Check out my article on Man with a Bolex Movie Camera. This short film was recently accepted into the Cinekink Film Festival. It’s a local production, written and directed by students from American University’s MFA film program. I went to AU as an undergrad so I was glad to write about this production for the Pink Line Project, where I contribute articles about the DC filmmaking scene.
I first encountered Man with a Bolex Movie Camera when it was a script. It had been submitted to the DC Shorts Screenplay Competition. I was one of the judges and we selected the script as a finalist. Local actors performed this funny and sexy story in a theater in the round setting on a rainy night in October 2009.
While the script didn’t win the competition (Annie Coburn, another AU student did), writer Colin Foster benefited from the experience. Based upon hearing the response from the audience, he shortened the script and tightened it up a bit.
One year later, we had another DC Shorts Screenplay Competition and in the finalists we had another AU student finalist, Mary Ratliff. I stayed in touch with her after the competition and wrote a post about all the fabulous things the 2010 finalists were doing. It’s a very talented bunch.
Mary told me that Colin had made his movie – she had worked on it. (One big difference between AU’s film program and others is that the students all help each other.)
I interviewed Colin and wrote the article for Pink Line. Colin even showed me the completed film. It’s in black and white and looks gorgeous. I had liked the script so it was really interesting seeing the final product.
When you read a script, you have to imagine the action in your head. You tend to focus on dialogue – the jokes are very funny in the script, especially for film buffs. In the movie, however, I was distracted by lead actress Jacqueline Salamack, who is very funny and sexy.
While I’ve written screenplays, I never actually went to film school. However, being part of DC Shorts for the past several years has been an education in the cinematic arts. I’ve had the chance to sit in on rehearsals, go to auditions, read lots of short scripts, meet filmmakers and even manage a screenplay reading before a theater full of people. Being part of this process, and watching films like Man with a Bolex Movie Camera come to fruition, has been both fascinating and inspiring.
