A8 News
Student film screens at festival
Sept. 3, 2008
The Chronicle
By Marni Barta
“It’s a Wonderful Climate,” a comical short film on global warming created by seven students for a video art assignment, premiered at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood on July 19 at the Fresh-I Student Film Festival. Out of 400 festival submissions, “It’s a Wonderful Climate” was selected as one of the top 20 films and took second place in the comedy category. Joseph Friedrich ’09 produced the film with video art teacher Kevin O’Malley. The film starred Friedrich as Max and Carly Radist ’09 as Carly. Jason Hirschhorn ’09 played the penguin. It was written by Joseph Meyer ’09 and directed by Evan Ryan ’09. The message of the film is that the effects of global warming may be closer than people realize and that people have the ability to make a significant difference through their efforts, such as using energyefficient light bulbs and walking rather than driving. The decision to submit “It’s a Wonderful Climate” to festivals was not made until production on the film was wrapped. “Our assignment was to make a movie on global warming, and once we had finished it, we realized that it might actually be good enough to submit,” Friedrich said. Friedrich submitted the film to the International Environmental Film and Video Festival, the SoCal
Courtesy of Joey Friedrich
lights, camera, action: Jason Hirschhorn ’09 (left) dressed up as a penguin for his role in the comical short film “It’s A Wonderful Climate,” which was produced by Joey Friedrich ’09 (right). Independent Festival, the San Fernando Valley International Film Festival and the Fresh-I Student Film Festival. The film was accepted by the Fresh-I Student Film Festival, rejected by the SoCal Independent Festival and the crew is still waiting to hear the results from the other two festivals. The greatest obstacle Friedrich faced when submitting the film was securing the rights to the music used in the film. Through many e-mails, phone calls and faxes, Friedrich obtained “gratis non-profit” licenses from Time Warner and Atlantic Recordings in order to use the songs “Cold as Ice” and the theme song from “2001, a Space Odyssey” free of charge.
However, he was unable to obtain rights to the song “Air” without paying $400 to Sony-BMG and EMI Publishing. The issue was resolved when the Save the Earth Foundation agreed to sponsor the film and pay for rights to the song. Ryan was the only member of the cast and crew able to attend the July 19 screening. “It was awesome to know that our movie was being played on a big screen,” Friedrich said. “It’s a Wonderful Climate” is just the start for Friedrich, Meyer, and Hirschhorn assistant director and actor in the film. The three seniors will be taking a directed study devoted to filmmaking.
Students exhibit films at Moondance Festival By Drew Lash
Daniel Rothberg/chronicle
At work: Ryan Wilson in his office. Wilson is attempting to restart the literary magazine “The Black Boot,” with the help of Madeleine Witenberg ’08.
Wilson restarts magazine By Sammy Roth
With the help of Madeleine Witenberg ’08, Deans’ Office and Summer Programs Coordinator Ryan Wilson is working to re-launch the literary magazine “The Black Boot.” The magazine was originally a project of Wilson’s friend Ethan Antonucci, who published five issues during 2004 and 2005. The name, Wilson said, came from an old friend who had at one time kept his writing “rolled up in an old black boot.” Antonucci and Wilson decided to give the magazine another shot this summer. “He had been doing it by himself, kind of underground, and so we decided just to take it to the next level…and really start to try to attract some LA writers,” Wilson said. Witenberg, who was an editor of the student literary magazine Stone-Cutters last year, got involved with “The Black Boot” when Wilson told her near the end of her senior year that he and Antonucci were rekindling the project. With Antonucci, Witenberg helped create a new website, www.theblackboot.com, and started to get the word out about the magazine. “[It] doesn't feel like work at all,” she said. “Reading, writing, getting the word out about up and coming writers? I
couldn't ask for a better way to be spending my time.” Witenberg is now a co-editor of the publication from New York, where she is starting her first year at New York University. She said she will read submissions, run the magazine’s Facebook page and make the magazine known in New York by “plastering ‘Black Boot’ flyers all around the city.” “It is a great way to reach a wider audience,” she said. The magazine officially launched this summer with an event called “The 90 -Minute Assignment,” during which a dozen writers ventured down Hollywood Boulevard to “find a story,” Wilson said. Witenberg participated in the event along with Siena Leslie ’08, although she said she did not plan on joining in. “Originally I wasn't planning on writing—my job was to document the extravaganza with my camera,” Witenberg said. “But about 20 minutes in, I just couldn't resist.” Witenberg’s story, “Stealing Souls,” and Leslie’s “Games” can be read on the website. Wilson said that even before January, when he hopes to publish the magazine, the website will be a “breathing organism” which will be updated twice a month.
Nine students and alumni were named semifinalists and finalists in the Moondance International Film Festival. Michael Stampler’s ’09 film “Castles Made of Sand” and Danielle Strassman’s ’11 film “The Amazing Adventure of Sarah Waters” were semifinalists in the Short Film for Kids category. Short Films by Kids semifinalists include Sebastian Spader ’08 for his film “1234: A Study of Romance” and Jackson Kroopf ’06 and Michael Lubin ’06 for their film “Books and Cartwheels”. Harvard-Westlake cleaned out in the Short Films by Kids finals, winning all five spots. The finalists were Evan Hamilton’s ’07 “Broken” and “The Life and Times of Buster Chaplin,” Jessica Lee’s ’08 “Never Again”, Xochi Maberry-Gaulke’s ’12 “The Good, the Bag, and the Ugly” and Zelda Wengrod’s ’13 “The Night in Question.” “Broken” by Hamilton won the Columbine Award and “Never Again” by Lee won the Dolphin Award. The Moondance International Film Festival is held each year in Boulder, Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains at Chautauqua
Park. The first festival was at the end of the summer of 2000. This is the first year that visual arts teacher Cheri Gaulke entered students in this particular festival. Gaulke had heard of the Moondance festival, but it wasn’t until one of her students, Zelda Wengrod, did some research that she considered submitting works into the Festival. The submitted films were made by students from the past two or three years since films were not required to be new upon entering. The large range was also due to the fact that none of the films had been seen at the festival before. When choosing which films to send, Gaulke picked films that had done well in other film festivals. “I just want to send the best work,” Gaulke said. Strassman, director and co-writer of the short film, “The Amazing Adventure of Sarah Waters,” made the film at Gaulke’s summer program in 2007. “It’s about a quirky girl who finds a book that teaches her how to read minds and tries to help people by reading their minds,” Strassman said. “But then it goes bad, and all the good things she’s done have consequences and she has to fix them. It has a happy ending though.”
courtesy of cheri gaulke
never again: Jessica Lee’s ’08 Public Service Announcement about Darfur, was a finalist in the Short Films by Kids catagory at Moondance.