Miriam El Abbassi | Arts Editor
Featured Image: Maker’s roots in film date back to elementary school, when would always have a Bolex camera by his side. | Courtesy of Pixabay
Second-year film production student, Phil Maker, was surprised to learn that his entry to the Stardance Film Festival, Eternal Darkness, was rejected on the grounds of “not being pretentious enough.
Maker’s roots in film date back to elementary school, where he describes always having a vintage model of the Bolex by his side, even though he didn’t learn how to use it until later on. Always attracted to the aesthetics of cinema, Maker continued into highschool independently producing his own shorts exclusively on 8-mm film. He describes that his reasons for avoiding digital filmmaking are because: “it cheapens the overall look of the final product, and it strays from what true cinema is supposed to look like.”
At the beginning of the school year, Maker decided to submit his short, Eternal Darkness, to the Starjive Film Festival, only to receive a notice of rejection several months later. The letter stated that his film did not include enough divisive film techniques, allowing it to attain the level of pretentiousness the festival required. This, undoubtedly, was a saddening message to receive, as Maker had plans to submit his short to other festivals around the country, something he now has to rethink.
Eternal Darkness is a supernatural thriller, following an anonymous protagonist, who is confronted by the shadows of their past, but also the shadows of their future. The narrative is told through a mixture of first-person accounts, and accompanied with dissonant voice-overs. It’s a story told through physical movements, and powerful visual effects intended to make audiences question their reality. Maker explains the theme and overall significance of the piece is entirely up to the audience itself, creating a unique viewing experience for each person.
Every winter, along the lakes of the Algonquin provincial park, the Starjive Film Festival transforms the natural landscape into the ultimate gathering of a truly creative collective, seeking new voices and fresh perspectives. The programming consists of both alternative, and semi-autobiographical features and shorts. The New Frontier segment also commits to showcasing emerging filmmakers and the unique content that they produce. Although this incident has gained quite the traction, representatives from the Starjive Film Festival have maintained the stance that they welcome diverse content and that the assumption that Maker’s entry was rejected due to it not being pretentious enough is ‘absolutely false.’
Maker hopes to continue showcasing his films on campus, and seeks to challenge the notion of what it means to be pretentious, and if that idea could potentially be harmful to the future of filmmaking.
DISCLAIMER: Everything published in this week’s issue (with the exception of advertisements) is satirical; it is not intended to communicate any true or factual information.
