The Department of Theatre and Film Studies is partnering with the St. Cloud Film Festival to showcase film work by students and alumni during the broader community-wide celebration of film.
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The annual St. Cloud Film Festival promotes film and filmmaking both during the festival and through outreach efforts throughout the year.
This year’s festival is Nov. 5-12 and opens with the St. Cloud State Student and Alumni Film Showcase at noon Nov. 5 at the Pioneer Place on Fifth Theatre, 22 Fifth Ave. S. St. Cloud.
Tickets are free for St. Cloud State students, $5 for the general public or $25 for entrance to all the shows in the week-long film festival.
The annual film showcase was started as a way to feature the best student works to be recognized by faculty and peers and to give students a social event where they could see each other’s work and connect with one another for future collaborations, said Ilya Simakov, professor of film studies.
Partnering with the St. Cloud Film Festival is a natural progression of the annual showcase because the festival’s built-in following and public profile allows the student showcase to reach a larger audience and for students to interact with more experienced filmmakers, he said.
“Many of our alumni submit their work to be screened at the festival,” he said. “Having the showcase be a part of the festival meant that we could screen the work of our alumni and the work from our current students side by side.”
Beyond co-hosting the student and alumni screenings, St. Cloud State is co-presenting the festival screenings of two films “T-Rex” and “A Stray”.
“T-Rex” will be shown at 7 p.m. Nov. 10 in the Miller Center Auditorium on the St. Cloud State campus. The film is a documentary that tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, a 17-year-old African-American boxer from Flint, Michigan, who represented the United States in the 2012 Olympics, the first year women’s boxing was included. The documentary was produced by Sue Jaye Johnson, a St. Cloud native, who will attend the screening and be available for questions following the showing.
“A Stray” will be shown at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 in the Miller Center Auditorium on the St. Cloud State campus. The film explores Muslim identity through the story of Adan, a Somali man and his relationships with his family, friends and faith and his friendship with a stray dog. The show and was filmed in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis with Somali and Native American actors. The film premiered at the South by Southwest festival in 2016 and won the Best Minnesota-Made Feature award at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival.
Director Musa Syeed and star Barkhad Abdirahman, who appeared in the film “Captain Phillips”, will attend the showing and answer questions following the screening.
The “A Stray” showing is co-presented by Multicultural Student Services, the Department of Mass Communications, the Muslim Student Association and the Somali Student Association. It is supported by the ethnic and women’s studies, anthropology and sociology departments.
Both “T-Rex” and “A Stray” are part of the St. Cloud Film Festival, but tickets are not required. Both showings are free and open to the public.
The St. Cloud State Student and Alumni Film Showcase is part of the 2016-17 Creative Art Series. The Creative Art Series is enhancing student learning and broadening public perspectives through art, music, film and theatre.
