Panel weighs in on college house system
Creative writing contest wraps up A crowd of almost 60 people gathered to hear winners of the 2001 Penn Creative Writing Contest read their poetry and fiction creations at the Kelly Writers House last Tuesday. The contest, which began with poetry in the 1960s, includes fiction, script-writing, literary review and translation. Sponsored by the English Department each spring, the contest is open to students across the University. Various literary figures in the Philadelphia area were asked to judge the contest. The event featured seven of this year's winners. Both relatives and friends of the honorees attended, while even alumni made appearances. "I was a creative writing major," 2000 College graduate Jen Flint said. "It was great to come back and see what people are doing." The literary pieces covered everything from love gone wrong to experimenting with drugs. Inspiration came from various sources. College senior John McCall, who wrote a poignant fictional story about a boy's unrequited love for a girl whose boyfriend was "a gaseous cloud," claimed his inspiration came from "a relationship that went terribly awry." And Aaron Couch, also a College senior, just wanted to make people think. "I find it really interesting to use language in a way that expresses something about our society, and [to use it] in a way that challenges people to think about themselves," Couch said. -- Jessica Kabis
'Filmdance' offers forum for students Penn filmmakers recently found two outlets for their talent. Filmdance, a-75 minute reel of films created by Penn students, was shown on three screens in Logan Hall on Saturday. A Film Advisory Board initiative, Filmdance was the first festival of its kind at the University. "Basically the festival is in its juvenile stages right now," said Ryan Ly, a College sophomore and co-coordinator of the festival. "It's an experiment that we are hoping to make an annual event." Currently, there is a wealth of film talent on campus. Fine Arts 61 and 62: Film I and II have consistently reached capacity for the past two semesters, but the film program still remains a minor in the English Department. "The film community at Penn is this strong subculture," College sophomore Lehua Chong said. "We want to raise the awareness of the entire Penn community." A few days later, Logan again displayed the creativity of Penn's film artists. College seniors Jonathan London and Kevin McCaffrey, of the WQHS radio program "Hungover," screened their independently-produced horror film, Spores, to a packed house of about 250 students. "It was our last hurrah for college," London said. "We're both interested in film so we thought, 'Hey lets try to put something together that's totally impossible.'" --Jo Piazza
