About the Festival

Two years ago, Dr. Lois Gaston, President of Hillsborough Community College, Ybor Campus, Tampa, invited David Audet, HCC Special Projects Manager, to develop and organize an annual film/video event for the college, its staff, and students.

After visiting a number of festivals in the U.S. and Canada, Mr. Audet presented Dr. Gaston with the idea of creating a celebration that would include and showcase the entire community of Ybor City, be open to the general public, and utilize the architecture and entertainment venues surrounding the college campus.

Dr. Gaston was very enthusiastic about the possibilities and the project moved forward, although slowly, due to current events. It is now coming to fruition, with a six-day schedule of films, forums, and performances opening Monday, March 31, and running through Saturday, April 5, 2003. Next year's 2004 HCC - Ybor Festival of the Moving Image is already in pre-production.

To create a unique event separate from the many "film festivals" occurring almost weekly throughout the U.S. and indeed the world, this festival endeavors to bring to Ybor City professional filmmakers and artists who use the medium in traditional as well as non-traditional ways.

Audiences will not only enjoy traditional screenings of shorts, documentaries, and films of historical interest, with attendant discussions and forums, but will experience new approaches to the film/video medium by visiting site-specific film sculptures, live performances mixed with film interactive DVD programming, and unusual screenings (for example, a "drive-in" movie projected in a parking lot with the soundtrack broadcast over the car radio).

Finally, the festival endeavors to educate, entertain, and inspire the younger generations of students, their families and their friends, with the enthusiasm and joyous creativity certain to be generated by the visiting filmmakers and artists, who were selected for their desire and ability to share those qualities with their audience.