By Jana Wiersema, Staff Writer
On Saturday, April 21, hundreds of Asbury University students put on their best black-tie attire. They lined up outside of Hughes Auditorium and waited for hours, hoping to get the best seats to Asbury’s Highbridge Film Festival. At the festival itself, those students watched 13 student films, including a film made by a high school student, an episode of the university sitcom, an awards ceremony and the witty banter of many hosts. Afterward, the audience dashed over to the Miller Communication Building for an after-party catered by Chick-fil-A.
On Tuesday, April 17, many of those same students—all decked out in jeans, t-shirts and sneakers—took a break from their homework and crowded into the student center. They squeezed into tight rows of couches and chairs. Some even sat on the floor or crowded onto the stairs. Then they watched about 26 student-made films that did not make it into Highbridge.
This student-run event—Lowbridge, as it’s affectionately named—is a tradition of Trustees’ N3RD Hall, according to Jonathan Heffley, a member of the Vindicated Class and this year’s head of Lowbridge.
How did the tradition start? No one’s certain. A Collegian article by Cathryn Lien dated it as starting in 2011; Professor Greg Bandy, co-founder and director of Highbridge, said the first Lowbridge was held in 2009 in the Grill (now known as the Bistro). Andrew King of the Anchored Class, who worked on last year’s Lowbridge with Heffley, said other N3RD residents recall the first Lowbridge being held off-campus in 2011.
“A few guys wanted to watch a lot of the films that weren’t put into Highbridge, so they just put their friends’ films together and watched them in a backyard,” King said. “It was so popular that the next year they moved it to Hughes. Then the next year, they did it in the Miller Screening Room, and that’s when they added the ‘guideline’ of films having to be submitted to Highbridge to qualify for Lowbridge. The year it was in the screening room they had 300 people show up, so the next year it was moved to the Stuce, and it’s stayed there ever since.”
Heffley stated that some students even submit films to Highbridge for the sole purpose of getting into Lowbridge. As King said, any film submitted to Highbridge and not selected for the festival is fair game to be shown at Lowbridge—unless the film doesn’t meet “community standards for media viewing,” according to Bandy.
Bandy is the one to pass on each year’s rejected Highbridge submissions to Lowbridge organizers, but that’s the extent of faculty involvement with Lowbridge. Both Heffley and Bandy stated that Lowbridge is a completely student-run event, not sponsored by the university or student government.
Because of this, it fell to Heffley to do most of the work required to make this year’s Lowbridge a success. Sophomore Josh Sutlive, another N3RD resident, assisted with the work.
“I’m in charge of getting all of the films that were submitted to Highbridge, watching all of them to make sure they’re okay to screen, putting them all in order, balancing them between documentaries and comedy, drama, etc.,” Heffley said. He also stated that he was in charge of getting the necessary audio equipment, setting up the Stuce and getting volunteers.
“My favorite part is the night of,” Heffley said, “just seeing everybody packed into a room, all enjoying each other’s company, all enjoying the films and the projects, everybody just having a really good time.”
Lowbridge, in many ways, is a polar opposite to Highbridge. Highbridge tickets are $15 each; admission to Lowbridge is free. Highbridge is university-sponsored; Lowbridge is student-run. However, there is one essential purpose that both events have in common. According to the home page for Highbridge on Asbury’s website, the festival “exists to inspire, promote and support creative storytelling for young people around the world.” Lowbridge does the same, just in a different setting.
Filmmaking is like music and athletics,” Bandy said. “You have to keep practicing to get better at it, and I think Lowbridge provides some encouragement for a young filmmaker.… It’s absolutely epic to even get a short film done, completed and submitted as a student.… You have to start somewhere, and Lowbridge is a great place to start.”
