2013 Tri-Co Film Festival

The 2nd Annual Tri-Co Film Festival was held on May 1, 2013.

Juror: Shari Frilot • Curated by: Students of “Curating Film” taught by Roya Rastegar

Award for Documentary Writing
Triptyc by Hilary Brashear

Award for Animated Essay
The World Would Have Shrunk to a Point by Zein Nakhoda

Audience Award
Dessenterrando Muertos by Alexandra Colon-Amil

Award for Anthropological Documentary Filmmaking
Weightlifting: A Swarthmore Subculture by Julie Warech

Award for Animation Storytelling
Fuck You, Chuck Jady by Fernando Maldonado

Award for Autobiographical Documentary
Dessenterrando Muertos by Alexandra Colon-Amil

Award for Experimental Animation
This is About My Dad by Edward Gracia

Award for Verite Documentary
69th → Norristown by Carl Sigmond

Award for Writing and Performance in Narrative Filmmaking
Telefon by Monika Zaleska

Press Release

The 2nd Annual Tri-Co Film Festival went off with a bang Wednesday night, May 1. Swarms of paparazzi descended to catch a glimpse of the hottest emerging filmmakers from Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore. More than 250 people attended the festival and the awards ceremony. President of the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, Juliet Goodfriend, warmly welcomed the Tri-Co community. Of the 60 short films submitted, 23 were selected and curated into 6 short sections. The awards and a full line-up of the program, with filmmakers and film descriptions, are listed below.

The festival was founded last year by Professor Erica Cho as a platform to showcase the exceptionally high quality of short experimental, documentary, narrative, animation, and found footage films produced across the tri-college community.

The Awards Ceremony was held at Goodhart Hall at Bryn Mawr College. Each film offered distinct “points of light” that were honored with a “Palme d’ Tri-Co” certificate. In addition, eight prizes were awarded by juror Shari Frilot, a Senior Programmer at the Sundance Film Festival, Chief Curator of New Frontier at Sundance, and currently a Tri-College Mellon Artist-in-Residence. Frilot presented the following awards:

  • “For a fresh, inside take on the subject of polyamory, and for it’s beautiful, artful conceptualization, an award for documentary writing goes to Hilary Brashear for TRIPTYC.”
  • “For an ode to the culture of pumping iron that is intimately revealing and beautifully observed, a prize for anthropological documentary filmmaking goes to Julie Warech for WEIGHTLIFTING: A SWARTHMORE SUBCULTURE.”
  • “For it’s penetrating sense of poetry and vulnerability, a prize for autobiographical documentary goes to Alexandra Colon-Amil and the team for DESSENTERRANDO MUERTOS (Unearthing Silence).
  • “For its observant sense of atmosphere and strong sense of visual storytelling, a prize for verite documentary filmmaking goes Carl Sigmond and the team for 69th => NORRISTOWN.”
  • “For it’s precise and insightful conceptualization, and its powerful contextualization of futurism and communications technology, a prize for animated essay filmmaking goes to Zein Nakhoda for THE WORLD WOULD HAVE SHRUNK TO A POINT.”
  • “For its humorous, well-observed writing, and its realness in the portrayal of flawed human character, not to mention, for making something entirely inaccessible into something desirable, a prize for animation storytelling goes to Fernando Maldonado for FUCK YOU, CHUCK JADY.”
  • “For its lyrical composition, sense of poetry, and delightful aesthetic, an award for experimental animation goes to Edward Gracia for THIS IS ABOUT MY DAD.
  • “For remarkable accomplishment in working with non-actors to tell an illuminating story of the human condition, a prize for writing and performance in narrative filmmaking goes to Monika Zaleska for TELEFON.”

Audience Award. Alexandra Colon and collaborators Waleed Shahid and Mary Clare O’Donnell (Haverford College) received the coveted Audience Award for Dessenterrando Muertos (Unearthing Silence).

The curatorial process developed over the course of the semester and through collaborative efforts from students across the tri-colleges: Amanda Fernandez, Brian Huser, Devanshi Vaid, Delia Hernandez, Egina Manachova, Farhat Rahman, Karen Han, Kate Elliot, Maddy Court, Mirella Deocadiz, Meghna Singh, Rachel Kobasa, and Sitara Chowfla. Students were enrolled in the upper-level course “Curating Film,” taught by Roya Rastegar and cross-listed between the History of Art Department, English Department, Gender & Sexualities Program, and Film Studies Program at Bryn Mawr College.

Festival Program

COLLECTIONS FROM THE PAST

“Things” (dir. Rhianna Shaheen / 2:06 min)
An experimental animation that explores the love and pain of parent/ child relationships through a phone conversation with my mother.

Desenterrando Muertos (Unearthing Silence) (dir. Alexandra Colon, cinemat., eds. Waleed Shahid, Mary Clare O’Donnell / 11:21 min)
A filmmaker’s journey through a lagoon of diffuse memories to uncover the truth beyond the mythology of her missing grandfather.

Things Lost: An Exquisite Corpse (dir. Fernando Maldonado, Ted Johnson, Zein Nakhoda, Sarah Kim / 1:14 min)

Fuck You, Chuck Jady (dir. Fernando Maldonado / 1:57min)

REFLECTIONS

You, You, You, You (dir. Sarah Kim / 1:01 min)
A Quasi rotoscoped look at selfhood and its articulation through portraiture.

Triptych (dir. Hilary Brashear, cinemat. Hilary Brashear, Waleed Shahid / 9:58 min)
A documentary collage of three unique identities coming together to redefine love in a polyamorous relationship.

Weightlifting: A Swarthmore Subculture (dir. Julie Warech / 9:41 min)
Put stereotypes aside: Weightlifting is more than meets the eye.

DISTANCES

The Road Ahead aka (This Is About My Dad) (dir. Edward Gracia / 2:30 min)
A film about disjointed memories that pay tribute to my father’s athleticism.

Telefon (dir. Monika Zaleska, cinemat. Monika Zaleska and Cristina Matamoros / 6:10 min)
Margaret receives a disturbing phone call from her friend in Poland and she and her husband Jan debate how to handle the news.

69th -> Norristown (dir. Carl Sigmond, cinemat. Maria Etienne, ed. Gebby Keny / 3:47 min)
Lose yourself in the journey of an other, and then find yourself in his reflection.

The Oceanic Self (dir. Danielle Ford / 1:26 min)
An animated poem about being a contained, separate self while also an indistinguishable part of something larger.

GUTTED

Goodbye, Panoramaisolationopticon (dir. Ben Ellentuck, cinemat. Philip Harris / 5:06 min)
Prison isn’t what it used to be.

It-from-Bit (dir. Charles Espinosa, Mathew English / 1:56 min)
Found footage and sound explore how we conceptualize and visualize the physical body.

Cut Piece Revisited (dir. Christine Dickerson, Meghna Singh / 2:40 min)
Reimagines a female response to cinematic objectification through the use of found footage and editing techniques.

DISTURBANCES

The Last Temptations of Bishop Berkeley, Part One (dir. Ben Ellentuck / 5:08 min)
Esse est percipi (to be is to be perceived).

Eve’s Shame (dir. Farhat Rahman / 4:57 min)
A found footage video showcasing the repercussions of the eve teasing epidemic in South Asia and how Bollywood film imagery propagates these modes of assault.

Step (dir. Caileigh Feldman, April Lin / 2:07 min)
Inspired by Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

FUTURES

Boy Meets Light (dir. Jasmin Palmer / 4:28 min)
One man battles through his closeted apprehensions and misgivings, learning self-acceptance and self-expression in the process.

“What are you thinking, when I ask you about the future?” (dir. Shayna Schwartz / 2:44 min)
Dynamic animation depicting the thoughts and feelings of three women from different backgrounds and ages concerning the future.

The World Would Have Shrunk to a Point (dir. Zein Nakhoda / 3:15 min)
Meditation on lost utopian futures – animated using salvaged 1960’s Popular Science magazine illustrations – commentary by Arthur C. Clarke.

RE-IMAGINED TITLES SEQUENCES

“The Four of Us Are Dying”: The Twilight Zone (dir. Janessa H.M. Esquivel)

Twin Peaks + Saul Bass (dir. Rhianna Shaheen)

Saul Bass + Flying Lotus + 2001: A Space Odyssey (dir. Zein Nakhoda)