I went to the Dartmouth Student Film screening last night on the Dartmouth campus. It was an especially relevant event because these were undergraduate students just like us doing short documentaries for the class Film Studies 30: Documentary Film. Three groups of three or four students completed three great pieces-all very different in style and subject. At the end when asked a question about working in a group they all relayed just how much of a challenge, good and bad, it is to work in a group because everyone inevitably has their own creative vision for the film. I felt this same sort of tension when doing our short film piece.
The first film was called "Sleepless in Hanover" and it was about four different night shift people who worked at the Hanover Inn, a common munchies destination and delivery service called EBAs, an underground bar, and CVS. This one captured the feeling of a small college town in the wee hours with artful shots or carless streets, two drunk people singing on a distant sidewalk, a spider web, or some lone balloons swaying in the breeze. I love the use of "still shots", if you will, as commentary.
The second film was called "Rockbottom Farm: from Father to Son." It was about a dairy farm in Strafford, VT. The filmmakers followed around the current manager of the farm, Earl, and his small son on a daily herd and milk of the cows. They also used archival footage that they dug by Dartmouth students from the seventies. The grainy, black and white footage added texture to the film and painted a picture of the farms sixties-era commune history that could not have otherwise been achieved.
The last film was called "The Man in the Top Hat." This was about the many hauntings at the Colby Sawyer college campus in New London, NH. What made this film and its subject matter so compelling was the wide range of sources used. The filmmakers had interviews of students who had experiences with hauntings. They interviewed a cop who was a skeptic turned believer after a late-night incident where a book "fell" into the middle of the library floor. This was not so bad, he said, until he turned the book over and it was called, Reality in the Fourth Dimension. Goosebumps, don't know about you...They also interviewed a medium who gave tours of the campus where she would communicate with the spirits and they would often communicate back. The filmmakers were able to film one of these tours. During the question and answer section I asked if any of the filmmakers noticed any spirit presence and the one who had filmed it said that he felt a tapping on his sweatshirt. The medium said it was just a spirit saying hello.
I love, love, loved all three of these films. Even though they were about the area where I grew up they all presented little tidbits that I never would have otherwise known. It was great that these were created by my peers. This is what I so love about indie film, or documentary film. Things that might be otherwise uninteresting, or uninspiring to learn about suddenly become little fascinating gems of information that are pleasing to watch. And I also really appreciated the sense of place that these created. I felt regional pride watching these, especially the one about the farm. Go film students!