A film created by theatre and cinema students won “Best Comedy” at the inaugural Foster’s Film Festival in St. Joseph last fall, and a film by an alumnus won “Best Drama.”
The award-winning comedy was “Unfortunate,” a “mockumentary” about a fortune cookie writer who gets dumped and starts writing “misfortunes.” It was co-written by Sebastian Smith, a senior from Kansas City, Mo., and Christian Allison, a senior from Milan, Mo., and directed by Kelsey Houser, a senior from St. Joseph.
“It feels amazing to have our work honored like this,” Houser said. “We are just thrilled with the positive feedback we received.”
“Unfortunate” was created in March as part of Missouri Western’s 48-Hour Film Festival. Teams met on Friday afternoon to randomly draw a film genre and learn what prop, line of dialogue and character they must include in their films. They scouted locations, wrote the script, and shot and edited the film prior to a Sunday evening screening. “Unfortunate” won Best Film, Best Actor and Best Writing in that festival.
In addition to writing the script, Smith was the lead actor and Allison operated the boom. Daniel Banks, senior from Kansas City, Mo., was cinematographer. Chris Rayle, sophomore from St. Joseph, was composer and producer. Zack Papenberg, freshman from St. Joseph, was script supervisor. Riley Bayer, junior from Savannah, was a grip and helped secure locations. Katelyn Canon, junior from Harrisonville, Mo., acted in the film. Nat Larsen, senior graphic design major from Savannah, and Jeremy Todd, a 2013 graphic arts graduate from Lake Waukomis, Mo., created graphics and credits.
The drama winner at the festival, “For Abigail, Love Benjamin,” was written by Levi Smock, a 2009 graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a video minor. While a student, Smock presented academic papers at several professional conferences and was one of 50 students from around the country accepted to the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium in Colorado. He went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute, and has had other films accepted into film festivals in Hawaii, New York and Texas.