A few weeks ago a team of various representatives from Baton Rouge made a trip to Austin, Texas, to take notes on the flourishing arts community so vital to that city’s economy and health.
When asked by one of the guides from Austin whether or not Baton Rouge had a film festival, the representatives gave puzzled looks.
“Get a film festival,” the guide said. Now the city is working overtime to establish a credible film festival here.
But they missed the point. You can’t have a film festival without a film program. Period. Look at the major film festivals around the country.
Are any of them located in areas that don’t have major film programs?
For those with short attention spans, I will sum up quickly: If we placed a first-rate film program – by that I mean by offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees – in our beloved LSU, Baton Rouge would be transformed into something of a cultural mecca for Louisiana.
The arts council wouldn’t have to scramble to make the Cinema Club’s film festival into something it might not have the power to be.
They wouldn’t have to scramble to find sponsorship. There would be enough film nuts to do this for them.
Things would fall into place, and the Baton Rouge Film Festival (or whatever they choose to name it) would become a cornerstone of this state’s arts community.
Whoever said Louisiana has incredible talent is right.
But how are we going to lure those film buffs so necessary for a thriving film community if they are going out of state for college? Lure them to UNO and its flabby, half-hearted film program?
If LSU is really going to become a “flagship” university, it needs to demonstrate that it can hold its own in the arts.
Currently, the Cinema Club at LSU is doing its very best to boost interest in film around campus.
Using the equipment LSU currently has, they are willing to staff and produce shorts around five minutes long, which would be aired on the club’s television show on Tiger TV.
All one has to do is write the screenplay, which doesn’t even have to be in correct format.
(If you’re interested in writing and directing your own short, you can contact the president, Claire Shexnayder at [email protected], or go to the website at www.lsu.edu/student_organizations/cinema for more information).
But the handful of film loonies – and great ones at that – that make up the Cinema Club aren’t enough to kick off a film revolution here.
It’s going to take the state’s film lovers. All of them. And the only way to do that is to educate them in it, right here in Baton Rouge.
But the chancellor must be warned now: those who would bemoan the cost of a great film program are the enemies of Louisiana’s future.
The cost will prove itself worthy of invaluable benefits that come with time.
If LSU decides against have a film department or to have one and skimp on the program, we will all pay.
God will cry as he watches the state’s most talented filmmakers flock to the north, east and west.
The University, the city and the entire state will only watch as the “brain drain” grows and grows and grows and grows and grows and grows.