Art students' mini movie earns spot at Cannes Film Festival
From left: Yolta Ito, Joshua Folsom, Tyler Green and Justin Nunez with their first place T-shirts.
- June 3, 2013
Walking alone through a dark, abandoned campus on the way to a night class is stressful. Anyone or anything could be following you. The only option is to make it to class before it’s too late.
In their award-winning short film, “Translucent,” Cal State East Bay Art Department seniors Justin Nunez and Joshua Folsom put an edgy new twist on this everyday situation. Their creative approach caught the eye of film contest judges and won their student film the chance to be seen by 10,500 participants attending the Cannes Film Festival.
“Translucent,” which Nunez and Folsom coproduced and codirected (also edited by Folsom), has received multiple awards from Campus Moviefest, the world’s largest student film festival, including: Campus Best Picture, Campus Finalist, Best Actor and Best Cinematography. The thriller, starring CSUEB seniors Tyler Green and Yolta Ito, was selected among hundreds to be shown at the Campus Moviefest Hollywood premiere and the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival.
“I started the movie making process just for fun, then it all just blew up into so much more,” Nunez said. As a budding fashion photographer, he had never tried film making before. Then he saw a flyer in the Art and Education building promoting the Campus Moviefest and decided it was a good opportunity to experiment with new equipment and gain exposure in the creative arts community.
“I’ve never been a big ‘artsy’ person, but acting in this movie was so much fun,” said film star Green, a CSUEB kinesiology senior. “I actually won the Best Actor award, so I guess I’m pretty good. This whole movie making process brought out my creative side.”
Campus Moviefest provides students at participating colleges and universities one week with film making equipment to create their own short movies. Each movie must be five minutes or shorter and use music created by the students themselves or by independent artists. The films are premiered at the participating campuses and posted on the Campus Moviefest website. Movie fans then watch the films and help determine the winners with ratings and accumulated views. Awards are given for Best Picture, Best Comedy, Best Drama, the Elfenworks Social Justice Award, CMF 3D and CMF Golden Tripod.
In “Translucent,” a short horror film, a CSUEB student arrives at his regular night class, only to find out that neither his classmates nor the instructor have shown up. While walking back to his dorm room, a mysterious being begins following him. By the end of the film, the viewer discovers this “mysterious being” is the student himself.
“Less is more,” Nunez said. He said the team enjoyed making the film under the five-minute time limit. “The viewer doesn’t get too much information in the film’s short time, which is good because it leaves them wondering and creating their own explanations.”
Only the top 28 percent of Campus Moviefest entries are invited to the Cannes Film Festival. “Translucent” made the cut and was represented by Nunez. The CSUEB art department sponsored the trip.
“I’m excited,” said Nunez, in an interview on the Hayward campus before his travels to Cannes. “It is one of the biggest film festivals worldwide, and it will be a great opportunity for networking.”
The Cannes Film Festival organizes the Short Film Corner for new filmmakers to present their work each May in the South of France. Participants benefit from meeting industry representatives, attending workshops and conferences to network with the biggest film institutions, financiers, international representatives and other filmmakers. Access to red carpet premieres and around 1,400 film screenings filled with famous directors, producers and celebrities are also available.
“Overall, making the movie was a great experience,” actor Green said. “We all didn’t know each other, but we got together and made a great film while making friends through the process. I definitely wouldn’t mind coming back together to make another movie.”
View the movie “Translucent” at .
See Justin Nunez’s artwork at .