GSU dominates Campus MovieFest Finale

After attending the 2006 Atlanta Campus MovieFest Finale last Thursday, I sorely regret deleting all those email alerts reminding me to complete the CMF registration process; not because I thought I had a chance of winning, but because the competition looked like a ton of fun.

CMF is reputedly the largest student film festival in the world, boasting five events in Boston, Florida, California, Scotland and Atlanta. To celebrate its fifth anniversary, this year’s movie theme was the number “5.”

The Atlanta Finale featured 18 short films from Georgia Tech, Emory, GSU, UGA and the AUC (Clark Atlanta, Spelman and Morehouse). However, gauging the ratio of finalists to winners, GSU clearly dominated this year’s competition.

Not only did GSU snatch “Best Drama” ("The Memory of History") and “Best Comedy” ("Carboy"), but they also claimed “Best Picture” (Snooze). The CMF Awards may need another decade before they become as irrelevant as the Oscars, but this year’s offerings were mediocre at best.

Ostensibly, "The Memory of History" (GSU) concerns a girl’s reflection on her personal history. In actuality, it’s a pretentious and vacuous caricature of an art-house film. That the filmmakers lampooned their own movie during the acceptance speech speaks volumes. And because the five-minute film regulation does not lend itself well to the drama genre, other contenders like "Nickel’n & Dime’n" (AUC), "Genesis V" (Emory), and "Paul & Me" (UGA) felt underdeveloped.

Conversely, the time limit worked advantageously for comedy shorts that rely on quick setups and punch lines. With that in mind, movies such as "Raymond" (Tech), "A Meditation on the Speed Limit" (GSU), and "Carboy" (GSU) all had a legitimate claim to “Best Comedy,” with "Carboy" grabbing the title. "Hip Hop: The New Movement That Was" (AUC) received “Best Documentary,” a category new to this year’s competition.

The “CMF Choice Award” was also created this year to give the original CMF founders a critical voice in the awards ceremony. The committee chose "Raymond", Tech’s sole prizewinner this year. However, “Best Picture” awards went to "Snooze", a hokey takeoff on Groundhog Day and Run Lola Run.

"Meditation on the Speed Limit" and "Raymond" seemed to be the cream of the crop. The sheer audacity and brilliance of coordinating four cars to drive 55 mph in formation, therefore stifling traffic flow on I-285 for at least several miles, alone makes the former deserving of something. The latter was perhaps the most holistic film this year. Along with "The Fifth Circle" (GSU) and "The Memory of History", "Raymond" displayed the highest level of production values.

On a final note, the 76ers, a team from GSU, may have created the best movie that no one saw. While making a film about making a film, the group found their way to New York, when they decided to sell their CMF-loaned equipment in order to finance their way back to Atlanta. In a moment worthy of Fellini, someone swiped the equipment in a restaurant. Maybe next year they can make a documentary about it.