Movie and short film lovers are in luck as an abundance of independent short films and animations come to the big screen during the Reality Bytes Film Festival.
The Reality Bytes Film Festival kicked off from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday in Cole Hall, Room 100.
Laura Vazquez, the director of Reality Bytes, spoke on the purpose of the festival.
“Reality Bytes is a student-run film festival,” Vazquez said. “It was designed to focus on student made films so we could create a community of student made filmmakers and students who appreciate film. We’ve learned that students love shorts, and so the longest film we play, ever, is 30 minutes,” Vazquez said.
Reality Bytes is a two-day event, with the second night from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday at the Egyptian Theatre. Tuesday’s showing of the Reality Bytes Film festival showed a variety of student made films from animated shorts to documentaries and more feature films.
The films shown were “Examination” by Hao Ni, “Stay Out of the Sun” by Zola Franchi, Vivienne Ayres and Nidhi Kumar, “One Wrong Step” by Elden Theaker, “Summer Wedding” by Ting Li Tsai, “Hamster Heist” by Alex Taylor Payne, “Me But Better” by Emma Elizabeth Brown, “Forgive Me Father” by Niccolo Civita, “Buggin’” by Samuel Fesmire, “Seaweed Soup” by Taeyoung Ryoo and “Eye of the Beholder” by John Benjamin Terrell.
At the end of the showing, audience members were asked to vote for their favorite film on ballots provided in the programs. The film that captivated the hearts of the audience was “Seaweed Soup.”
“Seaweed Soup” shows a father and daughter making seaweed soup for their mother’s birthday. In the end, it is revealed the father has passed away and the daughter was guided by her memories of him to assemble the dish.
Emily Frahm, a sophomore majoring in communications disorder, came to Reality Bytes after enjoying the festival last year.
“We went last year actually and it was really, really fun and really exciting,” Frahm said. “And so my friend Nick was like, ‘hey, it’s happening again.’ And so, I don’t know, it’s fun to see different films,” Frahm said.
Tyler Cody, a senior art major, said his favorite film was “Forgive me Father” because of the shocking twist at the end.
“It was ‘Forgive me Father’ because it’s such a strong film that I didn’t expect that the priest was, you know, got, like, this girl pregnant,” Cody said.
After all the films were shown, raffle tickets were drawn to give out door prizes. Some of the prizes included a voucher for a scoop of ice cream from Culvers and two escape rooms tickets.
Vazquez said that she felt good about the audience of day one of Reality Bytes.
“I thought it was a great turnout. The energy was high. There were a lot of students. I think everybody had a good time,” Vazquez said.
Night two of the Reality Bytes Film Festival will feature different films from the first showing. At the end of the showing, the winners of best feature film, best documentary, best animated short and best high school film will be announced.
