STATE COLLEGE — It’s time once again for the Centre Film Festival, and this year’s event will take place from Monday, Nov. 11, through Sunday, Nov. 17, at theaters in State College, on the Penn State campus and in Philipsburg.
As always, there will be a wide range of films from full-length features and documentaries to short films, and from domestic to international and even locally produced.
Many of the films will be presented live in the theaters and all of them, plus many others, can be viewed anytime online.
Professor Pearl Gluck, the festival’s artistic director, spoke about the event and gave her thoughts about what she thinks will be another entertaining, interesting, thought provoking and very successful slate of films.
“We start planning pretty quickly for our festivals, probably within a month or two after the previous festival ends,” Gluck said.
“So we start thinking ahead, but we wait until the football schedule gets released to pick a date because we have to be on an away game if that is possible.”
The films for each festival are chosen by a committee and by Penn State film students, who watch many films and evaluate them.
“We don’t really have a specific set of criteria,” Gluck said, “but we have a programming committee and we break it up. There are about 650 films that come in and these get divided among our different viewers.
“We have two freshman seminar classes. Those are our students who come in and one of their first assignments is to watch student films from all over the world and rate them according to the criteria that’s part of the film course where they study the structure, the cinematography, the story and other elements.
“They then rate them from one to 10 and from there we have people from our committee who then take a look. Sometimes two or three of the students end up watching all of them or most of them and then they help us to make decisions with their point of view.
“We look for a variety of voices and for different points of view. The criteria is not very specific in the sense that when it comes down to it, we make some final decisions with what the committee feels that people would like to see here or conversations that we may like to have locally.
“We have a number of films that are dealing with some subject matter that is really important to our students here, whether it’s being about refugees or issues with the war in Ukraine or the Middle East.
“And this year we have a bunch of comedy films. I’m thrilled because you know we’re a very new festival and so we tend to have to ask for certain films to get them to be submitted. We got a lot of really terrific comedies that are making the rounds and one of them was shot here in State College. So we’re pretty excited about that one.”
Gluck was asked what she liked about this year’s list and what she was looking forward to most.
“I mean I want to say everything,” she said, “but I really feel the idea that we can show films from a point of view that maybe not all of us agree with, but it starts a good conversation.
“There are many really entertaining films that afterward can lead to really good conversations.
“For example, one film, “Running on Sand” is a sports film, but more. It’s about a soccer team in Israel that misidentifies a black player. The club thinks he is their player, but he is actually a refugee.”
Gluck noted how this was just one of many unique selections this year.
“This is really part of what I love about the films this year. We have the different genres looking at some important things that are very real for people, and the audience has an opportunity to see the power of storytelling and of film.”
Gluck also said that the fest has films that will appeal to a wide variety of movie goers, noting that there is something for everyone. Ticket information can be found at the Centre Film Festival website, centrefilm.org.
Films will be screened according to the following schedule:
MONDAY, NOV. 11
• “Love in the Time of Migration,” world cinema documentary short directed by Ricardo Preve. Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library, noon.
• “Sometime, Somewhere,” documentary feature directed by Ricardo Preve. Foster Auditorium, noon.
• “The Masterpiece,” narrative short directed by Alex Lora Cercos. State Theater, 6:30 p.m.
• “Running on Sand,” narrative feature, directed by Adar Shafran. State Theater, 6:30 p.m.
TUESDAY, NOV. 12
• “Afterwards,” world documentary short directed by Romane Garat Chartrand. Carnegie Cinema, 3:30 p.m.
• “Mediha,” documentary feature directed by Hasan Oswald. Carnegie Cinema, 3:30 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 13
• “Cleo from 8:20 to 2:35”, narrative short directed by Shain Feinberg. UEC Theaters 12, 2:30 p.m.
• “Hippo,” narrative feature directed by Mark H. Rapaport. UEC Theaters 12, 2:30 p.m.
• “Terminally Ill,” narrative short directed by Christopher Cole. State Theatre, 6 p.m.
• “A Photographic Memory,” documentary feature directed by Rachel Elizabeth Seed. State Theatre, 6 p.m.
• “HoLEY,” narrative short directed by Bavly Soliman. UEC Theaters, 8 p.m.
• “Bad Shabbos,” narrative feature directed by Daniel Robbins. UEC Theaters, 8 p.m.
THURSDAY, NOV. 14
• “Don’t Pick Up,” narrative short directed by Neremiah Kipp. UEC Theaters, 2 p.m.
• “Rent Free,” directed by Fernando Andrés. UEC Theaters, 2 p.m.
• “Dovbush,” narrative feature directed by Oles Sanin. State Theatre, 6:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, NOV. 15
• “Happy Thanksgiving,” narrative comedy short directed by Ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby. Carnagie Cinema, 1:30 p.m.
• “Sugar Cane,” Indigenous peoples heritage documentary feature directed by Emily Kassie. Carnagie Cinema, 1:30 p.m.
• “We Should Eat,” comedy short directed by Shaina Feinberg. Rowland Theater, 6:30 p.m.
• “3.400KG,” narrative short directed by Atefeh Nafari and Samira Mokhtari. Rowland Theater, 6:30 p.m.
• “We Strangers,” narrative feature directed by Anu Valia. Rowland Theater, 6:30 p.m.
SATURDAY, NOV. 16
• Made in PA shorts: “Schlumpy Funk Movie,” “Abstract Narrative,” “Manifesto,” “Memory Card,” “40 degrees 24.2983 N 79 degrees 58.251 W,” “Terra Luna,” “Tyler Slippy: Forever 27,” “Lorica, Senior Software Engineer.” Rowland Theater, noon to 2 p.m.
• “Through the Storm,” sports documentary short directed by Charles Frank and Fritz Bitsoie. Rowland Theater, 2 p.m.
• “Rodeo Girls,” documentary feature directed by Kevin Nogues and Justine Morvan. Rowland Theater, 2 p.m.
• “Every 85 Minutes,” narrative short directed by Jason Aaron Goldberg. Rowland Theater, 4 p.m.
• “Driver,” documentary feature directed by Nesa Azimi. Rowland Theater, 4 p.m.
• “Cut Me If You Can,” narrative short directed by Nicholas Polixene and Sylvain Loubet. Rowland Theater, 7 p.m.
• “On a Narrow Range,” narrative short directed by Phoebe Post. Rowland Theater, 7 p.m.
• “Seeds,” Indigenous peoples comedy narrative feature directed by Kaniehtiio Horn. Rowland Theater, 7 p.m.
SUNDAY, NOV. 17
• “A Runner’s High and It Will Be Different For You,” documentary shorts. State Theater, 10:30 a.m.
• “Three (Extra) Ordinary Women,” documentary feature directed by Cionin Lorenzo and Pearlette J Ramos. State Theater, 10:30 a.m.
• “Gardener of the Galaxy and A Body Called Life,” documentary shorts. State Theater, 1 p.m.
• “Home,” narrative feature directed by Benny Fredman. State Theater, 1 p.m.
• “A Body Called Life,” directed by Spencer MacDonald. State Theater, 1 p.m.
• “Short and Proud,” shorts from around the world with meeting the filmmakers. State Theater, 3:30 p.m.
