I am a juror for the 2010
Columbus International Film and Video Festival that begins November 16th and screens mainly in the Canzani Center at the
Columbus College of Art and Design. I juried for both the Social Issues and Religion categories, which means that I watched 25-30 films and recommended the ones I felt deserved attention to a superior juror. Any filmmaker can submit to the CIF+VF given that they are able to pay the entrance fee. That open call policy attracts an intriguing assortment of entries that span the absurdly DIY to the government funded. The disparate origins of the submissions makes for a filmic environment teeming with fringe interests and oddball visions - which rules. Though, honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a high percentage of the submissions in mainstream theaters. After the jump is a selection of snippets I wrote about the films to give to the judges above me. At the end of each snippet I give my "rating" on the 1 to 7 scale the CIF+VF uses.
Also, see
this story I wrote last year for The Lantern about
Stacie Sells's experience as a juror.