Syracuse might not command the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but the Central New York hub is ready to rightfully take back its title as home of cinema.

‘Central New York is really where cinema began,’ said Owen Shapiro, director of the film department in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. ‘All silent film in the silent-film era was done in Central New York. And the sound projector was invented in Auburn. This was before Hollywood.’

For the past two years, Shapiro, along with SU students and faculty members, have been working with community members to prepare for this weekend’s Syracuse International Film Festival, an event they hope will revive the cinematic embers of the city’s past. Despite the event’s lofty goals, Shapiro says it could not be the success he hopes it will be without the efforts of the students involved.

The festival will show the works of a number of Central New York and American filmmakers, but will also feature Korean, Russian, Israeli, Czech, Japanese, Chinese and Japanese filmmakers. In addition to the films, a number of art galleries will be set up around the city and university displaying the works of international artists.

‘We’re hoping this is the first annual festival of many to come,’ Duggan said.

At this point, though, Shapiro admits that the success of the festival is very much up in the air.

‘I’ve been involved in festivals in the past,’ Shapiro said, ‘but we did not have a notion of how unbelievably complicated this was going to be. If we were just putting on a festival and were not concerned with hospitality, but just showed the films, it would be a snap.’

Still, he has been surprised by the amount of worldwide attention the festival has already garnered in its first year.

‘This is taking on more prominence than we’d ever imagine,’ he said. ‘We’re getting filmmakers from throughout the world. There’s no reason for these filmmakers to go through the trouble to come here if they thought it was a minor event.’

Originally, the festival’s planners had set up a three-year plan for themselves, in which their first two years would be more preliminary, leading up to a third, more prominent and successful festival. The way things have been going, though, Shapiro thinks this could be the major event he hoped it would become down the road.

‘We have great stuff to showcase,’ he said. ‘The quality of this work is first class. While these filmmakers might not be known in the United States, they’re known everywhere else.’

While it may be garnering attention worldwide, those involved in the production of the festival know that interest from the university and area community will dictate its success. For those who show interest, though, White says the rewards will not just be for those who put the festival together.

‘This is a great opportunity to see media arts and an array of the voices present in the arts,’ White said. ‘It’s a rare opportunity for students to see this.’

‘Students are really involved at every level of the festival,’ said Ken White, a junior film major and assistant director of the festival. ‘Students are instrumental to this event and its being successful.’

After White and K.C. Duggan, a senior film major and the other assistant director of the event, successfully ran the 2003 Carol North Schmuckler Filmmakers Showcase, a competition in which SU students presented their short films, Shapiro approached them about being involved in the International Film Festival. The two have worked with Shapiro on the project for the past year.

Shapiro said the university has been responsible for half of the festival’s production, and half of that responsibility has been placed on the shoulders of the three-dozen SU students who have highly contributed to the festival.

‘Owen and (his wife and festival executive producer) Carol were very adamant about getting students involved,’ White said.

In addition to the efforts of assistant directors, student involvement has had a wide-ranging effect. Some students have worked on the festival’s hospitality committee; some will work projection booths this weekend; others will work as festival moderators and information assistants, and others have acted as international liaisons to the foreign filmmakers participating in the festival, Duggan said.

Published on April 26, 2004 at 12:00 pm