Tampa Film Fan

news and notes:ufva on youtube, next tampa film network meeting, film studies certificate at usf, gasparilla film festival bringing brittany snow to tampa

• The University Film and Video Association (UFVA) at the University of South Florida now has a channel on YouTube.
• The next Tampa Film Network meeting will be at 8 p.m. on December 11 at Chili’s on Dale Mabry.
• The University of South Florida now has an undergraduate certificate in film studies! It’s almost impossible to find information on this program on USF’s website, and once you find the info, you discover it’s a PDF document with an unattractive peachy-pink background. The program combines classes from several departments, but it’s housed in the World Languages Department and run by Dr. Margrit Grieb. They couldn’t have chosen anyone more qualified. I met Dr. Grieb a few years ago when I worked with the now-defunct Tampa International Film Festival. She took part in a festival panel discussion and was a joy to work with. Besides being knowledgeable and passionate about film, she was fun to talk to and genuinely nice. Hmm, maybe I could audit some film classes at USF and get the exposure and knowledge without having to stress about papers and projects and grades. Because even though classes like WST 4335 (Women and Film) and AMS 4152 (Film in American Culture) sound wonderful, classes like HUM 4930 (Neo-Realism and the New Wave:Post WWII French and Italian Film) and FOL 3100 (Israeli Films and Fiction) scare me to death if homework and grades are involved.
• Tampa native Brittany Snow has accepted an invitation to receive the  Gasparilla Film Festival’s Rising Star-Female Award at the fest’s closing night ceremonies on Sunday, March 2, 2008. Snow recently appeared in the movie Hairspray, where she played Michelle Pfeiffer’s character’s snobby, selfish daughter. Snow excels at playing bitchy, it seems; she was wonderful as a hateful-but-yet-seductive racist on Nip/Tuck. Previously she starred in the NBC series American Dreams and had a recurring role on The Guiding Light, for which she was awarded Soap Opera Digest’s Outstanding Child Actor Award. Snow’s upcoming projects include the thriller Prom Night, the drama Finding Amanda and Tony Kaye’s film Black Water Transit.