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EUGENE, OR. DIVA's OpenLens Festival is an umbrella event that features Youth Visions' Teen Video Challenge and the OpenLens Short Film + Video competition. It also offers daily screenings, seminars, special events, visiting filmmakers, and receptions. The purpose of the OpenLens Festival is to celebrate the work of emerging independent film and video artists.
This year's festival, held January 29-30-31, was a great success in bringing together a diversity of film and video artists from southwest Oregon. The event was hosted by award winning independent film director Beth Harrington from Vancouver, Washington. Teen Video Challenge This year's Youth Visions Teen Video Challenge jury presented a $200 First Place award to "Penciled Percussion" by Daniel Hart that featured a rhythmic study of pencil tapping on desktop objects. "Penciled Percussion" also won the $50 Audience Choice Award. Daniel is a Homeschool 9th grader. A $150 Second Place award went to "Vents" by Kyle Starner, a senior at the Martin Luther King JR. Education Center School. Crow High School students John Sevey and Zoe Livelybrooks won the $100 Third Place Award for their entry "Tomato Soup". A $25 Honorable Mention Award went to Loren Arthur's "French Kiss", also from Crow High School A jury of educators and filmmakers judged this year's entries. The jury included Gary Ross - Lane ESD, Terry Benge - Thurston High School, Hank Weintraub-Filmmaker, Katina Andoniadis - Eugene Celebration, and Catie Ciciretto-KVAL Producer. The Youth Visions Project has celebrated, since 2002, the work of teen video makers. Its goal has been to broaden the opportunities for young people to improve their skills in video production and for the public to see their work. OpenLens Film+Video Competition DIVA's sixth annual OpenLens Film+Video Compeition was open to artists living from Salem south to the Medford and Ashland area and included Bend and Klamath Falls to the East. This year's juried $500 Best of Show award went to "Model Rules" by Medford filmmakers Ray Robison and Marlyn Mason. The film is a tale about an unrealized romance as Gabby, an aging artist's model played by Mason, fantasizes about one of the men sketching her as she poses nude. "Model Rules" was shot entirely in Southern Oregon. "Model Rules" was also selected as the festival's $100 Audience Choice Award. The $200 Honorable Mention award went to filmmaker Christopher Nguyen for his film "BizzCon: An Event For Fans". This is a short documentary about a two-day BizzCon international gathering of game communities featuring developers and game players of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. This year's OpenLens Festival competition included documentary, narrative, and animated submissions. Filmmakers represented at this year's event included: Brad Harringan, Brian Knowles, Christina Diamond, Christopher Nguyen, Cori Mintzer, Damon Wolf, Daniel Eli Dronsfield, Erick Talbert, Gary Elam, Henry Weintraub, Jason Miller, John Bellville, Josh McHale, K. Quinton Anderson, Lee Wolochuck, Marlyn Mason, Ray Robison, Spence Palermo, Stephen Speidel, Terry Holloway, Tyler Macklin, and Wen Lee. Grants from the Lane Arts Council and the Oregon Media Production Association generously funded this year's OpenLens Festival. Additional support came from: DAVIS' Restaurant & Bar, Liquid Sunshine, Eugene Weekly, Cascade Production Resources, Imagination International, Inc., and Chrysalis Vintage. Additional support: Gall Family, 531 Productions, and Munky Design. |
