Faculty filmmakers featured at Days and Nights Festival
Work by CSU Monterey Bay faculty members Soyeon Kim and Luis Camara will be part of the program of locally made films when their work screens as part of the Philip Glass Center for the Arts, Science and Environment’s annual Days and Nights Festival. Both films explore primary connections between parents and children in relation to specific landscapes.
Created by international award-winning animator Kim, Ahco on the Road is a rich and haunting animation that draws its inspiration from a nature documentary. Ahco, a baby elephant, is separated from her mother, and must make a perilous journey to try to find her way back home. Read more about the film here. Directed by international independent filmmaker Camara (and starring his son and wife, who also co-wrote the script), Silencio is a poetic, magical and sometimes tragic immersion into the imagination of a child whose mother is about to abandon him. Drawn into a restaging of the Don Juan story in Qeuratero, Mexico, the characters navigate a world re-arranged by a child’s consciousness. Read more about the film here.
Both films will be screened on Oct. 4 starting at 3 p.m. in Sunset Center’s Studio 105.
Last summer, the Monterey Bay Film Society and the Philip Glass Center formed a partnership. As a result, the Film Society’s Monterey Bay Film Festival has become part of the Glass Center’s annual Days and Nights Festival, with programming scheduled for Oct. 2-6 at the Henry Miller Library and Carmel’s Sunset Center.
The festival will feature screenings and workshops by Godfrey Reggio, musical performances by Philip Glass and others at the Sunset Center and the Henry Miller library, where the Glass ensemble will accompany a screening of Reggio’s classic film, Powaqqatsi, on Oct. 2. On Friday, Oct. 4, at 1 p.m. at Sunset Center, Rebels With a Cause, a documentary about the successful movement of Bay Area community members to protect open space, will be screened. The Homegrown Films program will follow at 3 p.m., featuring the films by Kim and Camara.
The popular teen film program will be held on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 1 p.m., and will be followed by a screening of William and the Windmill, a documentary about a Malawian teen who saved his village by creating a windmill. All the film programs are free, and have limited seating. All the filmmakers will be present to speak following the films. Student tickets are available by e-mailing eblader@csumb.edu. The Days and Nights Festival, now in its third year, is the premier program of the Glass Center. The festival is designed to encompass and nurture the arts in a way that welcomes the future while exploring the seminal developments in the arts throughout history. The mission of the Center is to gather the world’s leaders in the fields of art, science and the environment for a broad array of interdisciplinary activities including performances, seminars, and education programs that inspire and motivate the public to become engaged with matters vital to the future of the natural environment and the quality of human existence. The Monterey Bay Film Festival has grown over its six-year history to incorporate films by local and international teen filmmakers and programming created by creative director, Mike Plante of Sundance. The Monterey Bay Film Society is presented by the Cinematic Arts and Technology Department at CSU Monterey Bay. Focused on independent, avant-garde and community-based media, the Film Society works to develop and support the unique voice of our remarkable communities. The Monterey Bay Film Society grew out of the Monterey Bay Film Festival in 2007, as a response to rising teen violence rates in Monterey County. Founded by artist and CSUMB Cinematic Arts Chair, Enid Baxter Ryce, the film society annually works with over 2,000 teens to develop self-confidence through creative expression, a sense of place and community connectedness, job-related skills, exposure to college as a future choice, inspiration from internationally recognized artists, joy and hope. The activities are intergenerational, requiring college students to engage as mentors, building their own skill sets and sense of social responsibility, and bringing internationally renowned artists to the county to teach the college students and youth. These year-round activities will continue to grow in partnership with the Glass Center.