Area film festival invites short film/video submissions by April 15 deadline

The first annual Eastern Film Festival, scheduled for Friday April 22, invites all student and community aspiring film/video makers to submit their five-minute (or less) creations for public screening. The free Festival, open-to-the-public and sponsored by the student Eastern Arts Society, welcomes all film and video formats that are viewable on a computer screen, including smartphone productions.
Film/video makers should submit their entries before the April 15th deadline to Curtis Hakala, the Arts Society faculty advisor, by email (curtis.haklala@easternwv.edu), or in person at 316 Eastern Drive, Moorefield, WV. The Festival will exhibit all submissions, except those containing material that the judges consider objectionable for this venue, such as nudity, excessive adult language, etc.
Free BBQ & Film Workshop
The April 22 event includes a free barbecue lunch from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm, catered by Hank’s Southern Grillery, that will follow a free 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm Guerilla Filmmaking Workshop. Led by filmmaker and novelist JJ McMoon, the workshop will show participants “how to make a quality amateur film for almost no cost,” said Hakala, Eastern’s division chair for general studies and English professor.
McMoon will cover the basics of “shooting your own feature-length film cheaply, without spending thousands of dollars,” Hakala said. The filmmaker will review such nuts-and-bolts topics as filming at public locations and getting actors to work for free.
The Festival will show the submitted student and community productions from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The screened submissions judged best will win prizes.
Run, McMoon’s own new suspense/action release, will show from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. In the film, “A woman goes for her morning jog, only to find out that if she stops running, she will die,” according to the internet movie database, IMDb. (A web link to the trailer is available at runbyjjmcmoon.com.) A Q & A session with writer/director McMoon will follow.
Hank’s Southern Grillery’s catered lunch menu will include pork BBQ, mac & cheese, green beans, dessert, and beverages.