Raw Stories Impress Attendees at UWM Student Film Festival

The Union Theatre was packed on May 8 for the 68^th annual Student Film Festival where I Am Here won first place. The film is an art piece where a young female protagonist goes through deep psychological trauma after experiencing sexual assault. There are various images of drowning and her screaming in a street but no one being able to notice her.

A few other select student film majors were also able to screen a film or two. Student organization, Rho Eta Xi in conjunction with the film department make this happen every semester.

Rho Eta Xi is a “professional film society” that started in 2010 originally as a co-ed fraternity when a few college film students felt that they needed a “sense of community outside of the dorm life.”  UWM alum Thomas Sorensen was one of the students who helped founded REX. REX started organizing the festival in spring of 2013.

Every year, the judges are local filmmakers from the area; this year’s was UWM alum Ryan Lowe who runs Lone Wolf Comedy, a comedic production company; and the other was Matthew Nicholas who has appeared in countless Milwaukee and Chicago based films.

The winners all received plaques and $25, $50, and $75 gift cards for the union.

This year, there were 73 submissions which totaled up to six and a half hours that the judges watched and evaluated. Seventeen were accepted into the festival.

Sophomore Andrew Harrington really enjoyed the films and said, “I was super impressed; there were a lot of really strong pieces. I really liked I Am Here because it really showed a strong visual style and a variety of ways to tell a story.”

Pre(view) won second place and audience choice. Junior and director of the film Ryan Klassa felt “very honored and unexpected” to win so many awards. He said that “the Film Department engages in creative freedom — they challenge you to make something interesting.” The film is about a man who gets to see his horrid future through the lens of his phone’s camera.

Junior Spencer Ortega was one of the three directors for his short film, “Locker,” which won third place. About winning, he said, “It feels really good, it’s an honor. There were a lot of really good films, a lot I thought, that were better than mine.” Attending the festival made him “proud of school and the program” and cites it as a “positive environment.”

Senior Matt Bordman was left the viewing feeling positive and was impressed with the films he saw and said, “I’ve been to a bunch of these before and this has to be one of the best ever.” He felt like the films that were made were really well done from all aspects, citing the cinematography, concept, and visuals.

Senior lecturer, Carl Bogner, who teaches experimental film, highly enjoyed Misbehavior: Node 1 – Data Memory and cited that he felt like it was “generally investigating something through the properties of cyber space, and I thought it just added to the texture of the film.” The film is described in the pamphlet as, “a fragment of the idea of cyber space as a knowledge pool, a collection of all human experiences. (Seizure warning).”

Nick Tabat is the current president of the organization and designs the logo for each festival and uses big blockbuster films as his inspiration. This year, he used the film Up and his design was a house floating in the sky with a good amount of balloons connected to the roof. He said he does this because he thought it “connected to bigger themes” and thinks that these filmmakers will “do big things and do movies that people will talk about for generations” therefore he wanted to connect them to bigger films.

When asked why the festival is important, Sorensen cited that “it gives people exposure to showcase and spotlight their work” and that students who attend would be able to find peers to work together with for numerous other projects. He also says that it motivates students to, “go out and do more” and how the whole festival is competitive yet supportive.