Appalachian film festival

The seventh annual Appalachian Film Festival is beginning this year's events at Marshall University.

Eight Appalachian Film Festival entries will be played in Smith Hall, Room 154 on Friday, said Chris Lusher, 2010 Appalachian Film Festival chairman. The event is free and will begin at 5:30 p.m. The last film will start at 9:15 p.m.

Lusher said hosting the film festival in Huntington is an asset to the Huntington area and Marshall.

"I think it's beneficial all the way around," Lusher said. "It's beneficial for students. It's beneficial for the festival, and it's just beneficial for the area period.  I think this area really needs something like this.

"If you're a creative-type person and you live in this area, there aren't a lot of options for people to get their voices heard and things like that," he said.

Films shown on Friday are in three categories: shorts, young filmmaker and feature films, Lusher said.

Shorts are films ranging from a minimum of five minutes to a maximum of 30 minutes, Lusher said.  The young filmmaker category includes films directed by individuals 16 years old and younger and range from five minutes to two hours. Feature films are like the movies typically viewed in a cinema and range from one hour and 15 minutes to two hours or more.

Friday will be the first night that any of this year's films have been shown to the public, Lusher said.

Jeff Jones, filmmaker from Harper's Ferry, W.Va., directed the feature film "Maxwell Stein" that will be shown at 9:15 p.m on Friday.

Jones said participating in film festivals is an incredible experience.

"You spend the whole time talking to other people that love and care about film," Jones said.  "Because they're creative people, they're very open about their ideas. The whole time you're there you just spend time bouncing ideas off of each other and learning different peoples' point of view. I've learned just as much at film festivals as I did in college."

Jones said audience feedback is greatly encouraged.

"Not only does it help give you an idea how people think of your film, but they ask you questions sometimes you didn't even think about," Jones said. "It helps you to learn a little bit about yourself and your own filmmaking process as well."

The Appalachian Film Festival received approximately 200 entries this year, Lusher said. The entries were judged democratically by various people around the Huntington area based on criteria such as acting, storyline and direction.

The film festival accepts entries from anyone who lives within the 13 Appalachian states, Lusher said.  Those states include West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The film festival will continue throughout April.  

   Kelsey Thomas can be contacted at thomas336@marshall.edu.