This weekend the Global Film Festival is bringing some exciting experiences to Williamsburg. In this exclusive interview with the festival’s Assistant Director, Robyn Markarian, we find out tips for first time festival attendees, Robyn’s take on women in film, details about this year’s theme and what this event is really about. We hope to see you at the Festival this weekend!
Her Campus WM: Can you give our readers a brief history of the Global Film Festival at William and Mary?
Robyn Markarian: Sure! The W&M Global Film Festival grew out of an initiative by the Reves Center to promote “Global Inquiry Groups” of faculty members. Film scholars in English, History, Modern Languages and the College’s LCST program came together to share their film scholarship and develop a more robust film curriculum for the college.
One result was a commitment to support an annual film festival and to do so in a way that would be integrated into the College’s film studies curriculum. In 2008, the first festival coincided with the 75th anniversary of the Williamsburg/Kimball Theater and so the festival celebrated the history of “When the Movies Come to Town” highlighting how films from around the world have always been part of our local film culture.
After that the festival moved to highlight a broad theme that would allow for programming a wide range of films in different genres and from countries around the world. 2009 featured “Global Film and Migration”; the 2010 theme was “Global Film and Music.” Each year the festival preparations and programming were integrated to Film Studies courses in the fall with students simultaneously studying film festivals and their history while also preparing the production of one themselves. So the festival is both a community event for the campus and local Williamsburg residents AND a kind of class room lab where W&M students learn by doing.
HC WM: How did you get to be the Assistant Director of this Festival?
RM: As an American Studies graduate student, every year we get a different job for our fellowship. This year, I was picked to be the Global Film Festival’s Graduate Assistant, which included being a TA for the Film 351 course, and the Assistant Director of the Festival. I was chosen for the job because of my interest’s in Film Studies, as well as my past experience with global film when living in New York City and Paris.
HC WM: How do you go about choosing what films to show at the festival?
RM: Now that was one of my favorite parts of the whole process. First we picked a theme that we thought would be interesting to look at from a global aspect, and decided on SUPER/Natural. Next, we opened it up to the Film 351 students, and asked them to look at other film festivals from around the world. Prof Tim Barnard (the festival director) was very open to ideas from the students in his class, as well as word of mouth from people who might have known an international movie they felt fit our theme. There was a lot of looking movies up online that we might never have heard of otherwise, and checking out reviews, trailers, message boards to see if the movie would truly fit our theme–and be fun to watch. I’ve learned more about global cinema in the past year, just trying to find movies that fit our theme, than ever before.
HC WM: The theme this year is “SUPER/natural”. What sorts of films will this entail and how did you end up on that theme?
RM: The SUPER/Natural theme is great because it encompasses three of the biggest trends in films in filmmaking today–the Superhero (Super), the Environment (Natural), and the Vampire/Ghost/Horror movie (Supernatural). We wanted to introduce an audience, who might not otherwise get an opportunity, to see movies from around the world that are a part of these trends. We wanted to give audiences movies from around the world that showed that the mainstream Hollywood representation of this theme isn’t necessarily the only way to view them.
HC WM: What roles do women seem to frequent in the film business and where do you wish they had more involvement?
RM: The film business is still very much a man’s game, unfortunately, though women are trying to break through that glass ceiling. A woman won the academy award for direction for the first time ever just last year, and more and more women are joining the background production of films. There are more women directors, writers, producers than ever, and I, for one, am excited about the level of involvement in women in the film business. I would encourage any woman interested in the film business to not be discouraged because the industry is still male dominant. Women bring such a unique perspective to film, no matter how they’re involved, from the actual production, to distribution, to marketing, etc, etc. I wish that this involvement continues to expand so that the film industry’s opportunities are as open to women as they are to men.
HC WM: To someone who has never gone to a film festival before and may not know much about it, what advice do you have?
RM: For our festival in particular, my advice is to check our schedule and get your FREE tickets early for things by either going to the Kimball or checking our website filmfestival.wm.edu. If people have been told there is a show that is sold out- still come to the theater! We have a rush line since, historically, shows that have been sold out end up having empty seats. All you have to do is come to the theater before the movie starts, get in line, get a number, and wait for it to be called! During the festival, there are a lot of great movies, live acts, directors, and parties that are going on, and I feel like people might miss out on something if they think its been sold out. Also, knowing the schedule is pretty important because we have so much going on. It’s crucial to enter any film festival with a plan of attack of what you’re going to see, what parties you would like to attend–otherwise it might be a bit overwhelming. Our website has all of the information on when things are starting, and where they are going on–I definitely suggest checking it out!
For the films in general– just go in with an open mind! Movies are as wide and varied as the countries they come from, and if you walk in expecting every movie to have the Hollywood ending, you will be disappointed. But if you walk in expecting to be entertained (and maybe enlightened) you will walk out happy!
My last bit of plug for our festival is simply that we’re going to be having free movies, free food, and free alcohol (if you’re over 21!), so why not come out and experience something new?