Film festival to be held Friday

The 12th Annual Integrated Media Digital Film Festival will be held in the Visual Arts Theater at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 7.

Most of the 15 films on display run less than 10 minutes and are the thesis projects of second-year Integrated Media video program students.

Admission is free.

Genres covered include documentary, horror, musical, drama and comedy. Some films contain adult content.

Students were allowed to pick their film’s genre and also participate in the production of other students’ films.

Jack Schommer, Integrated Media instructor, described the showing as a celebration, a chance for the students to show their work and an opportunity to build their reels or those of their classmates, he said.

“We don’t pick a genre and we don’t tell them what the story has to be about,” he said. “It’s kind of reflective of the independent film you would see normally.”

Before the festival was started, students used to screen their movies in class. But the students wanted to have a film festival, and Schommer agreed. “You have to be used to be presenting your work publicly,” he said.

Schommer said the festival is “pretty much a student-driven process.”

One student producer, Miles Cardin, based his film on his friend’s pursuit to become an actor. In Cardin’s comedy, “The Actor,” his friend takes on the role himself.

“I have a buddy who’s trying to be an actor and I’ve heard about his troubles pursuing it… so it seemed like a perfect fit,” Cardin said.

Boya Osburn decided to make her film, “A Bite of Portland,” a documentary about food in the Portland metro area. She is originally from China and moved here three years ago.

“I never had Orange Chicken in China. When I came here I had to try new Chinese food,” she said.

Osburn said the quality and the freshness of the food is important to her, not necessarily what type of food. “If they prepare and cook at the restaurant, I will like it,” she said. “I (made) this documentary to promote people to go to the small restaurants or the small business owner.”

She visited several Gresham and Portland restaurants that allowed her to film in their kitchens. “They really helped me,” she said.

Osburn was the film’s director but also shot some of her own “footage.”

“I try to do a little bit of everything so I can get hands-on” experience, she said.