SEQUIM — “Dinner and a movie” take on a new, youthful meaning this Friday.
It’ll be a kind of Sundance Film Festival-meets-Academy Awards night in the inimitable style of Sequim, as the makers of seven short films compete for $6,750 in scholarships, plus the “Elkie” prize.
The fifth annual Sequim Student Film Festival will also be a showcase of what teenagers are thinking about, dreaming up and editing down to seven minutes or less.
The titles tell the tale.
“Survivor: Banana Belt” is Sequim High School senior Holly Hudson and her younger brother Brendon Hudson’s parody of “Survivor,” set around the high school campus.
“Next Generation” is the festival’s first music video, stirred together by seniors Fariss Ryan, Peter Harker and Christian Merrikin.
Rebecca Case and Amy McAndie, both juniors, have entered “Fairytales Gone Wrong.”
Brothers Jack and Ted McColl and Ryan Tucker, all Sequim High students, have spun a short but feat-intensive snowboarding flick called “Lib or Die,” while another sibling set, Jeb, Jenny and Luke Mooney, made “The Great Race” about the headlong rush to be the fastest to get a movie into the competition.
“Misty Pond,” an action movie, has sprung from the cameras of Frank Catelli, Mackenzie Grinnell and Evan Watkins, all 10th-graders.
Juniors Michael Cullinan and Ravi Carlson collaborated on “The Summer Wind Came Killing In.”
Comedies and dramas
Festival orchestrator Elna Kawal said there’s plentiful comedy in this year’s slate of films.
But these being teenagers, some of the films are full-on dramas.
“There’s a little bit of everything,” said Marine Jahan Hirschfeld, an actress and dancer who served on the panel of judges.
“There’s something for everybody.”
“The judging was done last week by an independent group of people from the media and art world,” Kawal said.
“Many of these judges are from Port Angeles, so that they don’t know the kids.”
Other judges
Other panelists include film professor Bruce Hattendorf of Peninsula College, actress Alexandra Edouart and Lara Starcevich, a professor of drama at the college.
The first-place winners of the competition will split a $3,000 scholarship award, while the second-place filmmakers will divide $2,250 in scholarship money.
The third-place prize is $1,500 to be divided by the young directors.
The Sequim Education Foundation has provided the scholarships since the festival’s inception in 2006.
This year, the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society will present a $250 environmental award to one team of filmmakers.
Audience’s favorite
The Elkie, the award for the film most loved by the audience, is a trophy rather than money.
The winners’ identities will remain secret until Friday night, Kawal noted.
“The judges spend an evening watching the films,” she added. “They are not allowed to talk to each other and are spread out through the Sequim High School auditorium while doing the judging. . . . That way no one person can sway the opinions of the others.”
To raise a bit more money for the Sequim Education Foundation, a cadre of Sequim School District administrators, along with Irrigation Festival Queen Fallon Schneider and Princesses Sarah Berkes, Ashley Fuentes and Sierra Shelden, will host a spaghetti dinner before the festival.
A Catered Affair of Sequim will dish up the feast from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Sequim High cafeteria, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
Framed poster
Those coveting a memento of the night may bid on a framed film festival poster featuring Sequim High School senior Taylor Roads’ image of a Medusa-like young woman whose hair grows into film strips.
T-shirts bearing Roads’ design will also be available for $10.
After dinner, guests can make their way to the high school’s Performing Arts building, where the movies will light up the screen starting at 7 p.m.
Tickets for the dinner and the festival are $15 for adults or $10 for students.
For information, visit www.SequimEducationFoundation.org.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@ peninsuladailynews.com.
