
I am the Co-President of the Indiana Student Cinema Guild. Our biggest event of the fall semester is the Crimson Film Festival. Crimson takes place on Monday, December 12 at 7:00 p.m at Indiana University Cinema. It is the largest festival of student content at Indiana University, aside from Campus Moviefest in the spring. Crimson was created in 2013 by then president Jacob Gabbard to celebrate the vivid and diverse nature of IU’s filmmaker community.
![The Water in My Body]](https://blogs.iu.edu/establishingshot/files/2016/12/15387360_10209382794344127_185877452_o.png-27f2iq1-300x169.jpeg)
This year’s 14 short movies include works by previous contributors. Noted queer video artist Joshua Byron, fresh off of their first solo show, contributed a video called The Water in My Body. It considers how gender, sexuality, and nature interact when a person goes through romantic loss. Hunter Huddleston, who won Best Screenplay and Best Picture last year for The Mystery, is back with The Unlovable Mime and the Beer-Faced Girl. It tells the story of a mime whose life is changed by a new romance. Like all of Huddleston’s work, it features excellent cinematography and soulful acting.

There is something for everyone in this year’s program. If you like suspense, then you’ll love Kevin Carpenter’s new thriller Psychic Vs. Psycho. If you like comedy, be on the lookout for The Bigfoot Hunters, directed by my Cinema Guild co-president Jacob Schorr. We’re also excited to show Vague, the debut film of freshman Madeleine Lucia.

One of my favorite things about Crimson Film Festival is the sense of community that it fosters. I’ll never forget the end of last year’s festival. After the awards were given, everyone poured out of the IU Cinema into the area in front of the Hoagy Carmichael statue. We could’ve gone home, but instead we stayed and talked. We talked about what we’d seen, and about life, and how we were going to spend our winter breaks. I felt the beautiful sensation of being a part of a community. Not just any community, either, but a community of people who’d brave a cold December night to spend their time supporting their friends’ art. I’ve made some wonderful memories at the Crimson Film Festival, and this year I hope you will too.

Crimson Film Festival 2016 takes place at IU Cinema Monday, December 12, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. Previously IU Cinema hosted Crimson Film Festival in 2013, 2014, and 2015.
Looking to enjoy more work by student filmmakers? The Fall 2016 Student Films Showcase screens at IU Cinema at 6:30 p.m. on December 13, 2016 and again on December 14, 2016.
Jesse Pasternack is a junior at Indiana University and the co-president of the Indiana Student Cinema Guild. He writes about film, television, and pop culture for the Indiana Daily Student. Jesse is a moderator at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival and a friend of the Doug Loves Movies podcast. He has directed two short films.