BFM




Get a Taste Editorial Spike Lee on the State of African-American Cinema Student Filmmakers Get a Taste of the Cannes Film Festival Courtesy of Kodak A First Time Producer's Worst Case Scenario Chuck it on the Net (c)Black Filmmaker Publications 1998: All right reserved			Student Filmmakers Get a Taste of the Cannes Film Festival Courtesy of Kodak Two student filmmakers got their first taste of the Cannes Film Festival this year courtesy of Kodak. Londoner Christiana Ebohon and American Christa Collins had their shorts featured at Cannes as part of the Second Annual Kodak Emerging Filmmakers Showcase. Director Ron Howard guest-hosted this year's panel in the American Pavilion, presenting twenty-two filmmakers to the press and industry professionals. Kodak created the showcase as a means of helping talented student filmmakers bridge the gap between film school and the filmmaking industry. Christina Ebohon's black comic short In Your Eye, about a shrewish widow who receives an unexpected inheritance from her departed husband, came back to Kodak's attention by being selected for the Short List, a shorts programme in America sponsored by Kodak. It has also screened at half a dozen film festivals and was bought for German television. Since In Your Eye, Christina has written/or directed seven shorts including a trailer for last year's London Film Festival. In Your Eye was produced in 1995 as a group project with fellow trainees from the Freelance Film & Television Training programme in London and Christina used it as an audition-piece for the National Film and Television School. "I did that film before film school, that was the film that got me into film school. So that film is actually five years old this year." Explaining how she came to be the writer-director Christina says, "We had a very limited time period and they just said who wants to write it and I said I did. We knew we had the special effect at the end, the bomb, and so I sat in a room and thought of different scenarios and I thought it would be quite fun to blow up an old lady." Of her Cannes experience, Christina says, "I didn't know what to expect, but I've really had a good time. There's a lot of offices just a stone's throw away. You can go in and introduce yourself to people. I got some cards and I was even talking to an executive producer on the plane. I'm supposed to have a meeting with him in a few days." Speaking about her plans for the future, Christina says, "I'm working with a writer on a script at the moment, based on a short comedy I did with the same writer. I think it could make a nice film, so I'm developing that. I intend to start developing other pieces as well. I may be doing some more writing myself because I haven't written anything since film school. Christa Collins is a graduate student at San Francisco State University in California. Her short She Smokes, about a young woman whose nicotine habit threatens her relationship with her non-smoking boyfriend, was the co-winner of the Director's Guild of America African- American Drama award. "This is my first year in Cannes" Christa says, "and now that I've settled in and know how to get around, I'm enjoying myself. It's exciting, the granddaddy of all the film festivals, so it's nice to be here and experience everything that goes on, hoping that I'll be with my feature at some point in the future." She Smokes is only Christa's second film. Her first, Girl, screened at over 15 festivals in the states and won first prize at the Black Independents Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. She Smokes not only brought her to the Croisette, it also premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. "Sundance was one of the first official festivals to accept the film. I definitely was not expecting it. There were 1,730 entries and they let 58 of the short films in. So, with those odds I was glad if they even looked at it the whole way through." Christa is currently working on a feature -length script in her Native Bay Area. Reflecting on her experience in Sundance and Cannes she says, "a few entities have said they definitely want to take a look at the script when I'm done with it, but it's all just general so I can't really say that I'm getting any action at this point. But, it is nice to not to have to approach those people, to have them instead call me up and get my film. So the work is getting out there."