A father who suffers mishaps while looking for his Darth Vader action figure lost 20 years ago is the subject of a top winning film made for the first nationwide Campus Movie Fest held at Sonoma State University last week.
Kevin Rapp's project earned honors in the Best Picture and Best Comedy category along with a student film called "March to Freedom." "Lost Toy" was also a finalist in the Turner Classic Movie Classic category along with a film called "Inner Turmoil."
Rapp, who is working on his teaching credential in special education at SSU, worked with Rich Fleming who starred in the production as the father. He was assisted with the editing by Julie Herrera-Daniels.
Rapp has been a stay-at-home Dad for the last eight years and says "I could never have made this film if I had been single." He lives in Novato and holds a B.A. in Accounting. He shot the film in two days and spent 48 hours editing it.
Last Thursday's showing of 16 short films made by Sonoma State students for the California section of the nationwide Campus MovieFest was held at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. The event drew approximately 400 students and supporters to a red-carpet evening. SSU students submitted 36 five-minute films made by teams who were supplied equipment and cameras by organizers of the nationwide student film project.
Films were judged on aesthetics, technical aspects, sound design, and overall quality. There were a variety of themes and topics filmed- from documentaries about female sexuality, rock climbing and the SSU crew team to those featuring ninjas and zombies.
The SSU finalists compete against the top student films from Stanford, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara Universityand San Jose State at the Campus MovieFest Bay Area Grand Finale at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20 at the California Theatre in San Jose. Carson Daley will be host for the evening.
General admission tickets are $7 and are available online at www.campusmoviefest.com/finale and in the SSU Student Union.
ABOVE, Rich Fleming encounters Darth Vader in Kevin Rapps' film called "The Lost Toy."
