Student center spices up Winter Session with indie film series

This month, the university is holding its sixth annual winter indie film series in an attempt to get winter session students and the campus community out and about.

Alex Keen, assistant director of student centers, said planning events during Winter Session is risky because the student population is low and the monetary costs for such events seem wasteful. He said the series was created to provide entertainment during winter session with minimal cost to both students and the university.

"I knew people were here," he said. "I remember being a student during Winter Session and sitting in my room with nothing to do."

Keen said because winter enrollment is down this year, the turnout to the film series is not as large as in previous years. There were about 30 people at this week's showing of, Mad Max, he said, compared to turnouts of 75 to 150 people per screening in past years.

"This year, the enrollment is down," Keen said.  

Junior James Townsend came to the showing of Mad Max, the first of the series he has attended.

"It's a free movie," Townsend said. "I thought it would be entertaining, something different."

He said the movies were a better alternative to spending the night in his residence hall room.

Keen said the original goal of the film series is to get students to identify indie films for what they really are. Indie films, he said, are films that are financed independently from the studio film system unlike those produced by large production companies such as Sony Pictures, Lions Gate Films and Twentieth Century-Fox.

Each year the Film Series has a theme. Keen said this year's is "ultra low-budget".

Next week's film, Primer, is an indie science fiction film which was financed at about $7,000. In comparison, the new sci-fi, box-office topper, Avatar, was financed by Twentieth Century-Fox at $280 million, plus the cost of marketing. 

"Primer is my favorite of the five movies chosen for this year because it is a perfect independent sci-fi example," Keen said.

In addition to the five films chosen for the series, the student film organization, Reel Productions Film Society, plays a short-film written and directed by university students before each feature film.

This week's short, The Lone Desperado, was written, filmed, edited and directed by sophomore communications major Kevin Shields. His short-film debut is his third project working with the student film organization, Shield said.

"I hope to make more," he said.

Keen said organizers have also been trying to increase attendance by offering a raffle drawing for prizes before each film. Prizes, he said, are usually books, movies, and soundtracks connected with indie cinema. This week's prize was a book titled, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film.

Aside from the raffle prizes, and free admission, Keen said he thinks students and community members show an interest in the film series because it's something different.

"For some, it's something to do," he said. "For some, they are willing to take a chance, or they get the opportunity to see movies they have never seen in theaters."

The Film Series is held every Wednesday night at 7:30pm in the Trabant University Center Theater until Feb. 3. It is open to the public, and is free. More information can be found at http://www.udel.edu/student-centers/indie/