HSU International Film Festival struggles amidst cutbacks

It’s never been easy for the Humboldt State University International Film Festival. The festival has struggled to stay afloat, dealing with cutbacks and lack of notoriety.

The process for building the festival was slow. It took a few years for the word of its existence to get out. However, thanks to a committed team behind the festival, it remains the oldest student-run film festival in the world at 51 years old.

Susan Abbey has been involved with the festival teaching film appreciation classes since Grad School. One of the film faculty members at HSU knew Abbey.

“They needed somebody who could help work with a classroom, event planning and promotion and also knew enough about film to help create the annual event,” Abbey said.

Abbey says that since the club also acts as a class, she encourages non-majors to take it for two credits.

“Teachers come and go, budgets come and go, but the students, even in really thin years when our budget has been cut down to nothing, the student’s passion keep it going,” Abbey said.

One of the benefits of the festival is that it gives experimental films a venue.

“Experimental films once did not have a venue but because of the kind of avant-garde nature of HSU, it was able to hold the context for them,” Abbey said.

One of the problems that the festival constantly faces is with the school administration, from which they receive very little support.

“The class was going to be dropped a few years ago because it was dropped from being a core class and the teachers here didn’t have the time to teach it,” Abbey said. “The festival also had to be cut from seven days to four to make it more sustainable.”

Aurelio Torres-Garcia has been part of the club since he was a freshman in 2016, and helps Abbey as co-director.

“It is all encompassing,” Torres-Garcia said. “Everyone tells stories and everyone has a story to tell. Many of my co-directors are film fanatics and they love working in the film festival.”

Another co-director is film major Katherine Lundahl.

“I want to go into documentary,” Lundahl said. “I want to make social positive change and documentary is an amazing resource and it’s the responsibility of the filmmaker to use this tool to make positive change.”

Lundahl detailed some issues with the clubs had financially.

Peter Blickensderfer began working for the festival ever since he had done similar work organizing smaller film festivals at his high school.

He liked the way the community responded to the festivals. Blickensderfer has been part of the festival for two years and said he sees the way budget cuts have affected the festival.

“The school seems to have been pulling back funding from the festival, which is a shame because they are the major funder,” Blickensderfer said. “It’s always been a struggle since the beginning. It’s always been a passion project and the history of it is also a major reason to keep it going and the community likes it, always responding well to it.”

It turns out that there must be $4000 left in the trust before any club can ask for more money and that wouldn’t even last a year. There is also no guarantee that they would be approved for any extra funds once down to that low amount.

“We have $19,000 in our trust, that money is from fundraising, ticket sales and filmfreeway submissions,” Lundahl said. “The problem this year, because of cuts all clubs are being impacted, even bigger organizations on Campus.”

Humboldt County expresses inner nerd at Ohana Comic Con

Hosted at the Blue Lake Casino, Ohana Comic Con is the first comic convention to be hosted in Humboldt County. Locals and out of town vendors set up stands to sell, meet enthusiasts and have an overall good time.

Professional cosplayers Cammie Duvall and Ashton Taylor said they were having a great time at the con.

“It’s always fun to meet new people at conventions,” Duvall said. “Nerds coming together dressing as nerds is always fun.”

Duvall and Taylor set up a stand together to sell photo prints of their cosplay.

“For seven years I’ve been cosplaying,” Taylor said. “Seeing the cosplay community grow overtime has made continue to dress up over the years.”

Stands for local businesses was also at the convention. Danielle Jones, who founded “Cream N Things,” and sold her handmade soaps. Jones is a Humboldt State University graduate with a masters in science in Natural Resources.

“I founded my business because my skin has a bad reaction with store bought soaps.” Jones said. “Since then, I’ve been making soaps out natural material. Stuff like goat fat, I know that’s weird, but stuff seen as ‘waste’ can be used for something beneficial.”

Family and friends stopped by the comic con, dressed as their favorite comic, anime, film and video game character. Some of the costumes range from store bought to custom made.

Locals Rebecca Hayes and Richard Strobach cosplayed as their favorite video game characters. Hayes dressed as Link from the Legend of Zelda series and Strobach was dressed as Master Chief from the Halo series.

“This is my first time at a convention dressed up,” Hayes said. “This won’t be my last one either.”

“Some of the parts was store bought but I had to modify some of it,” Strobach said. “It took me about a month to make.”

Artists were taking commissions for fans and random passerby who were interested in their art. Danielle DeMartini was one of the various artists who set a stand up for her art. She busily took sketch commissions and sold her artwork prints.

“I’ve been drawing for 14 years now,” DeMartini said. “I didn’t expect so many people to stop by the stand and ask for my drawings, the turn out is great.”

Blue Lake Casino’s management was happy with the amount of attendees at the Ohana Comic Con, and they’re already planning to host another one next year.

Freshman paramedic helps out those in need on and off campus

Danielle Brown remembers the day a man was rushed into the emergency room where they found out that he had cut his own toe off and tried to super glue it back on.

“I was working in the emergency room as an EMT, so this happened when I first started,” said Danielle Brown, a Humboldt State University freshman. “He was coming to us about two weeks after it happened, he was septic and ended up having a blood clot in his heart.”

Brown is a HSU freshman currently majoring in cellular/molecular biology but she’s also a licensed paramedic in Arcata.

“The toe was dead and we immediately had to cut off the foot to stop the infection from spreading,” Brown said.

Brown has been a paramedic for close to two years now. She started off as an emergency medical technician for six months where she completed the 1,700 hours she needed to become a licensed paramedic. As a paramedic she helped out in various different locations in Los Angeles, responding to all types of medical emergencies.

As a paramedic, Brown is trained beyond the requirements for an EMT.

“I have the ability to use over 150 different medications,” Brown said. “I can do CPR and I’m trained for any ‘in-field maneuvers’, anything you can think of that is needed in the field.”

Brown is always on call for the HSU campus as a paramedic. This means she responds to calls of people in need of medical assistance whenever her phone rings.

“I think I get a call at least once a week from some people next door needing some help,” Brown said.

According to Brown, the job gives her a high adrenaline rush. She’s literally always on her toes and no two days are the same.

“It’s always great to have the ‘go go go,’” Brown said.

In regards to the future with her career, Brown wants to go into emergency medicine. She hopes to progress from a paramedic to an ER doctor. She is doing this all because she not only likes helping people, but it also looks great on medical school applications.

Outside of the great parts of the job there are also some downsides, the main one being the fact that you never know what happens to the people you’ve helped afterwards.

“The EMTs and paramedics all have a saying which is ‘stitch em’ and ‘ditch em’,” Brown said. “You patch them up as quickly as you can and throw them on.”

Kebab has a literal meaning of a dish of pieces of meat, fish or vegetables roasted or grilled on a skewer. They’re easy to make and fun to mix it up with the ingredients. Here’s a delicious and easy vegetarian recipe that you can easily master on your own.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh cubed pineapple

• 2 orange bell peppers, slice and remove stem/seeds

• 1 (14 oz) package of extra firm tofu (can be replaced w/ meat substitute if desired)

• Glass or metal skewers

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon ginger

• 1 tablespoon pineapple juice

• Dash of avocado oil or preferred oil

Instructions:

• Drain and remove tofu from package, wrapping with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Cube tofu into large cubes.

• In a bowl, add the soy sauce, turmeric, garlic, ginger and pineapple juice. Stir to combine. Add tofu cubes and gently roll in the bowl to evenly coat with the marinade. Cover with plastic wrap to let them marinate for around 30 minutes (the longer, the better, but I only marinated for 20 minutes and they came out great).

•Slice the bell peppers into thirds at first, then into medium sized pieces that will fit on your skewers.

• When you are ready to cook, preheat the grill to medium-high heat and oil the grates to prevent sticking (I used an electric grill and it worked well).

• Thread the tofu, pineapple and bell peppers onto the skewers. Grill for 10 minutes total, making sure to rotate every few minutes. Enjoy with hot sauce if desired!

There you have it, a great and fairly simple skewer recipe that was satisfying to make and tasted wonderful after a long day! The flavors of the orange bell pepper and pineapple complimented each other surprisingly well. There are many different combinations of fruits and veggies that would also work with this recipe.

Follow your heart and happy cooking!

Associated Students throws Spirit Week for Humboldt State

As a school that seeks to improve the human condition and the environment, there are many things this university does that proudly sets HSU apart from other universities.

Spirit week, hosted by Associated Students, allowed many students to proudly celebrate being a Lumberjack.

School spirit is important in many different ways for students. Others think it is simply a week of fun and games on campus, while others, like business major Blake Fulgham, think it could have a lasting effect on the school.

“Emphasizing school spirit is important to draw potential future students to come up here, and show why we care about the school,” said Fulgham.

Attending college has a lasting effect on young adults. Most students graduate and transition into the career world, which starts a new chapter in their life. Though the college experience ends, memories seem to stick with graduates for a lifetime.

Spirit Week was a week for some students to reflect on why they enjoy attending this university. Being a place of inclusion, diversity and equality, Humboldt State has made thousands of students over the years feel at home.

“Humboldt State University is not so big in the sense that we can’t build personal connections with our professors,” said Business Administration major Zach McCormick. “Unlike at other big schools like San Jose State that have 30,000 plus students.”

As a smaller university, HSU allows students to feel more present as they participate in events, clubs, and even in class. For this reason, students may get a sense of inclusiveness as their voices will be heard compared to those that might be attending a larger university.

The themed days that Associated Students planned included Pajama Monday, Tie-dye Tuesday, Crazy Sock Wednesday, Meme Day Thursday, and Green and Gold Friday.

Psychology major Devon Taylor appreciates his fellow students showing love for HSU.

“It brings students together,” Taylor said. “Expressing different things as simple as dressing up.”

Celebrating school pride continued over the weekend for the Jacks homecoming game against Simon Fraser. Multiple tailgates were hosted on campus leading up to the last ever Humboldt State Homecoming football game.

The Jacks got their first victory of the season and took down Simon Fraser 23-16. Through bittersweet moments, thousands of fans anticipate supporting their football team until the very end of the season and HSU football career.

Whether it’s a big rowdy pep rally or something as simple as silly socks, HSU students express their love for the university during Spirit Week.

Now he’s the owner of AMPT

Fourteen-year-old Derek Russell and adult Derek Russell have many things in common: both love to skate, talk to people and have fun.

The biggest difference between teenage Russell and adult Russell is that one dreamed of owning AMPT Skate Shop in Arcata, and now one of them does.

This has been a long time coming in Russell’s life. He moved to Arcata from Port Washington, New York in the 1990’s and has lived a block away from APMT Skate Shop since its opening in 2002. Though he has moved away from time to time, Russell seems to always be attached to this store.

“My whole life I dreamed of owning this shop,” said Russell. “Whenever I was thinking of careers, I just said to myself I wish I could buy AMPT.”

Russell’s love of skating started when he was 14. His many skating influences include greats like John Cardiel and Tony Trujillo, but his initial influence is less obvious.

“Initially it was (the Teenage Mutant) Ninja Turtles,” said Russell. “And that’s really why I think skating is cool.”

Russell said he was never good at competitive sports like basketball or football, but skating was always there for him. Like many who delve into competitive individual sports, he liked the challenge being solely on him.

“I liked skating because of how it’s just you against yourself,” Russell said. “And really other than that everyone is just homies.”

Humboldt’s skateboarding community, like many in the U.S, really became solidified after the creation of the counties first public skatepark.

“When the skatepark was built in 1998, that was a big drive and got a lot of people into it,” Russell said.

Russell feels this community is built on the mutual respect for the sport. Russell said that there are many types of skill tiers and groups for skaters but only one thing is important.

“It really stops mattering about how old you are or who you are,” said Russell. “It’s all about your love of the sport, which kind of creates a type of equality for everyone.”

A skatepark is vital to the sport of skating, as well as a skate shop, to the culture of skating. Steve Melillo, a local skater and Russell’s friend, moved up to Arcata 10 years ago and said the shop means a lot to him.

“For me it’s been pretty much everything,” Melillo said. “It’s been the hub of the skate community for Humboldt, and I have met a lot of friends here, some that are my best now.”

Russell and AMPT have a bigger part to play in the community than most think. They support everything from skate competitions to building DIY skateparks in low income communities. But for Russell, skateboarding’s impact is simple.

“The best part of skating is the community,” said Russell. “Getting together and having fun and feeding off of each others good vibes.”