The Wake

Fearless Filmmakers, a screening featuring an array of Minneapolis artists and independent filmmakers, was held near campus last week at The Oak Street Cinema. This single-screen movie theater was packed to the walls with an illustrious array of amateur filmmakers and freelance artists including Justin Pierre, the lead singer of the band Motion City Soundtrack, who contributed to the event with his first short film Karen. Ranging anywhere from mockumentary to animation, from the satirical to the dramatic, this event showcased a collection of up-and-coming filmmakers.

Benjamin Martin, a 24-year-old graduate of Minneapolis College of Art and Design, submitted the only animated short to be featured in this event. Pulling dialogue from previously unedited phone conversations with telemarketers, Martin transposes our perception of the relentless telemarketer experience into a comedic art form. Let loose, have a five-minute heated debate with a fast talkin’ telemarketer and tell him what’s on your mind and why you’ve been losing sleep for the past year. Martin’s film $$$ (In: Love) was a combination of animated character sketches paired with impromptu dialogue which was well received. When asked what motivates him to continue making film, Martin responded, “Watching the crowd’s reaction to your own work is addictive, pure and simple.”

MVP, the winner of the 2006 Grain Belt “Make Your Own Commercial Contest” was another featured film at this event. Ryan Taylor, a videographer and photographer, worked to bring comedy to a scene staged in a Minneapolis bar by incorporating cheesy pick-up lines and some ice-cold Grain Belts into the picture.

Playing off the classic horror clichés of Scream, The Grudge and, well, most of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s films, Girl Next Door by Joe Johnson is about a girl running around in her panties killing ghosts and zombies. With blood and butcher knives every other second there is still a strong underlying sense of humor in all of the gory details much like that seen in the 2004 British film Shaun of the Dead.

Local artists are among those that set the standard for what independent film should represent. Watching this process gives new insight into the commercial aspect of widespread media culture and the influences that it has on film.

For more independent film opportunities on campus, mark your calendars for the 25th annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival beginning Apr. 19–29, which will be screening films at The Oak Street Cinema and the Bell Auditorium.