BNFilmFest tonight & tomorrow!
After “Ebertfest” winds down every year, I always almost forget that another movie event kicks in immediately afterwards. The annual BNFilmFest (see item: 5/8/06) takes place over the next two evenings at the Normal Theater, 209 North St., Normal, IL. Tonight, Tuesday, May 8, starting at 7 p.m., is the “Youth Showing” which will be free admission to the public. Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 9, also starting at 7 p.m., is the “Indie Showing;” there will be a suggested $5 donation at the door for this half.
Although the BNFilmFest Web site’s language claims that submissions for this second program can be made by creative folks of all ages and experience levels (and presumably contain mature elements to a certain degree), C-U Blogfidential agent Papa Paris and I learned last year that most entries are student projects from high schools and colleges in the Bloomington-Normal area. If you go, expect an audience made up of young adults and their parents with a smattering of curious undergraduates taking a break from finals week, all of them having some fun watching not-ready-for-prime-time microcinema.
However, I will highly suggest that the area’s “real” filmmakers consider future editions of BNFilmFest as an avenue for building regional exposure for their work and for the chance to win useful prizes. This year’s goodies include “a copy of Final Cut Express HD, Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio + DVD, a Canon ZR800 Digital Camcorder, and a Wacom Digital Tablet” according to the BNFF home page, and that doesn’t sound too shabby to me! Besides, I can’t remember the last time a movie production from C-U or Springfield even played in B-N…
Catch my drift, y’all?
~ Jason Pankoke