Festival founders continue tradition Local filmmakers feature up and coming talent By Joe Nguyen nguyejos@mscd.edu

Photo by Jenn LeBlanc • jkerriga@mscd.edu

From left, Josh Weinberg and Wade Gardner, founders and organizers of the First Look Film Festival at the Starz FilmCenter, greet movie goers on April 22. Now in its sixth year, the festival showcases student films. When asked how long they plan to continue the event, Weinberg and Gardner jokingly replied that they want to keep going for at least 18 years, or until they die.

   Don’t mess with Wade Gardner and Josh Weinberg.

   When “Don’t Mess With Texas,” a short film Gardner and Weinberg created, didn’t get accepted into the student festival at his college, the two of them created their own showcase: The First Look Film Festival.

   “ If ours didn’t get shown at the student showing,” Gardner said, “how many other student projects, not only in Colorado, but around the world, probably haven’t been able to be screened in front of an audience?”

   In 2001, the two students traveled to local schools and solicited material for their festival. When they were finished, they had collected over 30 short films.

   “ The surprising thing was that everyone sat through the entire three-hour program,” he said.
   “We knew we had to do it again.”

   Ironically, a year after the festival started, “Don’t Mess With Texas” was accepted into the Starz Denver International Film Festival.

   In its second year, Gardner and Weinberg found an online submission service that they’ve been using to this day. Now, they annually receive over 400 entries from around the world.
   “ We get stories that are personal, sad, funny, thoughtful, but always from the passion of the students doing the work,” he said.

   One year, a beautifully shot film with high production value from the University of Southern California was rejected because it was “too long and too boring,” he said. The filmmakers replied with an e-mail saying USC was the greatest film school in the country and questioned their decision to not include it. A response to that letter was never sent.

   “ If we did send them a letter,” he said, “we would’ve said, ‘Yeah, you may have had the most expensively produced, the most well-shot film that we’ve ever seen or that USC’s ever seen, but if it didn’t have an entertaining story, how could we play it in front of an audience?’”

   Gardner said the production value of the film is not factored into the selection process. Rather, it’s whether or not the film has a thoughtful or entertaining story.

   Unlike many short film festivals around the country, the First Look Film Festival doesn’t have an overall theme to its collection of movies. He said a global theme would limit the types of shorts that are in the festival and some good shorts may be left out. However, two running night-themes are included annually: Late-night zombie shorts and a Colorado directors screening.

   Gardner and Weinberg have chosen not to include any of their films inside the event they started, as “it would take a spot from somebody else.”

   “ (The directors) are not jaded by Hollywood,” Gardner said. “They’re not doing it to get a buck. Yeah, they’re doing it to get a grade, but a lot of times the passion just comes through and the audience is just blown away by the independent nature.”

Nicole Queen contributed to this article.