This past weekend several members of the St. Lawrence Film Club —  including myself —  were lucky enough to be invited to visit the Adirondack Film Festival held in Lake Placid, N.Y.  

Former St. Lawrence University Professor Ginny Schwartz offered several all-access passes to any interested students, with priority given to those studying and/or pursuing a career in film and media studies. The festival was held on Main Street, with anywhere from five to 15 separate film screenings and five to 10 seminars and/or workshops held daily. This happened from Friday, Oct. 21 to Sunday, Oct. 23. Most films were shown at the gorgeous — and deceptively large — Palace Theater on Main.   

The Adirondack Film Festival (and film festivals in general) typically establishes a set of categories for the different types of films they will be showing. Often these films — ranging from short to feature-length in duration — are ranked or judged and subsequently awarded. The films shown are pre-established by festival organizers and chosen from a set of over several hundred entries. These films span genres from horror to sci-fi to documentary and are most often independent and/or student produced. Most of these films are yet to be released — that is, if they’re scheduled to be released at all — and the festival acts kind of as a pre-screening to gauge general audience reactions. During our time at the festival, SLU Film attended two screenings: “Return to Seoul” (Chou, 2023) and “Next Exit” (Elfman, 2022).   

The narrative of “Return to Seoul” surrounds protagonist Freddie, a woman of Korean heritage adopted by a French couple in the late 1980s. Freddie takes a trip by herself to Korea to reconnect with her culture and attempt to find her biological parents. The plot takes place over 8 years, providing the audience with glimpses of Freddie at various turning points in her young adult life. Freddie is restless and hungry for explanations and experiences all at the same time. She also tends towards immaturity — making it very easy for a younger audience to identify with her and how she evolves as a character throughout the film.    

  Whilst “Return to Seoul” focuses on a character trying to make the most of her life as she knows it, the movie “Next Exit” introduces two protagonists attempting to end their own lives, for reasons initially unknown. In the timeline of the film, a research scientist discovers proof of life after death, claiming she can track the souls of individuals recently deceased entering the afterlife. The scientist hosts an extensive study, offering peaceful euthanasia to volunteer subjects in exchange for their permission for her to continue studying the path of their souls into the afterlife. Teddy and Rose are two complete strangers who learn they must travel together cross country to their appointments with the research lab out of necessity, learning a lot about themselves and each other along the way.   

Both of these films, although they differ in pacing and formal choices, displayed a great level of creativity and sophistication. I recommend checking them out upon their future release.