Shorts and sweet

Community Film Project presents short films

If you love short films, and you’d like the chance to support local talent, you won’t want to miss the third annual Community Film Project’s (CFP’s) presentation of short films on Friday, April 13, at 8 p.m. at The University of Scranton.
All films in the festival have been produced in northeastern Pennsylvania, and they range from comedy to action to suspense. Among the selections you’ll see will be the You Tube sensation, Heynabonics, as well as entries from the Pumped! series, including the Born Pumped, winner of both the Film of the Year Fans’ Choice and the Film of the year Judges’ Choice awards at last year’s Roslyn Film Festival.
The evening will also feature the premier of Updates, co-directed by CFP president Jeff Fowler and board member Jer Tobin. The film centers around a polka-loving geek who gets some advice for meeting women on Facebook from his roommate. “This comedy explores how your Facebook status can change your life,” Fowler explained in a press release. “This movie has its own reality that is more fun and interesting than your normal life. Think Weird Science meets Facebook; if you like the thought of that then you will love our movie.”
We thought that did sound quite appealing, and we wanted to learn a little bit more about what Friday night’s event has in store for us. So we caught up with Rich Drees, CFP press officer, to chat about the evening of short films. Read on…

In addition to Updates, let’s talk about some of the other films that will be shown on April 13.
This year’s lineup is weighted more towards light-hearted, comedic fare. We’ll be screening one of our signature films Heynabonics, in which a young couple takes a class to learn the rather unique colloquialisms of the region. The YouTube posting of the short has more than 335,000 views. There are a few entries in the Pumped series, which is a mockumentary look at a company that goes out and gets people excited and “pumped up.” We also have a trio of animated shorts that have a delightfully skewed sensibility that are always crowd-pleasers.

Who do you think will appreciate the line-up of shorts the most?
I think that the appeal of the various shorts is wide enough that most anyone should be able to enjoy themselves. They’re not all aimed at just one demographic or another.

What have you learned from being involved in this project?
I’m a lifelong movie geek, and when film making began to transition from physical celluloid film, I was skeptical of the change. But then I realized that the technology for making films has always been in a constant state of development, and that clinging to just one stage of that would be short-sighted. Otherwise, we would still all be watching black-and-white silent films — no offense meant to certain recent Academy Award winners. As more and more filmmakers embrace shooting and editing in the digital realm, I like to think that when the CFP started we were a bit ahead of the curve in utilizing this technology to make films.

What else would you like people to know about the event on April 13?
Hopefully, at the end of the night the audience doesn’t leave just feeling entertained but inspired to want to tell their own stories. And the CFP will certainly be there to help them.
— julie imel

The Community Film Project will present its third annual evening of locally-produced short films on April 13 at the DeNaples Center, 900 Mulberry St., at The University of Scranton. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the program begins at 8. Admission is free and open to the general public. A discussion with several film producers and actors will follow the event. To learn more, visit www.communityfilmproject.org.