University at Buffalo (UB)
Media Study Student work at BIFF 2022!
Buffalo Internation Film Fest
This year’s Buffalo Int’l Film Festival spotlights nine filmmakers who are current students and recent graduates of UB Media Study Department! Their works are featured in four in-person shorts blocks and one online shorts block:
BIFF Shorts: Racial Justice in View (Friday, October 7, 4:30 PM North Park Theater) features the work of Olu Akanbi and Annette Daniels Taylor, both current M.F.A. students, with the titles “Ghost Town” and “Now We Just Rent Them”; and Kenneth Jinwoo Kern, Media Study undergraduate student, with the short “Ghost.”
“Now We Just Rent Them” - Annette Daniels Taylor (Dir), 5 minutes, USA, Western New York Premiere *Director Annette Daniels Taylor in attendance.
A poetic meditation on the roots of racism in North America using layered archival, pop culture, and original footage.
“Ghost Town”- Olu Akanbi (Dir), 9 minutes, USA, Western New York Premiere *Director Olu Akanbi in attendance.
Addressing the racial history of Buffalo from 1967-1980s, Olu Akanbi creates a portrait of a divided city in transition through archival footage and a first-hand account of its long-time resident Terence Sharp.
“Ghost”- Kenneth Jinwoo Kern (Dir), 3 minutes, USA, Western New York Premiere *Director Kenneth Jinwoo Kern in attendance
A food delivery worker explores his relationship with those he serves in the height of the COVID pandemic in this sensitive meditation on race and the gig economy. In Spanish w/English subtitles.
BIFF Shorts: Danger Zone (Friday, October 7, 9:45 PM North Park Theater)
“The Libertarian” - Michael Chernoff, current M.F.A. student
BIFF Shorts: Students (Sunday, October 9, 4:15 PM North Park Theater)
“Mr. Sisyphus” - Jedi Joongoo Kang DMS student,
“The Subway Mystery” - Daniel Mauer M.F.A. student
“Cruzando” - Olu Akanbi M.F.A. student
BIFF Shorts: Experimental (Sunday, October 9, 3:15 PM Burchfield Penney Art Center)
“En Tren” - Vav R Vavrek, Ph.D. student
BIFF Shorts: Letters to the Future Virtual Screening (available October 1-10)
“The Places I Know” - Lewuga Benson 2022 M.F.A.
The festival, which launches on October 6, 2002 was established in 2006 and has deep connection to the University at Buffalo and the Media Study Department, not least because it is run by two Media Study alums - Anna Scime (2012) as BIFF’s Executive director and John Fink (2013) as Artistic Director.
Tickets and passes can be preordered on the festival’s web page.