Culture Y Film Festival 2017

The 2017 Culture Y Film Festival
Welcome to Culture Y, a film festival that brings together young artists and viewers
interested in exploring cultures and identities near and far. We have very exciting
submissions this year with people of all backgrounds contributing unique
perspectives on how culture influences identity. Each film screened will be judged
by selected members from the film and academic community, battling for first
through third place and a special audience's choice award. Enjoy our bar and
mingle with others during the intermission period and discuss the issues presented in


 the films.
The 2017 Films

Oil + Ink
Sarah Park, Vienna Kim
Oil and water don’t mix very well. But what about oil and
ink? ‘Oil + Ink’ explores how food and language are integral elements
of a culture. While one can be shared between cultures, the other
emphasises difference. Food can be consumed and enjoyed by all,
whereas language must be invested in over time. Consequently, this
film is both familiar, intimate, but also perhaps challenging,
sometimes difficult to digest. It plays with comprehension, exclusion,
and detachment with a place that should be home.

Some of the subtitles in this film are informative. They bridge the gap
between an unknown language and understanding. Other subtitles
bastardise language and add an element of humour. For the non-
Korean speaker, this is something that one may not experience
unless one asks a Korean friend to translate. So not everyone will
understand every aspect of this film. And that’s kind of the point.
Renatus (Rebirth)
Director: Glen Kennedy, Actor: Charlie Manasseh

In the progression into manhood; societal drives, temptations

and ambition often create conflict within those of faith, in
individuals who want to strive in the world but be not of it.
The balance between maintaining a personal faith, in this
case Christianity, and being a student can be difficult to
grapple with as they sometimes feel like opposing cultures.
Through the use of cold colours, selected music and
compromised focus this film portrays a moment in which one
isolated student chooses to make a symbolic and personal
statement of his identity in his faith and in his masculinity
before God.   
Third Culture Kid
David Mackenzie, Aneurin Howorth

Third Culture Kid tells the story of Aneurin Howorth and

others like him. Brought up largely in Kenya, with British
parents, Aneurin is a peculiar mix of the two cultures. Here he
tells us about the difference between the two, how they have
both shaped him and the difficulties he has faced as a result
of being a Third Culture Kid. 
Chicken Party
P. Ahana Alam, Indre Tuminauskaite, Laszlo Szegedi, & Mando
Gianni
What could possibly go wrong when a Hungarian, Bengali,
Chinese and Russian come together for a meal on camera?
Over quips, television criticisms, and gastronomic symbolism,
more questions are asked than answered: are you really what
you eat? Or are you how you eat what you eat? Or are you
how much you yell before you even think of eating?
 Epilepsy Warning
Go Where the People Dance This film contains flashing
lights and may induce
seizures in those with
Director: Dylan Howel, Voice-overs: Amy Gregan, Andrew photosensitive epilepsy
Nall-Cain, Ashlyn Bourelle, Megan Alexandra & Milan Jo
Anna
‘Go Where the People Dance’ is a short film exploring the influence of live
music and clubbing culture on the identities of five young people. Utilising
footage of club nights and live concerts taken by attendees on phones and
cameras the visual representations of the film aim to capture those ethereal
moments of ecstasy experienced while seeing a live musical performance.
It is this home-video style montage that forms the visual imagery over
which the audio is layered; adding an almost dream-like
experience of non-linear thoughts and reflections elucidating
the ways in which this experience has influenced the identity
of disparate individuals who unite in their passion for live
music culture. The amateur-shot visuals and abridged audio
are central to creating a sense of personal storytelling; these
are real memories experienced by real people.
The 2017 Judges

India Basagni

India is in her fourth year, reading Film Studies and Italian. She recently won Best Cinematography for her short film in the
60Hour Film Blitz and is currently the president of BubbleTV, St Andrews’ Television Society. India co-directed the St Andrews
Green Film Festival 2016 and worked on the short film ‘Eddie’ (2016).
Dr. Lucy Fife Donaldson

Dr. Lucy Donaldson is the director of teaching and a film lecturer for the Film Studies Department of the University of
St Andrews. Lucy Donaldson has been working on a forthcoming chapter on a series of films directed by Budd
Boetticher and on an article on the British television drama Inspector Morse for her work on the AHRC-funded project
‘Spaces of Television: Production, Site and Style’. In 2014, she published a monograph Texture in Film for
Palgrave Macmillan’s series: Palgrave Close Readings in Film & Television (Series Editors: Gibbs, John & Douglas Pye).
Lucy is a member of the Editorial Board of Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, and co-edited Issue 6 in 2015, which
featured a special dossier on ‘moments of texture’ in film and television.
Email: lfd2@st-andrews.ac.uk
Adina Istrate
Adina Istrate accumulated industry experience writing for television before pursuing a career in film directing. In 2012
she graduated from the London Film School (MA Filmmaking) with ‘Outland,’ a Sci-Fi short that screened in a variety
of international film festivals including Encounters, Leuven ISFF and Phoenix Comicon.
Her following project, The Gender Reassignment Musical won a “Best Pitch” Award during the 2013 edition of the
European Short Pitch. In 2014 Adina was commissioned to direct a segment of RIGA 2041, a 3D Sci-Fi omnibus
feature showcasing Riga as the European Capital of Culture. Her latest short, ‘Terminally Happy,’ participated on the
Berlinale Talents Short Film Station and Clermont Ferrand’s Euro-Connections. The short was funded by Film London
and Vestnorsk Filmsenter and earned her a Best Director nomination at the Underwire Film Festival.
Her debut feature project ‘Eve’ (previously entitled ‘The Trojan Candidate’) has been developed through the
2015/2016 Venice Biennale College Cinema and Edinburgh IFF’s ‘Connections’ mentoring scheme. Last year, the
project also participated in the IFP No Borders co-production market. A recipient of a Wellcome Trust development
grant, the script was recently shortlisted for the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab. Adina is a Berlinale Talents, BAFTA
Guru Pro and Northern Film & Media alumna.
Adina splits her time between the US and London, where she is the Co-Creative Director at ToyBox Films.
Email: adinaistrate@protonmail.ch
Website: www.adinaistrate.com; www.toybox-films.com
Dr. Catherine Spencer
Catherine joined the University of St Andrews as a Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art in 2014, having
previously taught at the University of Edinburgh and received her PhD from the University of York. Catherine is
currently working on a book project entitled Fieldwork: Performance Art, Social Science and Politics in the 1960s and
1970s, and is co-editing a collection of essays with Dr Jo Applin and Amy Tobin at the University of York entitled
London Art Worlds: Mobile, Contingent and Ephemeral Networks 1960-1980. She has published articles in the
journals Art History and Tate Papers, and regularly writes exhibition reviews for Apollo and This is Tomorrow. Her
research has been supported by grants from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Carnegie Trust, the AHRC
and a Getty Library Research Grant. In 2013 she was a pre-doctoral fellow on the Terra Summer Residency in
Giverny. 
Email: catherine.spencer@st-andrews.ac.uk
Special Feature
Short Film

Dheu (The Waves), 2016

The ebb and flow of a couple’s entire life is the subject of the film. The man makes
a wooden mortal bed on which people are taken to their last journey whilst the
woman is a home maker. The film is about their everyday sorrow, love and their
virtues and vices.  

Produced by Roopkala Kendro 

Story based on  Ichche (The Wish) by Dr. Swati Guha.
DOP Priyanka Biswas
Sound recording, designing, mixing: Ashish Gupta
Editing, Direction assist: Mayukh Pa, Arunava Mitra, Meghdut Rudra
Art Direction:  Soumya Das
Screenplay, Direction:   Pradipta Bhattacharyya
Cast: Titas Roy Barman, Sukrit De, Roshni Kuhu Chakraborty,  Kaushik Roy, Soma Naha

Special thanks to Senghita Sen (Research Student and Tutor with the Film Department of St Andrews), and
(Director of Dheu) Pradipta Bhattacharyya, who gave permission to Culture Y to show this film
Culture Y
Culture Y is a film festival dedicated to premiering student-created short films that showcase the diversity and artistic
expression of the St Andrews student body. Culture Y was started in order to showcase the artistic, the creative, and the
diverse using the medium of film. The name Culture Y is a reference to the global cultural and ideological changes that
have occurred from Generation Y onward. Through the exploration of eternal questions, Culture Y seeks to be a platform
for innovative thinking in art, culture, and society. As a film festival, Culture Y wants to present a challenge to all members
of the public to explore key issues and themes in a creative way and bring together creator and audience in free dialogue.

Culture Y Team
Alexis Gostelow, Co-Founder & Producer

Alexis Gostelow is studying for a single honour degree in Art History.

Throughout her academic career, she has worked on creating publications that
explore how to connect audiences with the artist. Her long term interests
include the medium of film, especially within the theme of identity, and work.
Alexis has worked with Alexandra Nicolae and Erin Powers in order to use this
theme to bring together audience and artist.
Alexandra Nicolae, Co-Founder & Producer

Alexandra Nicolae is reading Film Studies and Modern History. She has
volunteered for the Tres Court film festival in Romania from which she was
inspired to plan a short film festival in St Andrews to provide a platform for the
students here. This way they can give voice to a global and diverse
community.

Erin Powers, Producer

Erin Powers is currently studying Film Studies and English Literature for her
degree. She has a passion for all things film and is interested in pursuing
festival curation as a career.

Special Thanks and Acknowledgments

Culture Y would like to thank all the St Andrews student filmmakers who participated in Culture Y 2017
throughout their studies during the second semester.

Culture Y Film Festival would like to thank the Film Society of the University of St Andrews for sponsoring
this year’s showing.

Culture Y is part of the On the Rocks Festival, a festival dedicated to providing a place in which students
may express themselves creatively in the genres of comedy, art, dancing, and music.
thank you for
attending

Culture Y 2017