Campus MovieFest is an outlet for students that allows them to use their creativity and imagination through making a film. According to their website, Campus MovieFest began eight years ago at Emory University where four students gave other students everything they would need to make their films including camcorders and Apple laptops and were given one week to complete their project.
Ever since then, more than 250,000 student participants have created films receiving the necessary tools needed from technology to free trainings from corporate partners such as AT&T and schools.
Besides having fun, the goal of Campus MovieFest is to showcase the next generation of moviemakers and empower people to share their stories with the world.
This year, Sonoma State students Hope Emry, Julie Lockwood, Rachel Picard and Jacob Langhoff decided to take their chances and create their own films. Hope Emry filmed a movie in recognition of International Education Exchange Council titled, "Go Away: A Student's Story" and won the AT&T Wild Card Award.
Emry, a senior and psychology major and Spanish minor, explained the reason why she decided to get involved with MovieFest.
"Making movies is kind of a hobby of mine and when Marissa Thigpen found out that I wanted to do it, she thought it would be great if I made a movie for IEEC," she said.
Julie Lockwood, a senior and psychology and Hutchins double major won Best Picture for her movie, "The Movement." Lockwood explained what made her excited to become involved in MovieFest.
"I belong to a tight knit group of people who are determined to change the world," she said.
"When we realized that we had an opportunity to tell others about an issue close to us (Child Soldiering, particularly Invisible Children) through a creative process and reach out to a new population, we were stoked to jump on board and learn something new in the process."
Even though their films had won awards, they had no idea that their hard work and creativity was going to pay off, as their films were chosen to go to regional and are given a chance to win $400,000 at the International Grand Finale in Las Vegas. As any other student they were excited to learn of the great news.
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