Luck was not on the side of Boston University’s Redstone Film Festival this year, after organizers rescheduled the event for nonexistent snow Feb. 10, only to see technical glitches interrupt the winning films and cut Friday’s screenings short.
At about 6:30 p.m., the Tsai Performance Center was packed with students waiting to enter the festival. They got to see some, but not all, of the festival submissions.
“Every major player of the film and TV department was there, and all the COM administrators,” said College of Communication sophomore and film major Adam Kasper.
“This was an opportunity to show off the program’s creative work, but they couldn’t show over half the films because they were having pretty serious technical difficulties.”
The organizers had to interrupt the first film, “All Day Yeah,” by COM lecturer Charlie Anderson, to change the aspect ratio of the projector before rewinding the film to the beginning, Kasper said.
The next two films were shown without any major problems. Then, in the middle of the third film, the projector died.
“My expectations were pretty high going into the festival,” said COM freshman and attendee Alexander Hawley. “After it ended, I was really disappointed with how short it was.”
After about 20 to 30 minutes of trying to get the project up and running again, the organizers announced they would not be able to show the rest of the films due to the technical difficulties.
The festival, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, is an opportunity for aspiring filmmakers and COM students to showcase their films to a large crowd and panel of judges.
This year, Anderson won first place, COM senior Antanas Bakalov won second place for “Death Wish,” and Ryan Moloney won third place for “Picknicking through Purgatory (and Other Things to Do At Night).” The winners received cash prizes ranging from $500 to $2,000.
Students said they enjoyed the festival but were frustrated that they couldn’t view all the films.
“I felt that the festival wasn’t taken seriously,” said COM freshman Trey Shell. “They didn’t give the students the professional attitudes they deserved.”
“They . . . should get a better projector next time,” said COM freshman Conrad Golovac.
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