Though no awards will be given, the Gunndance Film Festival, Gunn’s version of the Oscars, will take place this year in the Little Theater May 29 and 30. “It’s a chance for any Gunn students to show their work,” senior videographer and historian Kaitie Macknick who described herself as the “executive producer” of the event, said. “The whole point of making movies is for people to see them.”

The Gunndance Film Festival was first held because some members of the drama department wanted a festival to showcase students’ films in a non-competitive event that would give students and alumni a chance to show their films in a theater setting. Gunndance is an open festival and accepts submissions by current students and alumni. “It’s a common misconception that Gunndance is only opened to Video Production students,” Gunndance advisor Edward Corpuz said, who also teaches Video Production 1 and 2. “It’s open to everyone.”

In the past, films have been submitted in from other schools. However, this year, only Gunn submissions will be accepted. Some said that this was done to encourage more students to submit in films. “I think [Kaitie]’s trying to get more students involved,” Corpuz said. “It would be strange to watch a Gunn film festival with only films from other schools.”

The film festival is not a contest. “It’s like a showcase,” Macknick said. “It seems unnecessarily critical to judge peoples’ movies. I don’t want to judge things.”

However, Corpuz said that if the film festival was open to all high school students, Gunndance could become a contest. “If we open up the festival to non-Gunn students and receive a variety of films, we can certainly turn the festival into a contest,” Corpuz said. “I can see Gunndance growing into a premier high school film festival in the Bay Area.”

Some aspects of this year’s festival are different from past festivals. The festival will be held on two nights instead of three because of full bookings for the Little Theater. Gunndance is also being marketed more. “We’re trying to publicize it more widely,” Student Activities Director Lisa Hall said. Corpuz agreed. “We put up posters much earlier,” he said. “Macknick made a commercial [for Gunndance] that will air on TBN. We also made a website.”

In addition, some say that participation in the film festival is increasing. “I’ve only seen [ ] once since I’m a new teacher,” Corpuz said. “It’s got more popularity [this year]. I’ve been getting a lot of non-video production students coming in and asking for cameras to use for their films. It shows that a lot of students are interested.”

Submissions for the film festival, which are due by May 16, should be turned into Macknick’s box in front of the Student Activities Center, preferably on a miniDV for optimal quality. Films should not exceed 15 minutes.

At press time, Macknick had not received any entries. “People usually turn videos in at the last minute,” she said. Hall agreed. “We haven’t had any problems with getting submissions in the past.”

Some have started planning their film for the festival. The Gunn Film Club is collaborating to submit in a film about the game Capture the Flag. The club, which was founded second semester of this year, will be working on the film together for the first time. “[Our goal is] to entertain our fellow Gunn students,” sophomore president Mark Monroe said.

Corpuz also said that most of the advanced video students are making Gunndance films, though it is not a part of the course’s curriculum.

Macknick said that she would like a large turnout at the festival. “[I hope] that people will show up to it,” Macknick said. “I’m really encouraging people to submit films.”

Others have started to anticipate the upcoming student films. “I’m excited for the films that students from video production and non-video production students produced,” Corpuz said.