Independent films may get a lot of attention at festivals like Sundance, but many of the films shown there — not to mention ones that don’t even make it into the festival — get little to no release anywhere else.
University of Idaho student organization Ocular Empiricism hopes to give these movies more recognition.
Ocular Empiricism was started this semester at UI by club president Alex Hansen, who is dedicated to bringing these scarcely circulated films to a bigger audience.
The idea for an independent film screening club stemmed from work Hansen did putting on screenings with a similar organization at Boise State University.
Ocular Empiricism puts on film screenings for students and hopefully spread a passion for film throughout the UI community, Hansen said.
“(I want) to see people get interested in films they probably would have never heard of before,” Hansen said. “Broadening some horizons and getting people excited about all the great stuff that’s going on that nobody knows about.”
Hansen said he handpicks which films are to be screened.
“(These are) films that are self-distributed or under distributed, so stuff that’s under seen that I think might appeal to other people,” Hansen said. “Stuff I’ve (followed) on the festival circuit and heard about through the internet.”
The club had its first film screening on Oct. 22, and Hansen is hoping to have more in the future.
Future plans for the club include having one major screening a month at a larger venue, such as the Borah Theater, and then smaller, more impromptu screenings throughout the month, Hansen said.
“The next screening is Nov. 19 at seven o’clock at the Borah (Theater) for Gina Telaroli’s ‘Traveling Light’,” Hansen said.
In between screenings, Hansen spends his time looking for new films to screen and getting in touch with the film makers, as well as, promoting and organizing the next scheduled showing.
The club is still relatively unknown on campus, much like the films it shows. However, Hansen is optimistic that it will grow and is welcome to hearing from the student population at UI.
“I’m always open to suggestions, if anybody knows a movie they’d like to see get screened I’m definitely open to doing that,” Hansen said.
Anybody with a passion for independent film or even just a curiosity of what lesser known filmmakers are producing should check out Ocular Empiricism’s next screening on Nov. 19 at Student Union Building Borah Theater.
Jared Jonas can be reached at [email protected]