The best and the brightest of high school camera work had its shining moment of glory on the silver screen and in the gallery on Monday evening. The sixth annual Obelisk Film and Photo Festival gave out its trophies and prizes after all 12 film contenders were screened.
Taking the statuette for film was Ethan Schlese for his stop motion comedy masterpiece called Go Race. Two youths, bored of playing cards, decide to instead race each other go-kart style but with no go-karts. The concept might have been simple but the execution certainly involved a great deal of work, not the least of which was a lot of repetitive work. In the end, a humorous twist saved the work from being a mere exercise in technical effort, elevating it into an intelligent, highly enjoyable film.
Bea Olaleye’s hard-hitting Forget Me Not scored the runner-up prize. The film with a washed out visual style worked hard with great acting in a fast-paced action story that started with a shoplifter stealing from a drug store. It too had a smart twist at the end that turned everything you thought you knew about the main character on its head, a truly difficult achievement for a film under 5 minutes in length.
Dante Dunlap’s Runner Boys took second runner up with its gritty-ish potboiler story and strong production values about the criminal underworld. The audience seemed to really appreciate its vaguely grindhouse feel and genre-specific sensibility. It was a real crowd pleaser.
The winner of the photography award was Mackenzie Malainey for her shot of the temporary carnival set up at St. Albert Centre. Framing was crucial for this dense and lively photo that showed the entirety of the carnival with its many colours, lights and throngs of thrill-seeking fans.
Bailey Brokenshire and Jenna Black took runner-up and second runner-up placings respectively.
The festival originated out of Bellerose Composite High School as a way to celebrate the burgeoning filmmaking and photographic talents coming out of metropolitan Edmonton area high schools. Some past winners have since gone on to film and art schools as they start their careers in those artistic fields. In addition to their trophies, this year’s winners shared a prize pool of $500.
