By KYLIE POWERS
Staff Writer
The fourth annual 15 Minutes Max film festival will take place at the Madison Theatre on Friday, Oct. 2 beginning at 5 p.m.
The juried film festival is co-sponsored by the College of Saint Rose and the Times Union, with Madison Theater and graphic design firm 2Communiqué as partners.
As usual, the contest will host 10 short films, each under 15 minutes long, hence the name, created and presented by local high school or college students. This year, 13 young filmmakers are competing for prizes ranging from $100 to $500, including the Audience Choice Award which allows the audience to text in their votes upon recent years.
The contest was spearheaded by a Communications professor at Saint Rose, Liz Richards. As a filmmaker herself, with 60 national and international screenings of her works in places like Sweden, Japan and France to her name, Richards holds the position of Chair of the 15 Minutes Max committee.
According to Richards, it began in 2011 in order to “champion video and film work being “being made at the College of Saint Rose,” and is now open to filmmakers who are not Saint Rose students. Richards said the contest is a great way for her as the chair to get involved with the community and since she is a filmmaker and an artist, it feeds her passion.
She and other judges will be grading the films based on “writing, directing, cinematography, editing, sound and among other factors, to tell stories.”
The genres among the submissions include narrative dramas, comedies, horror films, action films and more. The contest also allows documentaries, music videos and animation.
From the student point of view, the contest can be full of surprises.
“Everyone would talk about it, but I never thought much of it,” said Joshua Natoli, a Saint Rose graduated who was a senior when he first considered entering 15 Minutes Max.
Natoli, a full-time producer at WTEN in Albany, was persuaded by Richards, who was his professor at the time, to enter the contest.
Teaming up with a classmate John Lyden, the two created a comedy film called “Desire” for the contest. “Desire”
offered a look of a man in love with his car, inspired by the TLC show “My Strange Addiction.”
Lyden, who will not be participating this year since he will be busy shooting a commerical that day, thinks very highly of the contest.
“15 Minutes Max was an amazing experience. It was a supportive and encouraging atmosphere and provided a great opportunity to network with local talent,” he said.
Shot in just one weekend, “Desire” aired at the 15 Minutes Max contest and, as Natoli said in an interview, “hearing a theater full of people all burst out laughing at thing I wrote was insanely rewarding.”
The film took third place. Natoli says he was very thankful for the experience and recommends it to any students interested in filmmaking, whether or not they attend Saint Rose.
With those ten films airing in two weeks, the feelings will be probably similar for the winners of the 2015 festival.
15 Minutes Max is free to the public and considered by many to be a great way to celebrate and support independent student film making.
