By Jacob Steven Mohr
A capacity crowd of students, university staff and amateur moviemakers gathered in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Lumina Theater the night of Friday, February 13 to participate in the university’s ninth annual Reel Teal Film Festival. Headed by the student-run Flicker Film Society, the festival showcased 28 short films from around the world.
The festival committee received more than 2,000 submissions this year, which Kenneth Freyer, Reel Teal co-chair, said is about 100 times the number of submissions received in previous years.
“We waived the submission fee this year, so naturally our popularity kind of shot up,” he said. Freyer ran the event along with fellow co-chair Carson Roach-Howell.
Discarding the format of previous years, 2015’s Reel Teal screened its short films in two blocks with three categories of film in each and a one-hour intermission between. The first block featured the categories of animation, documentary and music videos. The second continued with narrative, experimental and local films.
Many of the festival’s 2,200 submissions came from outside of the United States, which Roach-Howell said made 2015 Reel Teal’s most international year yet.
“We got films from over 80 different countries — countries I’ve never even heard of — and we accepted films from 15,” he said. “We actually had to include a new segment of local films just to remind everyone of their roots. We don’t want to lose sight of where we came from.”
The festival, Freyer added, began humbly with film students sharing their projects together.
“Reel Teal started out in King Hall, with just a bunch of film students sharing their work with each other,” Freyer said, gesturing to the attendees spilling out of the festival lounge and into the hall beyond. “Of course, it’s gotten way out of control now.”
Roach-Howell said another factor contributing to Reel Teal’s popularity is the festival’s open-ended submissions policy.
“The only real stipulation [for admittance] is that it’s got to be under 15 minutes, and a film,” Roach-Howell said.
Although the films screened at Reel Teal were only a fraction of the length of a feature film, committee member Sean O’Malley said producing even three minutes of footage can be a demanding experience. O’Malley worked on “Flash of Light,” a locally produced found-footage horror short.
“I had to have 20 people crowded into my apartment, only five of whom actually appear in the film,” O’Malley said. “The rest were there just running the effects, moving chairs and slamming doors and stuff.”
Despite these challenges, O’Malley said the experience was rewarding.
“[The experience] was really fun, really very social,” O’Malley said. “Everybody had a good time, I think.”
Kevin Bahr, a UNCW senior who has submitted to Reel Teal in past years, commented on the quality of the films at this year’s festival.
“A lot of films you see try to be more than they are,” Bahr said. “You need to learn to embrace your limitations. That’s what all the quality pieces do.”
Following each block of films, a panel of judges awarded plaques to the best films in each category. When the festival drew to a close, the judges gave out cash prizes to the festival’s Best Film and Audience Choice winners.
Ben Brad’s animated “Life is Beautiful” won a majority of the available awards, taking home Best Animation, Audience Choice for the first block and Best Film.
