Thursday, February 27, 1997
FILM:
Annual event seeks to increase awareness of other cultures and
lifestylesBy Aimee Phan
Daily Bruin Contributor
Lowrider cars, a male stripper who wears a g-string made of
pennies, and the costume design of Star Trek fans are only three of
the subjects explored in the Vitas Film Festival, a two-day
screening of award-winning documentaries on folklore and popular
culture.
This weekend the annual film festival, sponsored by the UCLA
Film & Folklore Association, will present folklore films and
their filmmakers at the James Bridges Theater (formerly known as
Melnitz Theater). This unique event hopes to capture students’
interests in different cultures and lifestyles with a variety of
documentaries ranging from five to 80 minutes long.
Kerry Noonan and Kim Miller are graduate students in the
folklore department who are the first-time co-coordinators of this
festival. The annual event alternates from a smaller festival that
features only one director to a larger one, like this year’s, which
showcases a variety of filmmakers.
Noonan hopes that many students will come out to experience this
unique festival, the only one of its kind on the West Coast, and
learn more about the wonders of folklore.
"I’m not aware of any other film festival in Los Angeles that
features films with a folklore content," Noonan says. "Folklore is
a very different kind of documentary because it takes a look at the
expressive behavior of people. It expresses the behavior of people
in small groups, so it could cover anything from how we celebrate
religious holidays to the workings of different traditional arts
and crafts."
Miller hopes that people from all disciplines and cultural
backgrounds will embrace the opportunity to learn more about the
different customs and little-known crafts covered in these
films.
"I think we have a great collection of films this year," Miller
says. "Anyone interested in multiculturalism should be interested
in folklore. A lot of great films of different cultures should
prove to interest many students from all the disciplines."
The Vitas Film Festival began in 1986 as a labor of love by the
folklore students in a graduate seminar offered by Professor
Michael Owen Jones called "Film and Folklore." The students decided
to create this festival to showcase the documentaries they made in
class. The festival has been successful in bringing attention to
many folklorists’ and student folklorists’ documentaries.
"We wanted to have a venue for students who were being
encouraged to make short films for Professor Jones’ class," Noonan
says. "And since we knew these people were making these films, we
thought we could create a forum where they could be seen onto a
large screen."
While some of the previous festivals have required special
themes for film entries, this year has been open to any documentary
on folklore and popular culture made after 1993. The responses they
received ranged from student films from American universities to
entries from England and Portugal.
"We sent out a call for films to universities’ professional
documentary organizations all over the country," Noonan says. "It
was very exciting to see the breadth of things that people would
send us."
The 45 documentaries submitted into the festival were judged by
a panel of professors and students in the folklore department.
Seven documentaries were given awards, and one received an
honorable mention.
The first day of the two-day festival will screen the seven
award winners with a special question-and-answer session with the
director immediately after each panel screening. Several of the
award winners include Jeff Porter’s "The Men Who Dance the Giglio,"
describing the Italian-American religious festival in New York, the
top-prize winner. Other award-winning documentaries include Gregory
Thomson’s "Lowriders: the Real Story" about the making of lowrider
cars in Los Angeles and UCLA folklore graduate student Sandra
Mizumoto Posey’s "Home Sweet Home: Brian Kito’s Little Tokyo,"
focusing on a sweets shop in Little Tokyo.
The second day will showcase the honorable mention screening of
Joan Mandell’s "Tales from Arab Detroit," a film documenting the
traditions among Detroit’s Arab Americans. Six student films will
also be shown after "Tales," most from UCLA’s own folklore graduate
students. This is the first year that so many student films who did
not receive an award will be included in the festival.
Camilla Mortenson, a UCLA folklore grad student who is also
helping to organize the festival, came up with the idea to add the
student films into the program. Miller hopes the inclusion of so
many student films will encourage more documentaries on folklore by
graduate students. "This is something we’ve never done before,"
Miller admits. "But we’d like to see more student films in the
future. It’s such a good learning experience for them and a great
opportunity to learn to become filmmakers."
While this project did give the students many opportunities to
explore their craft, most student filmmakers in the festival
struggled with limited budgets and small camera crews when making
their films.
"Most of the filmmakers made these films themselves, either
getting grants or raising the money themselves, doing their own
camerawork and working on a shoestring budget," Noonan explains.
"They’re basically doing this because they love to do it and they
think people should find out about these fascinating topics."
Both Miller and Noonan have great hopes about the impact the
film festival can have in promoting folklore studies and encourage
students to come see and perhaps make their own folklore
documentaries.
"I really hope that a lot of students come to see this because I
don’t think they’re aware of this type of filmmaking," Noonan says.
"I hope that people come to see that there’s this wonderful group
of very entertaining films that are scholarly, educational and yet
a lot of fun to watch. Film is a wonderful medium for putting you
in the middle of a culture in a way that reading or hearing about
it can’t quite do. But when you see a film, I really think it
brings you closer to the subject in many ways."
"This festival is going to be very exciting, and most
importantly, it’s free," Miller laughs. "I think it’s a great
collection of films that are educational, interesting and very
entertaining."
FILM: The folklore festival runs March 1-2. Admission is free.
For more info, call Kerry Noonan or Kim Miller at (310)
825-3962.
Millard Berry
Shaykh Ghanim Mansour plays the rababa in "Tales From Arab
Detroit."