The SunDeis Film Festival was started five years ago by a group of students who believed there should be a forum for film students to get their work out there. Intended to unify and strengthen the film community at Brandeis, new plans for SunDeis may now be dividing it.SunDeis started small and grew each year, drawing in more and more submissions from student and independent local filmmakers and encouraging a greater appreciation of the art of film. The annual festival has developed hand-in-hand with the Film, Television and Interactive Media Program, which started out offering only a few classes in the Film Studies minor but over time has grown to the point that in 2008 the University created a major for it.

As of last year, SunDeis' future was in jeopardy. Due to substantially reduced funding from Student Activities and a lack of leadership, rumors abounded that SunDeis would be canceled this year. In response, the Film program, headed by Prof. Alice Kelikian (HIST), offered to ease the financial burden on Student Activities by co-sponsoring SunDeis in partnership with BTV.

According to BTV president Avi Swerdlow '10, who also serves as undergraduate departmental representative to the program, the organizers will create a SunDeis 2010 planning committee. It is composed of seven to 10 people, mostly from BTV and the Film program, although as in years past, the committee will expand to include students not necessarily connected to either group. The sponsors also plan to offer prize money for the first time and bring high-profile speakers to campus, as permitted by the newly expanded budget.

"I think it's a good reflection of the film community that's growing on campus," says Swerdlow of the organizers' goals.

On the other hand, Illona Yuhaev '11 and Tom Charging Hawk '10, who were involved with SunDeis in past years, do not think that these changes are for the better. Yuhaev believes that with the Film program's involvement, the festival would no longer be truly student-run. She advocates a neutral planning committee comprised of interested students not necessarily affiliated with the Film program or BTV, and she wants these students to have the power to decide which student films will be screened.

Kelikian is eager for the program to become more involved in organizing SunDeis because of the potential to "broaden the festival," making it more inclusive of the entire film-making community, with an emphasis on alumni outreach, the greater Boston area and celebrity guests and judges. Kelikian maintains that the festival will continue to be student-run but asks, "Why should we limit ourselves?" She hopes the involvement of people outside of the Brandeis community may create more opportunities for student filmmakers and attract larger audiences to screenings and panel discussions.

Although Yuhaev admits the Film program could contribute significant funding and make the festival larger than it has ever been before, she feels that in the long run, "It is better for students to have a voice." Yuhaev feels that by taking over sponsorship and trying to engage bigger names in the film community, the program is endangering SunDeis' future. "If it's not going to happen through students then it's gone, it's going to die," she says. She fears that the Brandeis community will forget about SunDeis if the program absorbs most of the control over it and that the festival will lose its significance.

As a result, Yuhaev and Charging Hawk have started efforts to create a separate festival not affiliated with the department, which would be "completely student-run." Yuhaev and Charging Hawk organized a "Save SunDeis" meeting held on Thursday in the Getz Media Lab to raise student awareness of what is currently happening with the festival. Yuhaev has gone forward with plans to execute what she considers a truly student-run festival, which will focus on students' work and give any interested students the opportunity to help organize the festival, select judges and screen submissions without rigid demands from the Film program being placed on them. In this way, she hopes to create a solid base of students who can carry on the tradition and assume roles of leadership once the current organizers graduate, ensuring SunDeis will remain for years to come.

Even as both festivals are in the planning process, attempts are being made by all parties involved to form some kind of compromise, since, as Yuhaev says, "It would be a waste of resources" to have two festivals. Swerdlow agrees, adding that it might come off as confusing to students. "We just want to make it as open and inclusive as possible," he says, which is why the program's festival coordinators held a town-hall style meeting yesterday, to which all interested parties were invited, in order to reflect on the goals of the SunDeis festival and offer everyone the chance to become involved in the activities. Until the two sides can reach an agreement, both will continue planning separate film festivals, with some confusion over rights to the name "SunDeis" and the timing of the two festivals. Either way, there will certainly be no lack of film festivals at Brandeis this spring!