MEDIA RELEASE
CSUN Student’s ‘box[ur]shorts’ Provides Exposure for Filmmakers
(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Feb. 25, 2008) — There are only a handful of the boxes scattered in select locations in Switzerland, New York, Los Angeles and Park City, Utah. Each has been designed by an artist and contains the dreams and aspirations of young filmmakers from around the world.
The boxes—about one-foot-by-two-and-half-feet and equipped to show movies at the press of a button—are the centerpieces of the box[ur]shorts Film Festival, a yearlong short film exhibition that gives the public a chance to screen work that is not usually seen in traditional movie theaters. The festival is the brainchild of Cal State Northridge film major Ryan Reichenfeld and his friend, Giacun Caduff, a graduate student at UCLA.
"There really isn’t a place any more where the public can see film shorts. There are some really good movies out there, particularly by film students, but no one in the public really has a chance to see them," said Reichenfeld, 22, of Studio City and a junior. "box[ur]shorts gives filmmakers a way to get their work seen, and a way for the public to see their work."
The film festival was inspired by Caduff’s grandfather, Silvio Caduff, a Swiss artist who decided to make art more accessible to the public by displaying artists’ works in a mini-gallery of boxes outside a bar in Basel.
"We thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool that instead of art in a box, we showed short movies?’" Reichenfeld said. Thus, the festival was born.
The goal, he said, is to focus attention on works of quality in order to contribute to the progress of making short films. "With box[ur]shorts, we are hoping to be the best platform for filmmakers to get their work shown, constantly improve the ways the movies are screened and reach as many audiences as possible," he said.
Cinema and television arts professor Temma Kramer, who specializes in film directing, said the film festival was indicative of Reichenfeld’s creative and entrepreneurial spirit and his talent, "which are going to serve him well as he continues to move forward in the entertainment industry."
"I think he has a wonderful future," Kramer said, noting that the undergraduate is so well thought of in the department that he is currently working as a teaching assistant for the directing course.
"It is young, innovative thinkers like Ryan who are really going to address how new technology evolves into what will be the experimental media and entertainment of the future," she said, citing the film festival as an example.
box[ur]short’s motto is "bring the movies to the people, instead of bringing the people to the movies."
To that end, box[ur]shorts has set up boxes in locations where people traditionally have to wait, such as cafes, coffee houses and even the occasional laundry mat. The Los Angeles area locations include The Rumor Mill Coin Laundry and Coffee House in Culver City, Karma Coffeehouse in Hollywood and a Yo Green frozen yogurt shop in Santa Monica. The festival had a box in Kobe, Japan, but moved it to Park City to take advantage of the entertainment industry influx in that city during the Sundance Film Festival.
The box[ur]shorts Film Festival is simple. Filmmakers from around the world submit their work, no longer than five minutes. The top 12 to 15 are then selected to run on the box for about three or four months, then new films are switched in. Box visitors can launch a screening at the touch of a button while they are waiting for their laundry or enjoying their café latte.
The entries are assessed once a year for originality, creativity and likeability by a panel of judges and the viewers, and are duly honored with plaques of bronze, silver or gold boxer shorts.
Reichenfeld said the response from aspiring filmmakers has been overwhelming.
"It’s amazing. We’ve really haven’t done that much publicity, but we’re getting entries from all over the world," he said. "I guess it’s not that surprising since we’re in ‘Hollywood.’ But at the same time it says a lot about how hard it is to get your movie seen if you’re making a short film.
"With a traditional film festival, if your short gets picked up, it gets screened once to a limited audience. We’re offering the opportunity for their movies to be seen by hundreds of people simultaneously in locations all around the world."
Reichenfeld, a Claremont native who transferred to CSUN from Pasadena City College a little over a year ago, can appreciate the filmmakers’ frustration. He makes short films himself and has dreams of becoming a commercial and music video director. In the meantime, he works as a freelance editor while going to school.