, a rather large Christian church a mile away from my own church had a live rock band play every Sunday in their services. This Christian rock genre has become very popular for inspiring deep emotions in people and allowing them to access a personal connection to their spirituality. However, this music has consistently just made me feel even more alienated from my spirituality for not having the same ethereal emotions that are summoned in others around me.
I say all this as a means to premise what I experienced while singing in the shape note tradition this last weekend. Taking excerpts solely form The Sacred Harp, we sang tune after tune of powerful, open-chorded, hymnal-type music. The Sacred Harp tradition, having been based in religious practice, has a firm foundation in wanting to evoke feelings of grandeur and connect every singer in the room to some sense of divinity. However, in modern day, Sacred Harp singing has taken on a traditionally secular role. Yet people keep coming back, no matter what their personal faith is, to sing this music because it has a way of giving every participant in the room goosebumps. Technically speaking, the music is all written in parallel lines of fifths and octaves with open chords that spread a wide vocal range. What this means is that it is different from classical western art music in that it purposefully wants to sound clear and open, whereas traditional composers in the European music tradition would attempt a more balanced harmonic structure in their melodies. But it is this openness that reverberates through you when you are singing Sacred Harp music. For me, this music evoked a deeper spiritual connection than the music I grew up singing in church, all while I was surrounded by people of various faiths and backgrounds. This unique experience makes Sacred Harp singing very appealing to those who enjoy powerful music without needing a specific context to participate. Thus were born the various shape note groups that scatter the country, gathering in venues such as The Ark to give up a few hours of their lives in hopes of feeling the inherent zeal present in Sacred Harp music.
‘Wondrous Love’-An excerpt from The Sacred Harp by Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King
