In its seventh year, the Outhouse Film Festival is bigger and better than ever, thanks to better technology, a new venue and a higher class of entries.
This year, instead of in the Union Colonnade, the festival will be held in the Dodson Auditorium.
Matt Dolney, president of the Cinema Club and director of the festival, said the seating is about the same in both theaters, but the sound is much better in Dodson.
Dolney said that in addition to superior technology in Dodson, it is also free – a huge benefit compared to the Colonnade, which cost the club “a lot of money in the past.”
With an increase in sound quality at this year’s fest comes an increase in the quality and number of documentaries and feature-length films.
“I think we have some pretty amazing entries this year,” Dolney said.
Dolney said the 35 entries are in the five categories – feature-length, documentary, short-length, experimental and animation – this year.
He said every year about 10 to 20 percent of the films come from other places in Louisiana, as well as Mississippi and Alabama.
Dolney said the main objective of the festival is to show as many films as possible, though usually some films have to be dropped because of time constraints or other factors.
But this time there was a small enough amount of entries, so the available space was greater.
“This year we’re pretty much showing everything that has been submitted,” Dolney said.
Dolney said the reason for the lower number of submissions has to do with the timing of spring break – the festival organizers had to call for submissions much earlier than usual.
Dolney said they did not want to compete with both Jazz Fest and the Red Stick Animation Festival, so they had to have the festival earlier this year, which cut down on the time filmmakers could work on their projects.
But there were still plenty of high-quality entries this year, Dolney said.
Steve Mayeux, English sophomore and co-writer and director of “A Work In Progress,” said the festival is great for Baton Rouge.
Mayeux shot his first film while he was still in high school and submitted it in the 2004 festival.
Jason Wood, mass communication sophomore and writer, director and producer of “A Lemonade Stand,” agreed the festival is good for the city.
“It’s great for Baton Rouge,” Wood said. “It’s especially good for the moviemakers. It gives us networking opportunities.”
Wood said the festival has a lot of potential.
Dolney said the festival is more about creating and sharing movies than the awards the films could receive.
Dolney said there are both competitive entries for those competing for the Golden Outhouse for best overall and Silver Outhouses for best in each category – and non-competitive categories for those who just want their films to be seen.
Even though Mayeux is submitting his film for judging, he said he is less focused on winning an award than just having his work seen.
“There’s a certain feeling of closure when you show [your work] to a lot of people,” Mayeux said. “We just like having our stuff shown. There’s not too many venues for this sort of thing in Baton Rouge.”
Dolney said the filmmakers are being judged by other filmmakers and movie lovers.
“[The Outhouse Film Festival] is not really about the awards,” Dolney said. “The festival is about celebrating the art of movie-making.”
 
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