The 5th Annual Tri-Co Film Festival was held on May 5, 2016.
Director: Dani Ford • Festival Assistant: Tayarisha Poe • Jurors: Alan Berliner and Cecilia Dougherty
Best Animation
A Little NIght Call by Ditiya Ferdous
Best Experimental Film
Body/Document by Nishat Hossain AND In Asylum by Evan Klasky
Best Personal Essay
Exhibition by Jingwen Felix Qiang
Best Dramatic Film
Tahirih by Julian Turner
Press Release
The 5th Annual Tri-Co Film Festival was the largest one yet, as over 170 guests filled the theater at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute last Thursday, May 5th. The 19 recent works by filmmakers from Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges represented a wide variety of voices, genres, and aesthetic techniques, and together formed a dynamic and compelling program.
This year, the festival was organized by Dani Ford BMC ’13 and Tayarisha Poe SC ’12 and programmed and juried by Cecilia Dougherty, video artist and writer, as well as the experimental documentary filmmaker Alan Berliner. From the over 75 submissions received they created a powerful and diverse show.
After the screening, the festival juror, Alan Berliner, recognized the impressive nature of every selected piece before presenting six awards:
“From the moment we hear it’s jazzy soundtrack and immerse in its richly saturated colors, we are hooked. As only a well-made animated film can do, we are transported to an imaginary dreamlike universe, populated by a spunky character and her vividly hungry imagination. BEST ANIMATION goes to Ditiya Ferdous for A Little Night Call.
A self-portrait simultaneously beautiful and grotesque, this film creates an intense and existentially abstract statement about what it means to feel trapped—in the boxes—in the frames, and by the machines—of life… BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM goes to Nishat Hossain for Body/Document.
A meditative, mysterious, and visually compelling exploration of a single location photographed at different times of day and night, this film collages all of its sound and image fragments into an ever-changing single composite image–making us question our assumptions about both space and time in ways that feel fresh and unique. BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM goes to Evan Klasky for In Asylum.
In a personal and poetic exploration of relationships, romance, and heartbreak, this film poetically translates a subject that’s intensely personal into one that allows us to better appreciate and understand the universal complications and complexities of that crazy thing called love. BEST PERSONAL ESSAY goes to Jingwen Felix Qiang for Exhibition.
An extremely well-conceived and well-executed portrait of three individuals, each of whom, in his or her own way is struggling with the some of the big issues of identity–this film tries to make sense of the swirl of conflicts, contradictions, and ironies that come with the uncertainties of race, ethnicity, language, nationality and family origin. BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM goes to Claudia Romano for Pieces.
A film that captures the inner life of its main character by revealing the story and meaning behind her unusual name, it applies a gentle and naturalistic approach to capturing scenes of suburban family life, as well as the casual interactions between family members–all of which contribute to a special portrait of a young woman who takes pride in being the only girl in her family and being named after the world’s first feminist. BEST DRAMATIC FILM goes to Julian Turner for Tahirih.
Founded in 2012 by Professor Erica Cho, the Tri-co Film Festival once again demonstrated the high-quality of experimental, documentary, narrative, animation, and found footage films being produced across the Tri-college community.
The festival was made possible by the generous support of the Film and Media Studies Department of Swarthmore College, the Film Studies Department of Bryn Mawr College, the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities of Haverford College, and in partnership with the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. We also received generous donations from International House Philadelphia and as well as Phillycam.
Festival Program
A Little Night Call (Ditiya Ferdous)
When a little girl wakes up late at night to get a midnight snack, she encounters some unexpected mystical characters.
Pieces (Claudia Romano)
A short documentary that explores the challenges and complexities of multi/mixed identities through the viewpoints of three students at Swarthmore College.
The Astronaut (Sara Symoczko)
An interstellar journey through love, loss, and the photographic image.
How to be an Asian American Female (Chau Nguyen)
The “reality” of being Asian and female.
BUST (Harlow Figa)
A transgender filmmaker processes and contextualizes their experience of having their breasts removed through compiling footage of the chests of many gendered subjects.
WD My Passport Ad (Eduard Saakashvili)
A tongue-in-cheek take on the excesses of the yuppie aesthetic, in advertisement form.
Hair Don’t Care (Aaron Jackson)
A man-in-training searches for his personal history but returns with a haircut.
In Asylum (Evan Klasky)
A digital reenactment of Kurt Kren’s 1975 film Asylum; whereas Kren creates his techniques to fragment time and landscape, this film uses Kren’s process as a framework for selfportraiture between times of day and a choreographic exploration of body, movement, time, and space.
Conduit (Nishat Hossain)
Breathing. Boiling.
Body/Document (Nishat Hossain)
Documentation of animal contact with a screen.
Corriente (Kristal Sotomayor)
A personal essay film that documents the memories, imagination, and ideas of a young Latina women learning to navigate her identities.
I, Will (William Nick Barton)
I, Will is a stop motion animation that invites viewers to explore the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and his conception of ‘The World as Will.’
The Blue Album (Elena Harriss-Bauer)
A compilation of found footage of Joan Didion—interviews, exposés, clips from book tours, etc.—interspersed with images of her and her family, taking the form of a non-narrative study in experimental media.
Sell A Vision (Aaron Jackson)
Media’s industrial complex goes LIVE after a word from our sponsors…
Senses (Chiara Kruger)
Even though it is a hard journey, Sky overcomes her toxic relationship and learns how to empower herself.
Exhibition (Jingwen Felix Qiang)
A story of passing love.
YOLK (Taylor Milne and Hannah Henderson-Charnow)
YOLK is a ‘body’ genre film which seeks to elicit a physical response from the audience by creating a feeling of confinement and repulsion through a methodical and scientific destruction of the actor’s exterior.
Awake (Forrest Reid)
A personal journey that explores the power of drug dreams.
Tahirih (Julian Turner)
An 11 year old girl reflects on her namesake to reach a newfound sense of independence.