The 4th annual Ridley Independent Film Festival was held last night and each unique film had a different impact on me.  Some made me cry, some made me laugh and some made me think.  There were eight films shown last evening, each made by a student in Ms. Thomas’s Grade 12 Film Studies class. The students went through the stages of pre-production, production and post-production in order to create their films. The whole process took four months to complete.

‘Drag’, directed by Sophie Munden tackled the subject of teen smoking through documentary.  I thought the cinematography and music fit well with the subject matter:

‘In The Club’ was directed by Anthony Pullia.  I thought this film was hilarious.  Shot using stop-motion animation Pullia created a world where sandwich meat and cheese are all vying to get into the “club”.

‘Tank Tank’ was another funny film directed by Charlie Izaguirre and similar to ‘Yes, Deer’ directed by Fearghas Gundy showed the power of the punchline.

Gundy’s cinematography was very interesting as he used shot overlays to create a snowstorm and to create a look and feel of being inside an old cabin without actually being inside the cabin:

‘Our Orange Butterfly’ directed by Adriana Radic shared the story of the loss of her brother told by her family members.  A truly heart wrenching story.

‘The Game’ is a documentary directed by Michael Stevens.  Stevens gave an inside look on the day-to-day life of a Ridley Hockey Player.  There was some really neat shots of the hockey players on the ice, and it really captured the camaraderie of the boys on the team well.

‘Post Mortem’ directed by Inara Myles was an interesting look at a man who commits suicide only to find that death is just as pointless as his life was and it wasn’t the escape he was searching for. I thought the music choice was perfect and the subject matter was interesting.

‘The Life Project’ directed by Niko Chan is a documentary where various people of different ages attempt to answer: “what is the purpose of life?” I really liked the shots in this film and the subject matter.

All of the students should be really proud of the hard work that they put into their films. Congratulations on a successful film festival.