The Film Club at California State University, Bakersfield hosted their Hearts and Humor Film Festival in the Multi-purpose room of the Student Union On Wednesday Feb. 25th.
All of the films shown were student-made with a common theme of romance and comedy. “The whole process of getting your script chosen, auditioning, filming, and editing for this festival took about four months” says Greg Bolanos, writer of “Before the Roses Die” which was one of the five films shown at the film festival.
The festival was also stoplight themed so those who attended were encouraged to wear red, yellow or green depending on their current relationship status. Red, if you were taken, yellow if your relationship is complicated, and green if you were single. Tiny pieces of paper with silly pick-up lines were handed out to those who attended as a means of socializing before the films were shown. Free snacks were given out to students who decided to stop in to this love themed event.
Some of the films that were shown at the film festival were, “Before the Roses Die”, “Vitamin D”, “Chase”, “One Last Look” and “A Second, Third, or Fourth Chance”. Unfortunately, due to some last minute changes, “Poison City Romance” and “The Interrogation” were not shown that evening.
“There were some controversial things here and there, so we could not show those two films”, says The Film Club at CSUB founder and current President Chad Alame.
One of my favorite films shown Wednesday evening was titled “Before the Roses Die.” This film was written by Greg Bolanos and directed by Chad Alame. “I was inspired to write ‘Before the Roses Die’ when I was thinking of Hugh Grant. He’s a British actor known for being ‘charmingly befuddled’. So I thought, what if I had someone act like a Hugh Grant Character, but they weren’t?”, said Bolanos.
Regardless of the last minute changes, there was an overall light hearted mood filled with laughs as well as some very serious moments. This is the second film festival held by The Film Club at CSUB and they hope to continue this event in the quarters to come. Friday, March 13, The Film Club at CSUB will be holding auditions for the short films of their upcoming Drama Festival scheduled to be held in May.
