Independent Films to Debut at TAMIU April 4

Amateur filmmakers will screen the debuts of their artistic work during a Film Festival at Texas A&M InternationalUniversity that targets showing the best of independent films from the community on Friday, April 4 from 2-10 p.m. in Bullock Hall 118.

José Angel Jiménez, president of the TAMIU Film Club, said featured works include documentaries, animated shorts and dramas that range from 10 seconds to 90 minutes in length.

"This will be TAMIU's and Laredo's first film festival," Jiménez said, "One year ago, we got together as a club and we asked ourselves what we wanted to do. The answer was unanimous: we wanted to first make our own film and have a film festival."

The Festival is free and open to the public. A total of seven works will be shown and a discussion will follow after each, Jiménez said.

Jiménez collected Festival films through an aggressive announcement campaign targeted at directors in the local and surrounding areas, and said there is strong interest in filmmaking in the community.

"We put the word out and I got a lot of response. People called me up and they were interested," Jiménez said, "Hopefully, for next year, we can have an even larger selection."

Jiménez said concession items will be available and that films will be repeated throughout the day so that those who could not attend the Festival during the day can enjoy the same works during the night.

For further information, please contact Jiménez at 337-0083 or visit the Film Club's site at http://groups.msn.com./tamiufilmclubinfo.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Affairs and Information Services at pais@tamiu.edu