Yes We Cannes

Visit the Hark website to watch a trailer and for more information.  Watch a conversation with Jonathan Fung below.

When Jonathan Fung set out to make a short film about human trafficking, a trip to the premier film festival on the planet wasn’t at the top of his mind. That film, Hark, debuted on the SCU campus in spring 2012, and we wrote about it in theSummer 2012 SCM. A year later found it in Cannes, a frenzied gathering of glitterati and wheeling and dealing that Fung sums up as “crazy.”

Shot in the Bay Area, Hark dispels the notion that the buying and selling of fellow human beings is something that only happens overseas. It’s also a film that has left some audiences stunned into silence.

Fung is a lecturer in communication at SCU. Narrative film is something he’s come to from a background in experimental work and video installations.

Hark’s journey has taken it to other festivals this summer, including the Windrider Film Forum in Menlo Park in June and, in July, the Awareness Film Festival in Santa Monica, which screens and awards films focused on global issues. There Hark was named Best Narrative Short. And Cannes has figured into plans for a possible feature-length work.

STUDENTS AT THE FESTS

In March, San Jose’s Cinequest festival screened Fung’s film as well as work by one of his former students, Sofia Coyiuto ’12, whose short documentary Thicker Than Blood follows three families who adopted baby girls from China. The film explores dynamics of an interracial adoptive family.

While we’re catching up on recent student projects: American Colter, a 23-minute documentary by Wes Culver ’12, Vanessa Delgado ’12, and Chloe Fitzmaurice ’12, premiered last fall at the Chicago International Social Change Film Festival. This spring brought the film and its makers to Palm Springs for the American Documentary Film Festival. The documentary was made as a senior capstone project and highlights the ineffectiveness of the rehabilitation process when felons are released and forced to reintegrate into society with little to no preparation. The filmmakers share the story of one man who broke that mold, following the journey of 42-year-old Colter White ’12 from his 15 years in high-security California prisons to graduating from Santa Clara University with a bachelor’s degree in communication. He joined the filmmakers for the Palm Springs festival, where he fielded more than a few audience questions himself.