Film Festival: (Reception Theory)

The film festival Western Tech held on Wednesday, May 24^th was comprised of short films from the various classrooms of both Western and Delphi. As such, each class brought a different understanding to those texts, which was evident in the audience’s reactions. For the films that Western showed, Western students  could relate to the text more than Delphi’s students because they could recognise and understand parts of the text that were clearly directed to them, such as the Student Council documentary.  Likewise, Delphi brought films that may have had a different reception in Western than in their own school. They presented a film about a girl who drifts away from her boyfriend to start a relationship with a female. The tolerance/acceptance of LGBT’s is different in all schools, and it was apparent that Delphi was more illustrative of this than Western during the festival.

                Schools aside, even the specific classes that each videos originated from could contribute to the different understandings and reception of each text. The “logo-fly” clips from Mr. Siroishka’s class were great examples of an audience NOT knowing their text. Coming from that class, I personally knew the work and skill required to make those short eight second clips. However, when the videos were played, their length was the most discussed aspect, and not their quality. In contrast, the “Hyper-consumerism” documentary was a text that was perfectly fit for its audience, but which may not have had as powerful an impact on some of the guests at the event, including Mr. Bailey’s English class. In this example, the diction/content set apart the viewers rather than the form of the logo-fly’s. One class is meant to create media and the other is meant to analyse it, but both are somewhat ignorant of the other’s efforts.

                On the individual level, the videos were somewhat split into “videos with people you know” and “videos with people you don’t know”. Obviously, the former always got the most attention and respect from their respective audiences. During the music video for “Kiss with a Fist”, an audience member’s reaction was that it was, “self-indulgent and narcissistic”. Yet, they were not from Delphi and may not have understood that perhaps the video maker, at the individual level, brought to the text their own interpretation of “art” and “talent”, which may have been ironic. A convincing but subtle parody should not always be condemned as the act it’s parodying. Additionally, the creators of said work may not believe it is narcissistic to them, but that is all part of what made the festival such a diverse experience.