Short Films, Big Night: Gearing Up for The Masters Film Festival

“I love filmmaking because it’s another way for me to express creativity, alongside my science and engineering work,” Li explained. “I think filmmaking and engineering are actually similar because they both use imagination and design to make a meaningful impact, whether that’s emotional or physical.”

The film explores the theme of reincarnation through the story of Oscar, a modern-day character whose past lives mysteriously ended at age 18 – each struck by lightning. The past versions — Caveman Oscar, Hippie Oscar and Priest Oscar, all played by Li — sit in a movie theater watching the life of modern-day Oscar, wondering if he’ll be the one to finally break the curse.

While the initial idea was Li’s, he and his classmates in upper school media arts teacher Adrian Sas’ course created “The Oscars” together. “We collaborated on every step of the process: writing the script, giving peer feedback, storyboarding, filming and editing. It was a true team effort,” Li said.

Sas said, “Every student in the class contributed something unique [to 'The Oscars'], coming together to execute on a complex technical and metaphysical concept with clarity and creativity." 

Aspiring documentarian Stella Bilman, a junior in the Film Major class, submitted a trailer of “MONARCH,” a feature-length documentary she has been working on for more than a year. 

“‘MONARCH’ chronicles the life of Lynn Bilman, my grandmother, beginning with her childhood and tracing her life through to the modern day,” she said. “The film is entirely in her own words and draws on countless hours of home footage, photos and extensive interviews.”

Also participating in the festival are students in upper school visual arts teacher Luke Wilde’s Animation class.

“My animated film was a portion of an anime known as ‘Persona 4,’” Samanyu Bhansali ’28 said. “It is an animation of the main character awakening his inner self, but to my colors. I created this through the process of rotoscoping, or drawing over, while adding unique colors to create depth to the animation.”

Wilde was impressed with the student work this year. “The clips range from a variety of different subjects, like acrobatics, dancing and even one about cake decorating,” Wilde said. “It was interesting to see the way that they tackled these projects and their own personal styles really shined.”

Sas concurred. “I’m looking forward to seeing all the films we made in classes at every level this year projected on the big screen for the first time,” she said. “I’m so proud of all of them!”

The Masters Film Festival will premiere the work of 30 upper school students from Foundations in Filmmaking, Intermediate Filmmaking, Film Major, Advanced Film and Animation classes. Close to two dozen short films including narrative fiction, documentaries, music videos and one commercial, will be shown in the Claudia Boettcher Theatre on Thursday, May 29, at 6:30 p.m. 

And in related film festival news, it’s “luces,cámara, acción!” for upper school students in Roberto Mercedes’ Advanced Topics Spanish in Cultures classes who are presenting the 7th Annual Spanish Short Film Festival tomorrow, May 22, at 11:50 a.m. and 1:50 p.m. in Masters Hall Room 333. Nine student-created short films in Spanish will be shown and judged in categories including Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography. Students, community members and actress Lina Beltre will cast their votes. Winners will be announced on Friday.