The Smartphone Film Festival is UC Riverside’s annual commemoration of the art of cinema focusing on the fact that anyone can make movies–even on their smartphones. The February event was the festival’s 12th year running, and had its highest number of submissions yet: 18 films, all made by UCR students using phones and no camera equipment, all under five minutes in length.
Submissions usually open in November, and, according to coordinator Erin McKenna, you don’t have to be a film student to participate.
“The whole point is to encourage filmmaking from anyone. As long as you have a smartphone and a story to tell, you can participate” said McKenna, a master’s student in creative writing and writing for the performing arts.
The films are judged by a team of MFA students, along with “audience favorites” selected through student voting during the ceremony itself. Christophe Katrib, an assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production (TFDP), helped run the show, securing spaces for screenings and publicizing the event through the film majors’ email list.
The winning film, “Spill at The Office,” was directed by Luis Hernandez, a first-year student in TFDP.
“The film festival was an amazing experience, packed with an audience ready to watch everyone's films–they even laughed at our mockumentary comedy film,” Hernandez said. “This whole experience really does inspire me to create more self-produced films and have them screened in other film festivals because I love sharing and telling stories. Being in that auditorium gave me so much motivation as did the other filmmakers in that event.”
Manish Jayaraman, who did not win, expressed his gratitude for the event. An MBA student with no formal film background, he said he gave it his best shot and ended up having a lot of fun.
“Since it was a smartphone film, I did pretty much everything myself - directing, shooting, editing, and producing. That made it feel very personal. The hardest part, surprisingly, was working with the actors: convincing them to act the way I imagined, giving feedback, and sometimes even acting it out myself so they could understand,” Jayaraman said. “Seeing my name on the screen as ‘Director’ was honestly a really special moment, and the recognition reminded me that I can be what I want.”
Watch some of this year’s entries on YouTube:
Spill at the Office by Luis Hernandez
Not What They Seem by Hayden Harbison
Hiking with God by Vismay Kedilaya
The Delivery by Jessica Lam
Frames by Han Cheng
