High school sophomore Anna Hammond gathered short films from California's Coachella Valley teens and gave them a shot at the big screen for the 2nd Annual Student Film Fest.
Films included:
* The comical Felix the Cat-like animated film, “The Adventures of Sphingo Myelin,” by Miriam Cervantes
* Two Woodrow Wilson Middle School submissions, including noir detective, “Justin Case,” giving students the lowdown on bad behavior, and documentary “Our New Generation,” which interviews female Hispanic employees of the school system about the challenge and importance of college
* Rubi Becerril’s barebones “The Life of the Homeless,” employed no title cards, credits or translation (conversations are all in Spanish), but embarked upon a late night delivery of food and clothing to L.A. street dwellers
* Two experimental films, “Syn” by Emily Daniel and “We, They and Us” by Andy Garfield, incorporated wandering characters and the masked beings who follow them, and utilized little or no dialogue
* Michael Kontaxis showed off his cinematic skills with simple subjects in “6-year-old Wonder” and “Tennis: Summer 2006,” and then tackled the Constitution with samples of Bush, Tiananmen Square and Martin Luther King’s march on Washington
* “Cinderella: An Adaptation” by Katy Katz, was a crowd-pleasing modern day version of the well-known fairy tale
Awards:
Most Experimental: “We, They and Us,” “Syn”
Best Effects: “Syn,” “Cinderella”
Best Plot: “Cinderella”
Up & Coming: “Cinderella,” “The Life of the Homeless”
Best Quality, Greatest Lasting Impression, Best Director, Best Film: “The Life of the Homeless” (winning $2,000 in awards)