Canton native presents International Film Festival

Jason Daniels believes that it doesn’t take a lot of time for someone to tell a story or to recount a life experience, but the story’s impact can have a lasting effect. The executive director of Easton Community Access Television (ECAT), Daniels is also the founder and coordinator of the 100-Second Film Festival, which feature films that are 100 seconds or less in duration. ECAT will present the 2018 festival this Saturday, October 27, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Oakes Ames Memorial Hall in Easton.

CHS alum Jason Daniels is now the executive director for Easton Community Access TV.

Daniels grew up in Canton and attended the Hansen School and Galvin Middle School. He is a 1995 graduate of Canton High School and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University. In 2004, Daniels was working at the Community Media Center in Lowell and became involved with the 60-Second Film Festival, presented through the Revolving Museum and other local organizations. The following year, he decided to seek submissions of films that were up to 100 seconds in length and then he went on to create the new festival.

“I really did like the short format of 60 seconds,” he said. “One hundred seconds was something new. I could say I started it, have some ownership over it. It’s a nice round number.”

Saturday’s 100-Second Film Festival will mark the eighth presentation of screenings and workshops since 2005.

Daniels set up a submissions portal for filmmakers through filmfreeway.com. He received over 1,000 films from across the United States and over 60 countries around the world by the September 1 deadline, the largest number of submissions to date. As the films arrived, he worked to pare them down to a manageable number for the festival attendees.

“Over the summer I worked with members of the Easton community,” Daniels explained. “I love getting the community involved. We watched them together, talked about them and broke them down. It was actually fun watching all the films. It’s a format where people can be really creative.”

The only criterion was that each film be between 60 and 100 seconds in length. The submitted films included documentaries, music videos, animated films, and experimental films. Daniels said that the time constraint is what makes the films creative. He added that a number of the films tell personal stories, are light comedies, or are what he called quirky or weird. The committee set certain limits, however. “We shied away from violence and politics,” Daniels said.

The committee eventually worked the submissions down to 90 to 100 movies. “That’s when it got tough,” Daniels said. “There were a lot of excellent films.”

Over 60 films were selected to be screened. Daniels organized them into six categories, which emerged from the films themselves. The films will be shown back to back with an intermission to allow time for people to talk about them. There are no prizes, but attendees will vote for an audience favorite.

The films that will be screened include several from Easton, some from other Massachusetts communities, and films from the U.S. and other countries. Some of the films will have their North American premiere on Saturday.

“It’s kind of nice to give a platform to these filmmakers,” Daniels said. “From the caliber of the work, they’re very talented people who might be doing commercial work.”

Daniels is looking forward to both the festival and the audience’s reactions to the films. “I feel very passionate about it,” he said. “It’s a great way to explore culture. The short format film gives you a chance to get a taste of all different kinds of film, to hear different voices, in a compact time.”

And if someone doesn’t care for one of the films, he has a practical response. “If you don’t like it,” he said, “it’s done in a minute and a half.”

Tickets for the 100-Second Film Festival are $10 each and can be purchased online at 100-Second.org or at the door on Saturday evening.

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Posted by Mary Ann Price on Oct 26 2018. Filed under News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.