Annual festival offers wide variety of independent films
By Jeffery Barwick
[email protected]
Staff Writer
The fourth annual Rome International Film Festival, Sept. 6-9, offered attendees the opportunity to see a wide array of films ranging from animation, experimental shorts, strange shorts, documentaries, narrative shorts and literary shorts.
Barry Norman, founder and executive director of the RIFF, got the idea to start the festival after he entered his first film in a 1995 film festival. "The RIFF is a tremendous cultural event that works for and with the city of Rome," said Norman in the Rome City Auditorium on the opening night of the festival.
He thinks that the key to the RIFF's success is the quality of the films entered and the number of people attending. There were almost 700 film entries this year. According to Norman, Rome was chosen to host the RIFF because of attractive venues and a nice downtown area. Also, Rome is centrally located, surrounded by Atlanta, Birmingham and Chattanooga, giving the RIFF the opportunity to promote to more people.
The RIFF was abounding with film enthusiasts and filmmakers who wanted to share their love for films.
Before, during and after films, viewers and filmmakers gathered in groups all over discussing films, film gear and places of travel.
There was a very relaxed, friendly environment at all of the film screenings.
Before most films, the filmmaker stood in front of the audience giving a short
biography of the film and afterwards had a session of questions and answers, during which anybody could ask questions about the film, how it was made and the inspiration behind it.
One of the more intriguing films of the festival was "Born Again Buddhists" by filmmaker Lian Pak. It is a religious documentary about the Tibetan Buddhists' dilemma of multiple children claiming to be reincarnates of famous religious figures.
The movie tells the story from the political standpoint of the government on the unsuspected turn of events. The number of reincarnates is rising at an alarming rate. As a result, the Bhutanese government is being forced to step in and regulate the process of becoming a "trulkus," a reincarnate of a religious figure.
Judy Taylor, director of advancement at GHC and president of the RIFF board, stated, "As a representative of the college I am dedicated to the event because it directly benefits GHC, the students and the greater community. "This year there were approximately 200 volunteers from Georgia Highlands, Berry, and Shorter colleges helping at the festival.
At least 50 of the volunteers were students from GHC. Each volunteer worked four hours and received a free four-day pass.
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