The 7th annual Johns Hopkins Film Festival falls this year from Thursday, April 8 to Sunday, April 11, 2004. Organized by the Johns Hopkins Film Society, the non-profit showcase provides opportunities for the community to view documentaries, features and short films shown on the festival circuit and on the local, national and international levels.
The Fest kicks off on Thursday at 11 p.m. with the film I Shot Andy Warhol, based on the life of Valerie Solanas, feminist writer of The SCUM Manifesto. Directed by Mary Harron of American Psycho, the film depicts '60s pop-culture. The showing is at Shriver Hall, also known as the largest screening facility in Maryland.
On Friday, shows start at 5 p.m., with films concerning a family-owned Cuban auto shop, various animated shorts, a documentary of four drag queens in the 2003 Miss North Carolina UsofA Drag Pageant and finally, a more fictitious story of Brian Slade, starring Christian Bale.
Saturday keeps the showcase heating up with experimental shorts programs featuring Kafka and Gestalt, a four-minute film about a girl in a modern fairy tale, a three-minute showing of Pope Leo electrocuting an elephant and a music-based, computer and lights show.
If you can't get to see all of the films, the closing viewing covers just that. Following a student showcase and free show at 5:30 p.m., festival highlights will be shown at 7 p.m. to present the film's "tastiest nuggets."
The JHU Film Society is a student-run organization in charge of the film festival, taking eight months to prepare for the four-day event. They also offer the Intersession Guerilla Film Production course and publish the on-campus film journal, Frame of Reference.
Tickets for the event are $3 per show, $5 for a day pass or $15 for the entire festival. JHU affiliates -- meaning students, faculty and employees -- are invited to attend the Fest for free. For more information and a full schedule of viewings, check out http://www.jhu.edu/~jhufilm/fest/index.html, call (410) 235-8719 or contact SongHia@juno.com.
