Dec. 9, 2009

Professor Enid Baxter Blader and two students are attending the festival. Read their blog here.

A film directed by two recent California State University, Monterey Bay graduates has been selected to appear at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The festival will be held Jan. 21-31.

At the festival, now in its 26th year in the mountain resort town of Park City and several other locations, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck (Class of '09) and Robert Machoian ('07) will present their 10-minute film, "Charlie and the Rabbit." The two started the project while they were students at CSU Monterey Bay's Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department. The film is about a 4-year-old named Charlie who loves Bugs Bunny and decides to hunt a rabbit of his own.

It's an example of the independent and non-mainstream attitude Sundance strives to support.

"Charlie" is the second of a three-film series the filmmakers are calling Youth Without Youth. The directors are looking at children's ideas of imagination and reality. The first production, "Ella and the Astronaut," was selected for showing at film festivals in Mill Valley; London; Athens, Ohio; and Austin, Texas, among others.

The film will be entered in the dramatic shorts category at Sundance. The short film program comprises 70 films from U.S. and international filmmakers selected from more than 6,000 submissions.

Todd Luoto, part of the Sundance team that made the selections, described the film as a "wonderfully tense trip back into childhood."

Luoto told UC Davis, " 'Charlie and the Rabbit' was chosen because it captures a tense and almost fantastical childlike world from a young boy's perspective," Luoto said. "We responded to not only the talented young star, but the direction of the piece - using little dialogue and a structure which makes the viewer a bit uneasy yet entirely engaged, helping the audience to connect with the young wanderer as he embarks on a journey hunting 'wabbits.' "

To view a short trailer, click here.

Pictured (left to right): Robert Machoian, Rod Ojeda-Beck and Professor Enid Baxter Blader, director of the TAT Department at a showing on campus Dec. 9, 2009.

For more information, visit the festival's website at https://festival.news/csumb-grads-film-screen-sundance.org/2010/press_industry/releases/2010_news/csumb-grads-film-screen-sundance_...