Sussex students are getting the chance to have short films they have created for their degree course shown on the big screen for all to see.
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| Steve Laycock's Untitled 33. |
Each Sunday night at the Gardner Arts Centre, one of four student shorts is being screened just before the main feature. So, punters settling down for Hollywood blockbuster Sin City, starring Bruce Willis, also got the chance to see a four-minute masterpiece called Snowblind by Media Practice and Theory student Alex Rea.
The 'Gardner Drama Shorts', as the screenings are called, are a result of the close working relationship between the Department of Media and Film and the Gardner Arts Centre. The two already work closely on the degree show for the Media Practice and Theory course, which combines intellectual training and practical teaching in media studies.
Students gain experience in different types of media, such as photography, film and interactive media, and then specialise in one area as their degree progresses.
Students working in the medium of film and animation had their work scrutinised by staff in the department who, explains Mary Krell (a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media), then chose four pieces with a "high degree of technical and intellectual rigour", to be shown at the Gardner.
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| Still from Peter Moores' The Menorah. |
One such short to get a public screening is an animation called The Menorah by recent graduate Peter Moores. Set in the Second World War, it tells the tale of a child's journey from the inner city to a concentration camp. Along the way she is haunted by ghosts of her family.
"It's disturbing," says Mary, "in that it uses a medium you might not expect for the subject - Flash animation - to tell quite a difficult story. On its first showing, at various points, it had people in tears."
What do students feel about their work being laid bare for all to see? "They seem to be really excited," continues Mary. "For students leaving university and getting a job it seems to be an immediate boost to their confidence."
· The Gardner Drama Shorts continue every Sunday night at 8pm before the main feature until 13 November. The Menorah will be shown on Sunday 6 November preceding the film In My Father's Den.