Library video recognized at international film festival

November 6, 2007

The University of Florida has been winning a lot of things as of late, but many people may not be aware of one of the latest UF teams to be recognized in a national competition: Health Science Libraries staff and their associates.

Their video, “Librarians to the Rescue,” follows four students who are attempting to finish an assignment for a fictional class.

The video, designed to educate students about the UF libraries, was entered in the Columbus International Film & Video Festival. The festival, known for its “Chris Awards,” will present the UF team with a Certificate of Honorable Mention at its 55th ceremony in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 10.

Submissions to the festival are judged based on a number of different criteria, and an honorable mention is awarded to an entry based on a specific production value or high overall quality, according to the Chris Awards Web site.

UF Library staff and students, along with 19 volunteers, worked with actors from both UF and Santa Fe Community College who answered an open casting call. They worked for several months shooting and editing the video, which was the brainchild of Don Loftus, a video production coordinator in UF’s Office of Academic Technology.

“Don Loftus was the producer and the mainspring behind the project,” said Health Science Center Libraries webmaster Dwight Bennett, who wrote and co-directed the video.

The Columbus International Film and Video Festival is one of the most prestigious film award ceremonies today; the first award was presented in 1953.

The various awards are divided into a number of different categories, and this year nearly 600 submissions were received. Despite the large field, UF’s group of filmmakers and amateur actors still earned a spot near the top.

The video can been seen on televisions in UF residence halls and on cable’s Channel 96 throughout Gainesville. It also can be viewed at:http://streaming.video.ufl.edu/~hsclib/rescue.asx.