Sundance! Cannes! Flagstaff?

Arizona Daily Wildcat

In its second year, the Arizona Cinema Shorts is a festival featuring international and American works in film and video. The festival is produced by the Cinema Arts Center of Northern Arizona. One 100 applicants submitted original pieces, 50 of which were selected for screening in Flagstaff.

Some films were such a disappointment, we were inspired to sell our siblings and make our own movies, just to prove the real purpose of the art form. For example, the first film, "Silver Abs/Golden Buns" featured two women with little-to-no acting skills who chose to present an exercise video teaching the art of making daiquiris and wearing gemmed-boots in order to lose weight and tighten your gluteus.

On the other hand, well-developed works were screened, such as "Reflexus," a brilliantly composed piece about a character who gets caught up in a cycle of events and discovers that he is living the present, past and future at the same time.

Reggie Spangler, one of last year's applicants and a UA media arts graduate, also attended this year's festival. Although he did not enter the competition this year, he came because this was a unique venue close to Tucson where he could meet film makers and share their experiences. "You don't get the chance to see many short films [anywhere other than festivals]," he commented.

The festival entries were judged by three jurors: Joe Cardone, Penelope Price, and UA's very own Ted Hardin, Coordinator of the Media Arts Department. The films were judged on creativity, content, cinematography and overall effect. Hardin reminded us that, "cinema can be anything disgusting, poetic, jarring, or any aesthetic invitation." You can hate it, or you can love it.

"A lot of these things will never be seen again," says Hardin, "and in one way this could be bad or good."

Films from everywhere, from California and New York to Canada and Sweden, were presented. There was one entry from Tucson featured in the festival as well. "Johnny Had Sex" is a video by Ira Hirsh that happened to be this year's audience favorite. Let's just say it put a new perspective on chickens; the wild music video featured a redneck singing a song about a guy named Johnny who had sex with them. It was quite a traumatic experience.

The six winners were well-deserving of their respective awards. The festival was inspiring, as well - it's nice to see fellow filmmakers with the confidence to display their work to the public.