14th Annual Notre Dame Student Film Festival
January 23-27, 2003
Hesburgh Library Carey Auditorium
7:30 and 9:45pm Thurs-Sat., Jan. 23-25 and Mon. Jan 27.
Featured Films
Hate The Rangers (8:20)
Ryan Lockwood and Angela Grimmer
An entertaining look at rabid Scottish football fans from Chicago who gather not only to cheer for their own team but to root against their arch rivals. (2002)
Billboard Liberation (11:47)
Adam Weltler and Tim Ryan
Set to a driving musical beat, Billboard Liberation is literally that – a manifesto calling for the destruction — or at least transformation — of the omnipresent and insipid commercial billboard, and a intimate portrait of those radical citizens who take and make billboards their own — at night, while we are all asleep. This film is literally a scream against the desecrated urban landscape, and a call for revenge. (2002)
The Two Of Us Here (5:59)
Maggie Moran and Brent Buckman
Graduating seniors bid farewell to Notre Dame with this video art postcard, an informal discussion of where they came from and where they’re headed to, accompanied by a visually stunning scrapbook of images past, present, and future. (2002)
Tangled Up In Blue (12:33)
Brian Galla and Paul Ybarra
A beautifully acted story of a young college grad who just can’t “get going” with his life. Unemployed and still living with his grandmother at age 25, James, a hypochondriac, dreams of cancer as a release from his confused condition, and fends off calls from his relentless father who wants to know if he’s sent in his law-school application yet. Meanwhile he silently rages against an unknown woman who walks by his house every day on her way to work. Her confident appearance and sense of purpose literally drive him out of his mind. (2002)
Seven Nights A Week (10:20)
Aaron Perri and Matt Peters
A look inside the bingo halls of South Bend from the people who play the game, to the ones who rake in the money. (2002)
Adam’s Puzzle (6:00)
Todd Boruff and Andy Gomez
A well-crafted, small black-and-white film about a boy whose rubik’s cube-like toy becomes the centerpiece of a park playground full of boys and girls. (2002)
How To Love Yourself (11:45)
Dan Ackerman and Taylor Romigh
A”self-help” tape to do just that: help us to learn to love ourselves. Six vignettes demonstrate six dramatic situations where – if we could only remember to “trust ourselves,” “believe in love,” “forgive ourselves,” etc., life could be sweet. But this is a self-help tape that self-destructs before your eyes — as if a invisible viewer’s mind crashes the party, from the inside out. (2002)
Racist (12:57)
Dustin Park and Peter Richardson
Matthew Hale, leader of the white supremecist movement in Peoria, IL gives you his canted view of the world, while the directors “re-define” his language with precisely placed definitions on screen as Mr. Hale talks. (2002)
Two Boys (8:44)
Liam Dacey and Chris Bannister
A seductive musical fable about the sexual education of the American boy. There’s this 14 year old, Dan — or any average American teen — who tries out the script of male sexual bravado as he’s learned it first-hand from music videos, TV programs and late night male talk shows. He tries it out on three gyrating sexy women who magically appear on his front porch one spring night. When the bravado doesn’t pay off, he falls into another script of rage against the female — the kind of rage and revenge that could fuel a serial killer’s darkest plans. (2002)
Buckthorn Berry Pie (7:29)
Scott Little and Tom Griffin
In his late 60’s, just months after the loss of his wife, Tom Buckthorn has developed into a relentless curmudgeon, avoiding friends and family and developing strict regimens of mindless chores just to get him through the day, and the pain. One afternoon, while trying to get his lawnmower running, grumbling over the excessive number of gnomes which his late wife had sprinkled around the back yard, She appears – just like that. Let’s just say she softens him up a bit, then sends him back to the kitchen to check in the oven for a Buckthorn berry pie. (2002)
Empty Orchestra (12:58)
Jeremy Renteria and Scott Little
A pub crawl of local South Bend establishments uncovers the serious and not-so-serious business of karaoke, from those who perform to those who spin the discs. (2002)