Archer Film Festival features keynote from Laura Dern, highlights student voices
Photo credit: Cat Oriel
Marlena Lerner ’18, Sophie Evans-Katz ’18 and Zoë Applebaum Schwartz ’19 interview actress Laura Dern during the film festival. The festival commenced with a compilation of Dern’s most famous films including “Blue Velvet,” “Wild” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”.
“Her Lens, Her Story.”
This was the slogan of this year’s seventh annual Archer Film Festival.
On Wednesday, April 25, Archer families, faculty, staff and friends gathered to celebrate and enjoy 18 films created by high school students from across the country at the Writer’s Guild Theater in Beverly Hills.
Julianna Goldsmith ’18 interviews Ruby Colby ’19 on the pink carpet before the event. Colby had a film featured in the festival.
According to the event program, “The festival’s goal is to amplify the female voice, while showcasing work by film artists regardless of gender identity. Our slogan this year captures our mission to recognize and celebrate diverse experiences in film.”
The festival showcased a variety of genres and mediums including dramas, comedies, music videos, animations and documentaries.
“Silver,” a short animation made by Kisa Rozenbaoum ’18, was one of four films made by an Archer student. Rozenbaoum described her inspiration for the animation, which she made using Photoshop.
“I saw a silverfish in my room, and I decided to kill it with my shoe,” Rozenbaoum said. “Once I killed it, I thought maybe I should draw it.”
Three-time Golden Globe Award winning actress Laura Dern was featured as the keynote speaker.
“We were really lucky to have her,” film student and member of the film festival’s executive board Marlena Lerner said. “We usually have filmmakers, so [having Dern speak is] something fresh and different.”
Dern answered questions asked by Lerner, Sophie Evans-Katz ’18 and Zoë Applebaum Schwartz ’19 — other members of the film festival’s executive board. Dern reflected on her experience in the film industry and described the power of teamwork when it comes to filmmaking.
“Find your family, tell stories together and inspire each other because that’s where you find limitlessness,” she said.
The festival continued into Thursday, Apr. 26 with an on-campus Industry Day featuring three speakers: Lisa Cholodenko, Hannah Minghella and Irwin Winkler,
“I thought that Irwin Winkler was a great speaker,” Josie Garcia-Euyoque ’18 said. “He was able to show us how Hollywood used to be during the communist era with the blacklist and compared it to new Hollywood now.”
Garcia-Euyoque also expressed her appreciation the Archer Film Festival and Industry Day.
“I’m glad Archer was able to bring such wise speakers that know so much about the industry because I was able to learn so much from them,” she said.
Cat Oriel joined the Oracle staff as a contributing writer in 2015, was promoted to Voices Editor in 2017 and is now the News and Features Editor. She...
