For some undergraduate film students, this weekend's 24th annual Notre Dame Student Film Festival will be the first time their work is shown to the public.
But others, like senior Film, Theater and Television (FTT) student Kathleen Bracke, have displayed their work publicly before. Bracke participated in last year's Film Festival and said the experience was extremely rewarding.
"The film program at Notre Dame is completely unique from bigger, more well-known film programs," she said. "Unlike at those schools, you can actually put your name on a film [here] and point out exactly what you did. And you get to watch it in a sweet movie theater like Browning [Cinema]."
The Film Festival began yesterday. It will continue today and tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in Browning Cinema inside the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (DPAC).
Bracke's film, "Journey of a Pen," follows a pen as it travels between diverse students and faculty in a high school.
"Through the pen, we get to see all these different lives and how they interact," Bracke said. "We learn some things about each character, but it is always through the pen."
Bracke, who collaborated on the film with 2012 graduates Kelsie Kiley and Brendan Fitzpatrick, said she was attracted to the script because its features the unique perspective of an inanimate object, rather than a person.
The group produced "Journey of a Pen" over the course of a semester for an advanced film production class. Bracke said she finished editing the film just this week.
"I think that's one thing a lot of people not familiar with FTT don't realize about the program, how time consuming it is," she said. "There were five people in DPAC last night pulling all-nighters, and it's only the second week of school."
Senior Erin Moffitt is participating in the Student Film Festival for the first time this year. Moffitt partnered with senior Nicole Timmerman and junior Elizabeth Kellogg to create the documentary "Amie's Image."
The film follows a day in the life of Amie, a handicapped middle-aged woman who lives at a YMCA in Chicago and sells her photography to support herself.
"It's a character piece about her and the struggles in her life, and yet she finds so much happiness through art," Moffitt said. "It keeps her going, and it's what she enjoys most even though her life isn't the best."
Timmerman, who participated in the festival last year with a short narrative piece called "Soles," said the weekend is an excellent opportunity for students in the FTT department.
"It's really exciting to be a part of it," she said. "It represents FTT in a very positive light. It's amazing how many talented filmmakers there are, and it's really cool to see your peers' work."
Tickets to the festival are $7 for regular admission, $6 for faculty and staff, $5 for seniors and $4 for students. Tickets are available on the DPAC website or by calling the center's ticket office.
