Falcon Film Festival opens Oscar weekend

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Freshman filmmakers at Bowling Green State University will get the red-carpet treatment Saturday (Feb. 24) at the third annual Falcon Film Festival.

Hosted by the downtown Cla-Zel Theater, the festival will feature seven short films by student moviemakers, who will be delivered to the theater by limousines at about 6 p.m.

Once there, not unlike the Hollywood crowd at the following night's Academy Awards, they will be interviewed by red-carpet hosts—from BGSU's Student Technology Center—and vie for Best Actor and Best Actress honors.

The Cla-Zel's doors will also open to the public at 6 p.m., free of charge. Beginning at the same time, theatergoers can catch a ride to the Main Street landmark on the University shuttle from parking Lot N, adjacent to the Saddlemire Student Services Building.

At 7 p.m., the films will have their public premiere, with Dr. Catherine Pratt, a former BGSU faculty member and administrator, as master of ceremonies.

Pratt will introduce the films, each a five-to-eight-minute glimpse of the students' first-semester experience at the University. They were filmed and edited between the start of spring semester last month and the Feb. 9 due date.

Selecting the top three films will be five judges, including Dr. Linda Dobb, executive vice president of BGSU; Dr. Camille Consolvo, interim director of residence life; Bernard Little, president of Undergraduate Student Government, and two BGSU alumni. Thomas Hofbauer is a Toledo-based writer/producer/director whose films include the award-winning “In the Company of Strangers,” while Jeff Betts is the owner of Producer One Media in Bowling Green.

The offices of the Chief Information Officer and Residence Life, along with the University Bookstore, are primary campus contributors to the event. About 20 other BGSU units have assisted, including the Resident Student Association, which is scheduled to supply ushers at the theater and, afterward, broadcast the films on campus cable station WRSA.

Serving as festival steering committee co-chairs again this year are Kim Fleshman, program coordinator at the Student Technology Center, and Michael Hachtel, assistant director of residence life for information technology.

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(Posted February 21, 2007)