By Shreya Banerjee

Independent filmmakers from around the globe mingled with W&L students and the Rockbridge community at the recent WorldFest-Lexington.   In its second year at W&L, the film festival was sponsored by John Dean, a W&L alum, in collaboration with Todd Hunter, chairman and founder of the Houston International Film Festival.

Disappointed with the lack of a film studies program at Washington and Lee, Dean, a film writer, decided that the film fest would be a way to contribute to his alma mater.

World Fest-Lexington showcases the works of independent film makers first presented at the Houston film festival. According to Hunter, Houston was where the likes of Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg screened their first films. Directors from France, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Holland, Japan, Canada and the United States presented their short and feature length films to an expectant Lexington audience.

                              Directors interact over glasses of punch.

Photo by Shreya Banerjee

British director Juliet McKoen's offering Frozen has already won critical acclaim. Lead actress Shirley Henderson won best actress at the Baftas in Scotland, the Scottish equivalent of the Oscars. Among Brothers, a feature directed by John Schwert, hit closer to home with its depiction of relations between fraternity brothers in the midst of a crisis. Other presentations included a Czech film noir parody, a short Dutch film that intelligently covered movies within movies, animation shorts and a documentary about the war in Iraq.

Students and members of the Washington and Lee and Lexington community got to interact with the directors during the course of the film festival weekend. Directors discussed the film making process, their trials and tribulations and the learning experiences at a panel discussion and after their own films.

The film fest was an opportunity for the Washington and Lee community to sample alternative, off beat films and innovative and novel film making.

Full listing of WorldFest-Lexington films

Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.

Lead supervisor:      Prof. Claudette Artwick

Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming

Editing supervisor:  Prof. Pamela Luecke

Technical supervisor:  Michael Todd