By Megan Richardson
Arts Editor

Students gathered last Saturday night to enjoy Craigfest 2004, a student film festival featuring a variety of short films all shot by Bates' own Craig Saddlemire. The hour-long event consisted of clips of some of Saddlemire's earliest work, in addition to his most recent, in a range of genres, from documentary to drama. Saddlemire introduced the film fest by explaining that the main purpose of the event was to serve as a premiere for the short film Burden of Mind, which he co-wrote with fellow Batesie Drew Faller, who starred in the film. However, the work leading up to the feature presentation was a selection of Saddlemire's earlier projects, progressing from middle-school years up to the present.

The first clip shown was a teaser for Saddlemire' s first film, The Partners. One couldn't help but laugh at parts of this clip. The film features eleven- and twelve-year-old kids dressed up as grown men, guns, knives, robberies, and hostages. Despite the comic effect of seeing young boys acting like adult criminals, the quality of the work was quite impressive, considering that it was done by a seventh-grader.

The next clip was from Saddlemire' s documentary on extreme sports. Clips from this work were scattered throughout the film fest, and with good reason. The film work was very good, and the range of sports covered, which included snowboarding, skateboarding, and mountain biking among others, made for interesting and exciting scenery. The segment on falls was especially entertaining, because, as Saddlemire himself explained, "people really like to see other people get hurt."

There were clips from a few other films as well. There was a section from a World War II film called Warhammer, which was violent, but in a sort of comical way. Again, this film featured young-looking actors, this time crawling on their stomachs through tall grasses in the attempt to save some American POWs in a Nazi war camp. Another clip was taken from Saddlemire's documentary Collective Thoughts, which consisted of conversations that he had with various people. The featured conversations were ones with Saddlemire' s grandmother and great uncle, and were really quite touching, particularly his great uncle's reflections on war and the role the government plays in it. The most intriguing of all the clips was a trailer for The Day Diver, one of Saddlemire's more recent projects. This film apparently follows a man who looks in the mirror and doesn' t like what he sees and the events that unfold thereafter. The actors look older, the acting looks more believable, and the plot sounds interesting. Saddlemire' s talent was evident in all of these clips.

Two short films were shown in full. The first was Right Brain. In this film we were introduced to a young man who had run away from home to become a philosopher. In the course of the ten-minute film, we learn that all he really wants is to go back to the normal life he once led, but that unfortunately, that life is no longer a possibility for him. The majority of this film took place on a set of railroad tracks, of which there were some stunning shots. The second full film that we watched was, of course, Burden of Mind.

Burden of Mind began in a snowy forest. A wild-looking man ran about, and we hear his thoughts about the cold and about his environment. In a shocking hunt scene, the man throws his spear-like walking stick at a " mover," killing it. All we see is the mover' s bloody hand, lying in the snow. The wild man then looks up into the sky, staring off at a full moon. The scene brilliantly transitions to a modern day college student (played by Faller), who we follow as he trudges through his monotonous college life. He is eventually involved in an unfortunate accident that confines him to a hospital bed, and which leaves him to his natural, primal thoughts. The film ends with a brutal surprise ending, and with a great performance by Faller, who was selected for the role because of his " monotone voice."

This is probably Saddlemire' s best work, as the filming is excellent, allowing the viewers to focus solely on the bizarre and mesmerizing plot.

Saddlemire ended Craigfest 2004 by answering questions from the audience. When asked where he planned to go with his film career, he answered that he did not necessarily pln to become a full-tme cinematographer, but that he'd always be up for a fun and engaging project. Those are two words that definitely describe the films displayed in Craigfest 2004: fun and engaging. The event was interesting and entertaining, and was definitely an hour well spent on a Saturday night.



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