UHCL hosts second annual Sustainable Stories Film Fest
UHCL hosted its second annual Sustainable Stories Film Festival Friday and Gallery Exhibition, Nov. 11. The Film festival focuses on sharing stories and pieces about sustainability with the Clear Lake community.
The festival is a collective effort with the College of Human Sciences and Humanities, the College of Business, the Institute for Human and Planetary Sustainability, the Alfred R. Neumann Library and the UHCL Bayou Theater.
The festival included various film screenings on opening night that were followed by discussion panels about how film has an impact on environmental advocacy.
While the film festival has passed, some of these short films are still viewable in the Art Gallery located in the Bayou Building. A list of films playing in the art gallery can be found here.
The gallery exhibition that accompanies the film festival will remain open until Dec. 9 and houses various pieces of art related to sustainability. Many pieces have been contributed by various students and faculty around campus.
“The gallery and the physical pieces in represent 40 artists from around the world,” said Micheal Brims, associate professor of communication and digital media. ” I wanted to create a forum on sustainable issues.”
Brims is the founder of the Sustainable Stories Film Festival and along with co-founder Eric Despard, Director of Bayou Theater and Cultural Arts.
“So with a festival like it’s not to save the planet or because we have to do this,” Brims said. “A film festival wants to promote the ideas and all. We can combine watching films, making films with creating a more sustainable way of life.”
Physical art pieces displayed in the gallery’s main space include work from various faculty and staff including Jason Makepeace, associate professor of art, Nina Makepeace, Stuart Larson, associate professor of graphic design, Angela Duron-Larson, visiting lecturer, and Lauren Kussro, assistant professor of art and design
Mary Magsamen, Brims and Claudia Trujillo have all co-curated both participating films and artwork.
The gallery space includes a virtual reality installation by the Tasmanian artist collective Soma Lumia. which also can be seen in the XR Lab in the Alfred R. Neuman Library.
The Black Box Theater will be showing a selection of short films from Nov. 7 through Dec. 9 and additional programmed medium and long format films from Nov. 28 through Dec. 9.
The university’s Neumann Library features the film “Polar Bear 360″ in its VR space in collaboration with the gallery space.
“Right now, art society is so spontaneous, use it once, throw it out, it’s so wasteful,” said Karen Fiscus, exhibitions coordinator. “For the energy that is put into [the art pieces], it lasts so much longer and it’s much more useful for a longer period of time.”
The gallery is open Monday – Thursday 9 AM – 6 PM & Friday 9 AM-noon. The gallery will remain open until Dec. 9.
