People: Obama hosts annual student film festival
President Barack Obama said the film festival he hosted at the White House on Friday is probably the only one ever featuring a director with a loose tooth.
The 15 films featured at the second annual event were made by students age 6-16 who were chosen from among some 1,500 entries on this year’s theme of giving back. “It’s like the Sundance or Cannes of film festivals that are open to the public through a government website,” Obama said.
The young filmmakers were joined in the East Room turned movie theater by entertainment industry leaders, including Academy Award-winning actress Hillary Swank and Steve McQueen, director of the Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave.” The masters of ceremonies were actors Kal Penn and Terrence J.
Swank, who won the best actress Oscar for “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby,” told the students that art rescued her from a childhood as an impoverished outsider, and encouraged them to seek out mentors to help achieve their dreams. “But the most important person when it comes to finding and achieving success is you,” she said.
The loose tooth belonged to the youngest featured artist – 6-year-old Noah Gue, of Bozeman, the son of a wildland firefighter father and photographer mother. His film was inspired by the changing climate and landscape in his hometown.
Other winners included a group of Chicago high school students who spun a hip-hop yarn of encouragement for peers facing adversity and a California 17-year-old who made a “sockumentary” about helping the homeless one pair of socks at a time. An 18-year-old from Arizona used his film to raise awareness about Navajo water rights issues, and an 18-year-old born with cerebral palsy documented his campaign to get wheelchair-accessible doors installed at his Texas school.
Legend fears ‘Blurred Lines’ precedent
John Legend says he’s concerned that the “Blurred Lines” verdict could set a scary precedent for artists creating music inspired by others.
Legend told the Associated Press on Saturday that the song sounds like Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” but says “you have to be careful when it comes to copyrights, whether just sounding like or feeling like something is enough to say you violated their copyrights.”
Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were ordered to pay nearly $7.4 million to three of Gaye’s children after a jury determined the performers copied elements of Gaye’s 1977 hit.
Legend says he’s “a little concerned that this verdict might be a slippery slope.”
The birthday bunch
Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim is 85. Actor William Shatner is 84. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 67. Actress Lena Olin is 60. Singer-actress Stephanie Mills is 58. Actor Matthew Modine is 56. Actress Reese Witherspoon is 39. Rock musician John Otto (Limp Bizkit) is 38.