1993, 26TH ANNUAL HUMBOLDT INT’L FILM FESTIVAL
Festival Directors
Jill Foos, Phil Guzzo, Mark Wilcken
Faculty Adviser, 1993
Ann Alter
History
The Humboldt International Film Festival is again upon us and the Directors, Prescreeners, Judges, Advisors et al have been hard at work now for the greater part of the school year and it is time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. So sit back, relax and watch some films.
The Humboldt International Film Festival, now in its 26th year, is the oldest student-run film festival in the world. Established in 1967 by Arcata resident and business owner David Phillips, the Festival continues to provide a forum for student and independent filmmakers. It has been successful in gaining a strong reputation both nationally and internationally and this year, in addition to the many entries stateside, we received films from countries as far away as Austria and France.
The Festival is a non-profit, student organization, funded by HSU’s Associated Students, competition entry fees, and grant from the Arcata Foundation, and you the audience. Other support comes from private and local business donations of supplies, services, and food.
JUDGES
Claire Foster
Claire Foster came to America on a Fulbright and Knox Fellowship, ending up at Harvard teaching Greek Literature from 1986-1988, using the proceeds to finance the development of a documentary about the U.S. and Nicaragua. She won an American Association of University Women International Fellowship to go to UCLA. Her first film, The Lemon Tree, won two festival awards in Europe. She won the Eleanor Perry Screenwriting Award from Women in Film for her first script The Other Side of the Canal in 1990 and was nominated by British Screen for the International Screenwriters’ Studio in 1991. She has sold films to European television and taught writing, producing, directing, and acting in various capacities over the past four years. She spent a year in England trying to produce a television series about European images of America. She is slated to direct a 35mm short in Berlin this summer as part of a collaboration with the Potsdam-Babelsberg film school.
Lucy Winer
Receiving a BA with honors in English Literature and Theatre from SUNY at Stone Brook, Lucy pursued graduate studies in English at the University of Toronto and Cinema Studies at Richmond College, CUNY. In 1988 she was chosen as one of fifteen women working in film and television to participate in the American Film Institute’s newly reinstated program, The Directing Workshop for Women. She is now an adjunct lecturer in Film Studies and Production at Brooklyn College, CUNY; College of Staten Island CUNY, and Pratt Institute. Screening at film festivals around the world and on television in the U.S., England and Norway, her films include Tales of an Exhausted Woman (finalist, USA Film Festival), Rate It X (Red Ribbon, American Film Festival), Silent Pioneers (Emmy nomination for Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement; Gold Plaque, Chicago Film Festival; Best Documentary, Athens International Film Festival) and Greetings from Washington, D.C. (Outstanding Film of the Year, London Film Festival).
Geoffrey Hill
A psychotherapist practicing Jungian oriented analysis in Los Angeles, Hill is also a story, script and creativity consultant and a frequent lecturer on various film subjects. As a film analyst, he has written the first and only book-length study of film mythology, Illuminating Shadows: The Mythic Power of Film.
FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS
Originality, creativity, artistic quality and something undefined are what makes an award winning film. All of the films entered at the HIFF are subject to the rigorous scrutiny of two levels of judging. The films must first pass the gauntlet of the prescreening class whose high standards and discriminating tastes allow only the best films to move on to the second tier. During the second round, the festival judges view and evaluate each film deciding which ones deserve
awards. This year the Festival will be presenting the following awards:
The Giant Redwood (for the best film of the Festival)
Best Narrative
Best Documentary
Best Experimental
Best Animation
Best Non-Traditional Narrative
(Each of the above wins $100, additional prizes at the judges’ discretion)
The Banana Slug Award for Surrealist Film ($100 Donated by Romano Robertisini)
Judges’ Choice Honorable Mentions