2021 Big Muddy Film Festival winners
The Big Muddy Film Festival is the second oldest student-run film festivals. Look back at which films wowed us last year as we wait for the 2022 festival on Feb. 24-27.
43rd Big Muddy Film Festival Awards
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2021’s jurors: Los Angeles screenwriter and actor Kelsey Goldberg, multimedia artist, writer and programmer Jennida Chase and artist Jason Livingston helped select the awarded films at the 43rd Big Muddy Film Festival. Check out their picks.
Best of Smartphone
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I've been afraid by Cecelia Condit. Runtime 7 minutes.
"I've Been Afraid" is about the fear of aggression, and those paralyzing forces that allow the body to accept violence.
Best Short Narrative
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Ayaan by Alies Sluiter. Runtime 18 minutes.
When fugitive Ayaan encounters a man on a rural beach, she must decide whether to trust him or journey on alone.
Best Short Documentary
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Roots of lacrosse by Shelby Adams, Joanne Storkan. Runtime 24 minutes.
Many lacrosse players and coaches often don’t know that the origins of the game of lacrosse has it’s roots in North American Indigenous nations. This short documentary provides a brief history of the sacred and cultural aspects of this sport, originally played for the Creator, as well as for the health and welfare of the people. The movie also defines the three types of North American, Indigenous lacrosse: Iroquois, Great Lakes, and Southeastern.
Best Experimental Film
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A.I. Mama by Asuka Lin. Run time 5 min.
A.I. Mama is a post-cyberpunk Super 8 film that features Kei, a young non-binary programmer who attempts to reconnect with their lost mother by building an AI that can import and process Kei’s memories through ingesting their diary entries.
Feature Documentary
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Seasons of Change on Henry's Farm by Ines Sommer. Runtime 83 minutes.
For a quarter-century, Henry Brockman has worked alongside nature to grow delicious organic vegetables on his idyllic Midwestern farm. But farming takes a toll on his aging body and Henry dreams of scaling back. So he puts his former apprentices in charge of the farm, while spending a “fallow year” with his wife Hiroko in Japan. But things don’t turn out as planned, and Henry must grapple with the future of farming in a changing climate on personal, generational, and global levels.
Feature Narrative
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Pureza by Renato Barbieri. Runtime 102 minutes.
In the 90’s, a mother looks for her missing son and finds farms using slave labor in the Amazon region.
Animation
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Ephemeral Orphanage by Lisa Barcy. Runtime 15 minutes.
A group of tattered paper dolls daydream alternate realities and surreptitiously explore the hidden lives of their strict and secretive caregivers. Hijinks ensue and discoveries are made as the characters live out their childhood fantasies. Created with found paper dolls cut from a 1920’s newspaper and found in an attic, the film explores the adults attempt to dictate what girls learn, and the children’s talent for discovering forbidden knowledge.
John Michaels Award for Social Justice
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Undeterred by Eva Lewis. Runtime 77 minutes.
"Undeterred" tells the story of the build up of enforcement along the US/ Mexico border, how it has affected and changed life in one small town and how local residents have organized to push back and resist those changes.
John Waters Award
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Eat the Rainbow by Brian Benson. Runtime 20 minutes.
EAT THE RAINBOW is a musical fable about an odd yet kind man named Bayani who moves into a conservative suburban neighborhood and disrupts the otherwise comfortable homogeny. He doesn’t look or act like anyone else which causes fear and panic and eventually a demand for him to leave the neighborhood. Cousin Wonderlette befriends Bayani and together they take on the opposition led by manipulative and unscrupulous realtor Lobelia Gerber.
Big Muddy Film Festival 2022
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The 44th annual film festival will run from February 24 through the 27.
As featured on
A Marion man convicted in September of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child has filed a motion for a new trial claiming errors in the case.
Judge Michelle Schafer denied David Blue’s plea for an acquittal, however, she will take the following five days to consider if the Blue should receive a new trial, Assistant State’s Attorney Thomas Slayton said. Slayton is convinced that Schafer will side with the state and deem Blue’s convictions after he assaulted a minor.
One of Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s iconic events, the 44th annual Big Muddy Film Festival, will return to more familiar surroundings: A theater.
