30 Minute Film Festival Comes to KSU Salem

The Kent State Salem 30 Minute Film Festival took place today at 12:30 in Room 117 of the main campus.

Featuring 7 short films whose running time varied from three minutes to a little over eights, the event was billed as providing “7 movies in 1800 seconds.”

Students in attendance noted that the comedy and action oriented movies were a nice break from the seriousness usually associated with the month before the end of the spring term.

Attendees voted on their favorite production. The three minute film “InSex,” by accomplished short film producers Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin was declared the winner.

Potelle and Rankin briefly had some notoriety when they were selected to co-direct “The Battle of Shaker Heights” through the second season of HBO's Project Greenlight.

Watch the winning movie:




Coming in tied for second were the anaimated short “Sucker” and “Batman: Dead End.”

Batman: Dead End is a fan film made by Sandy Collora that premiered July 19, 2003 at the San Diego Comic Con, and on the internet shortly thereafter.

The film, made for a reported $30,000 and actually shot on film, stars Clark Bartram as the Batman, who is chasing down an escaped Joker, played by Andrew Koenig. In a surprise move, popular science fiction franchise characters (Predators and Aliens) enter the fray and force a showdown. The Batman character had previously fought both races in a series of comic books from Dark Horse Comics, and the film draws some of its imagery from those comics.

Film director and comic book writer Kevin Smith called it "possibly the truest, best Batman movie ever made." Comic book artist Alex Ross praised it as "Batman the way I've always wanted to see him." Collora has stated in interviews that the film was made as a demonstration reel to attract attention to his directing skills, and as such, succeeded in its goal.

Batman: Dead End: