The silent film genre does not appeal to many modern moviegoers, many of whom have come to expect loud explosions and dazzling special effects to justify paying upwards of nine dollars for a ticket. To some, however, the timeless gags of Charlie Chaplin or the epic films of D.W. Griffith may prove overwhelmingly more appealing than a Josh Hartnett family drama?at least for some students.
Film professor Tricia Welsch rewarded the good taste of four such film students?Krystle Allen '08, Rebecca Genauer '08, Lee Colon '08 and Jim Bittl '08?by taking them to the annual Giornate del Cinema Muto silent film festival in Pordenone, Italy, last month. The eight-day-long festival showcased silent films produced across the world, each fitting into one of several special-focus categories featured throughout the week.
Welsch invited all rising senior film students to apply for the trip last spring, but only the four attendees filled out the application, Colon said. Colon, along with Allen and Genauer, are self-designed film majors, and Bittl is a film minor.
Welsch said she worried that her students would grow tired of the grueling pace of the festival.
"I had a conversation with myself saying, 'Okay, look, if they hate it then you have to be okay with that and let it happen,'" she said. "I was so glad that it infected everybody like a disease."
The group spent one day sightseeing in Venice, but otherwise devoted the entire trip to viewing films presented at the festival, many of which are otherwise inaccessible to the public.
"You're exhausted every day getting up," Allen said. "You're up for 17 or 18 hours a day total. You're waking up at eight and going to bed at two."
The film department provided the majority of the funds for the trip, but participants shouldered some costs.
Given more funding, Welsch said she would like to continue taking students to Pordenone in the future.
"I'd love to do it every year or every other year," she said. "I'd love to do it on a regular basis, but it's exhausting."
Allen said the festival's audience comprised mainly film academics, who viewed each of the films with often intimidating intensity.
"An old man fell in the theater and moaned, but no one turned their head from the screen," she said. "People would trip in the theater and try to stifle their moans."
Welsch's willingness to bring students to the film festival is a testament to her dedication to the film studies department, Allen said.
"I think Tricia Welsch dedicated a lot of time to her students," she said. "It was really great of her to take four students on. Tricia is the one who encouraged us to apply and pushed us to the level that we are at now."
Welsch said the group would sit in crowded, cramped theaters for more than eight hours a day watching silent films.
"We tried to watch all of them," she said. "We tried to watch everything until we couldn't anymore. Most of the time, one person or the others' energy pulled anyone who was falling behind through."
Genauer estimated that the group watched about 170 titles during the course of the festival.
Allen, a self-designed film major, said attending the festival gave her a sense of achievement and purpose.
"It's one of those times when you realize that you're not an undergrad anymore, and we all get to do the things that we love," she said.
A local children's orchestra composed and performed its own accompaniment to two short slapstick films. Bittl said watching the children enjoy their time in the spotlight was one of the highlights of the trip for him.
"The music was really simple, but it was so fun," he said. "The sounds were off sometimes, but you could tell that they were having a great time in the pit. Their parents and siblings and friends were in the audience, and the whole audience was howling with laughter at times."
According to Colon, students looking to leisurely tour Italy and watch a few movies need not apply to attend the festival.
"It was a trip made for people who were passionate about these things," she said. "The common thread was that we all really did want to watch the movies. The people in the film department are really committed, even though it's a small department."
Because of the small size of the department, Allen said she feels extremely close to her peers with whom she has shared an interest in film throughout college.
"I have been in film classes with Jim, Lee, and Rebecca since freshman year," she said. "It was like going with my friends and not my fellow peers. We all went to see the movies, and we were enjoying the things we love together."