by Bailey Basham
The 72-Hour Film Festival, an annual event hosted by Trevecca SGA, was canceled this year because of lack of participation.
Three of the five groups that were originally registered dropped out, so SGA officials decided not to spend money on prizes, food and drinks, said Laura Beth Winchester, SGA social life director.
The two remaining groups made their films before getting word the event, originally scheduled for April 5, was canceled.
“After we got the genre Friday, we sat down for about seven hours and brainstormed and wrote the script. On Sunday morning, we woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get the filming done. We got done around 4 p.m., and then we started editing, which took all night and up to submitting it at 5 p.m. on Monday,” said Pedro Da Silva, freshman Trevecca student and participant in one of the groups that made a film.
Da Silva made the film with his sister, Mariana, and a group of friends. Mariana Da Silva said the group received word via email on Tuesday evening from SGA that the event had been canceled.
“The reason they gave was that it wouldn’t be much of an event with just two teams having a submission. They did mention that they were trying to come up with an idea to have students watch the films. We are waiting for that response, and we’re hoping that does happen,” said Pedro.
Winchester said because of FNL, a Trevecca-themed spoof on Saturday Night Live, SGA was not able to focus as much on other events happening that weekend.
“This year, FNL and 72-Hour Film Fest fell within six days of each other. We work extremely hard to make sure FNL is an incredible show, and unfortunately, this year kind of mixed things up a little bit when we moved the event to March instead of February,” said Winchester. “As your student government association, we fully understand the importance of keeping in constant communication with our peers, and this year, we weren’t fully able to do that with so much going on in a short amount of time.”
Pedro said he was frustrated because he felt like other events on campus that weekend had been given priority.
“It felt like the only event that was advertised for that weekend was FNL. Even though both events were planned by SGA, only one of them had priority,” said Pedro. “I am frustrated by the fact that even though they committed to this event, knowing it wasn’t well advertised and they were struggling for participation, they still went on with it and still had teams participate. Even then, they accepted the submissions and waited until one day after to say it wouldn’t be possible. I would understand if from the beginning they told us there was a possibility it wouldn’t work out.”
Hannah Pollok, senior communications studies major, was a member of the other group who completed a film.
“I am pretty sad about the film festival being cancelled. My group had a lot of fun last weekend, and put at least 30 plus hours into this project and I would have liked for it to be premiered at an event,” she said.
Mariana, who sent an email to SGA detailing her frustrations, said the event isn’t just something that students do for fun—it serves as an opportunity for students to get better at filmmaking.
“It’s a huge opportunity for experience. A big thing for film majors who want to get into freelance is participating in film festivals to get better at efficiently making movies and showcasing them to judges,” said Mariana. “This is something that Trevecca offers that better prepares me to confidently showcase my films. It’s not just a fun event. It’s extremely educational.”
According to Winchester, SGA is currently working on a way to allow the films to be screened to campus.
“We fully recognize how talented they are, and we want everyone to see the films because they’re good and deserve to be seen,” she said.
To watch Pedro and Mariana’s film, Desperate, click here.
Click here to see Hannah’s film, Best Western.
