Laitala’s entry to the international festival, Secure the Shadow, was recognized with a Director’s Choice award. John Columbus, the festival’s director, describes Laitala’s film as “meditation steeped in melancholia…utilizing antique medical stereoscopic images, which are simultaneously disturbing and beautiful.” The artist also has won other film awards, including the prestigious Princess Grace Award last year.

The May 2 program of nine works will, for the most part, contain films that explore political, personal and sexual issues from women’s perspectives. The May 3 program will be more “painterly,” said Columbus, “more visually sensual,” and will feature Laitala’s film.

Named after Thomas Edison’s experimental tar-paper shack studio, the Black Maria has been an international forum for cutting-edge independent filmmakers for seventeen years and has earned a reputation as one of the world’s finest.

“The Black Maria celebrates fiercely independent vision,” Columbus said. “The festival exhibits work that is not typically available anywhere else and takes it on national tour. As in the past, I expect that some of our pieces will go on to be nominated for and receive Academy Awards.”

For more information, contact the Bates College Museum of Art at 207-786-6158.

More than a dozen short films and videos will be screened in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at 7 p.m. March 9 and at 2 p.m. March 10. Admission is $5 and tickets will be sold at the door.

Now in its 15th year, the festival is directed by John Columbus, a faculty member at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He will be on hand at Bates to introduce this year’s selections and to answer questions.

The festival is considered one of the most prestigious venues for independent film, video and animation, and it receives entries from around the world. More than 1,000 works were entered for the current festival, competing for just 10 Jurors’ Choice Awards. The festival also presents Jurors’ Citation and Directors’ Choice awards, and works from each category are part of the current tour.

Among the films to be screened at Bates are:

• “Go-Go Rama Mama,” by Kate McCabe, which examines a go-go bar from the viewpoints of performers and customers.
• “Tool,” a look at extreme Scottish and German nationalism, directed by Shaz Kerr.
• “Class Struggle in Palo Alto,” a tongue-in-cheek study of upper- class residents of the California city, by Kim Roberts.
• “When Billy Broke His Head,” a first-person “road movie” on the disabled-rights movement by activist Billy Golfus, himself disabled in a traffic accident.
• “Spin,” a 58-minute condensation of 600 hours of satellite TV feeds by Brian Springer, who questions the truthfulness of network TV’s version of events.
• “Barbie’s Audition,” a spoof of American views on sex, power and abuse, whose director, Joe Gibbons, says he was inspired in part by the O.J. Simpson trial.

Sponsoring the festival’s second visit to Bates in as many years are the college’s Museum of Art, the Bates Film Board and the Discordians student group. More information is available from Anthony Shostak at the museum, 786-6158.