The Syracuse University chapter of the national film fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha will host its first ever Student Film Festival Saturday in the Shaffer Art Building, in an effort to unite students from the School of Visual and Performing Arts and the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“What DKA often likes to do and one of our big goals is kinda like bridging the gap between all these communities, and we felt that, like a film fest will be a wonderful opportunity for that,” said Joe Blank, a junior film major and head of cinematic affairs for Delta Kappa Alpha.

The festival has been in the works for almost a year now. The fraternity, which came to Syracuse three years ago, had been brainstorming ideas for such an event since last year, and decided to go ahead with it after they felt their presence on campus had grown enough. This is one of the most public events that the fraternity will host since coming to campus.

Entries for the festival will be categorized into three genres: drama, comedy, and documentary/experimental. Animated films will also be included in the three categories. Submissions will be judged based on merit, artistic value, effort and general enjoyment, and the event will also include non-competitive screening areas. Entry is open to all students who wish to showcase their work, regardless of any prior filmmaking experience.

Other than uniting the various film communities and starting a dialogue about the interests of the people involved, the festival will also focus on raising funds for their national philanthropic organization, SeriousFun Children’s Network, founded in the 1980s by DKA alumnus Paul Newman. All proceeds from the event, including ticket and food sales, will be given to the organization.

SeriousFun also proved to be a big motivator for DKA Omicron’s decision to establish the film fest, as the organizers thought it would help make the event specific to the campus as well as the charity. Planning for the festival did not come with its own set of obstacles. Initial problems included appropriate branding, as DKA was looking for a name that would be different from a former film festival hosted by University Union.

Getting the word out and getting people to find out about it proved to be a challenge as well, since the fraternity has a smaller influence on campus than some other Greek organizations.

“We have a lot of people in our fraternity with their hands in different things, so I think that was the kind of way we went about it”, said Adela Hadzic, senior public relations major and a member of DKA.

Freshman television, radio and film major Hanz Valbuena entered a drama short film which he had worked on in one of his classes in order to get exposure and constructive criticism.

“It [the film festival] is a great way, not only to bring out the passion in the people, but also to showcase that talent and passion isn’t necessarily tied to your major or your school”, said Valbuena, who is a student at Newhouse.

Tickets for the film festival will be available at the Schine Box-Office.

“It’s an important stepping stone for the film community in Syracuse because there hasn’t been anything like this before. This is our first event, first film fest rather, and we wanna make it an annual thing so that we can continue doing it,” added Hadzic when asked about her expectations for the event.

Published on December 2, 2016 at 3:57 pm

Contact Malavika: mnrandiv@syr.edu