Effigy
Studentsā documentary short brings a New London tradition to Rome
When Benedict Arnold defected to the British during the American Revolution, he likely didnāt imagine a crowd would burn him in effigy some 240 years later as part of an annual event in the very city he sought to reduce to ash. And given the concept of film didnāt even exist in the 1780s, he certainly wouldāve had no idea that a pair of ĢĒŠÄTV students would make a documentary short about that tradition that would send them to Italy and The COLiseum International Film FEstival (COLIFFE).
Unfortunately for Americaās most famous traitor, the future has a way of being unpredictable. Meanwhile, filmmakers Timothy Friend ā25 and Ian Hopkins ā25, the Camels behind Effigy, couldnāt be happier with the outcome.
In the doc, they mix onsite interviews with footage of the 2023 Flock Theatre Burning of Benedict Arnold Festival. The result is a blast of experiential storytelling that allows the viewer to feel like part of the festival while also maintaining enough distance to provide context and insight.
Friend and Hopkins were still in their first week of a fall semester āDocumentary Productionā course when Hopkins got an email from Flock advertising the festival. āI thought, āOh, we should totally film this,āā recalls Hopkins, a film studies major from Chicago, Illinois. āWe had to get special permission for it because it was so early in the semester.ā
With Professor Ross Morinās approval, the two set to work.
āWe started with [the festival] because it would be really fun, but we started to think, āHow can we find a larger meaning in this?āā explains Friend, who hails from West Newbury, Massachusetts, and is also majoring in film.
Given the current state of American politics, the two quickly found deeper meaning in an annual tradition of using fire to purge historical monsters. But finding the right tone proved more difficult.
āOur rough cut ā¦ went too far over the edge of politics. Professor Morin was critical in guiding us through fixing that,ā Hopkins says.
The final cut still pulses with political implication, but by avoiding didactic messaging, Effigy takes on an evergreen quality. It is about 2023 and 1781, of course, but one can easily see Americaās other crises, past and yet to be, in the āmobāsā actions, and hear them in the participantsā voices.
After presenting the film in class as part of a semesterās-end screening event, Friend submitted Effigy to COLIFFE. The festival received 1,778 submissions from 108 countries; of those, only 140āincluding Effigyāreached the final phase. The film then went on to snag a Best Direction Award in the International Short Films category for the duo.
Winning was āvery validating,ā Friend says.
While interest in the film continuesāit was also screened at the Flame University FirstCut Film Festival in IndiaāHopkins and Friend are both hard at work with new collaborators on new projects for their āFilm 310: Ideological Representation in Motion Picture Productionā course. But that doesnāt mean they arenāt still working together.
āWeāll be crewing each otherās films,ā Hopkins says.
āThatās just how it is with film here,ā adds Friend. āEven if we arenāt partners, we are all involved.ā
Photo by Sean D. Elliot