Above is the trailer for Kate Marks’ (Film/Video MFA 12) short, ‘Pearl was Here,’ which screens at Slamdance next month.
Update 12/19: Since our original post, we learned that Song E. Kim’s (Film/Video MFA 07) animated short, Bite of the Tail, and Pendelton Ward’s (Film/Video BFA 05) animated short, Thank You, will also be screened at Sundance’s Animation Spotlight this year.
Just after the new year, filmmakers and film lovers descend on Park City, Utah, to attend two independent film festivals: the Sundance Film Festival, held from Jan. 17-27, and its counterpart, the Slamdance Film Festival on Jan. 18-24. This year, the festivals will feature an extraordinary breadth of CalArts work: with four films screening at Sundance and 12 films at Slamdance.
2013 Sundance Film Festival
Eliza Hittman (Film/Video MFA 10) screens her feature It Felt Like Love in the festival’s Next Program. The film focuses on how “a 14-year-old girl’s sexual quest takes a dangerous turn when she pursues an older guy and tests the boundaries between obsession and love.” Hittman will also appear on a panel of women directors.
Also at Sundance, the work of alumnus Yung Jake, aka Jake Patterson (Art BFA 12) is featured in the New Frontiers Program with video and performance from his E.m-bed.de/d, Datamosh, and Augmented Real projects.
From Sundance:
This MC drops unexpectedly into your browser sessions, streams into Festival screenings, Skype-bombs live DJ performances, and pops out of floors and magazines in augmented-reality music videos.
Below is Yung Jake’s music video for Datamosh:
2013 Slamdance Film Festival
This year, an unprecedented 12 CalArtian filmmakers—seven alumni, six current students and one faculty member—screen films at Slamdance, the indie festival in which feature films in competition are made with budgets under $1 million and made by first-time directors. Of the CalArts filmmakers, the School of Film/Video’s Experimental Animation Program was the most represented, with eight alumni and current students, followed by four films from Film Directing Program alumni.
The CalArtian filmmakers at the 2013 Slamdance Festival:
- Faculty member J.R. Hughto’s (Film/Video MFA 06) feature film, Diamond on Vinyl , on the Beyond Program, a new section showcasing films from emerging narrative and documentary filmmakers who have worked just beyond their first features.
- Rebecca Sgan-Cohen’s (Film/Video MFA 11) short, A Time in A Dark Cloud, on the Live Action Shorts Program.
- Ian Samuels’ (Film/Video MFA 12) short, Caterwaul, on the Live Action Shorts Program.
- Kate Marks’ (Film/Video MFA 12) short, Pearl was Here, on the Live Action Shorts Program.
- Benjamin Markus’ (Film/Video MFA 14) short, The War Profiteers, on the Anarchy Program.
- Einar Baldvin’s (Arnason) (Film/Video BFA 09) short, Baboon, on the Animation Shorts Program.
- Calvin Frederick’s (Film/Video BFA 12) short, Bermuda, on the Animation Shorts Program.
- Ethan Clarke’s (Film/Video MFA 12) short, Drifters, on the Animation Shorts Program.
- Jose Quique Rivera’s (Film/Video MFA 14) short, El Delirio Del Pez Leon, on the Animation Shorts Program.
- Meejin Hong’s (Film/Video MFA 12) short, Sugarcoat, on the Animation Shorts Program.
- Sean Buckelew’s (Film/Video MFA 12) short, The Jennings Account, on the Live Action Shorts Program.
- Grace Nayoon Rhee’s (Film/Video MFA 13) short, Triangle, on the Live Action Shorts Program.