Cinema Fest Considers New Venue

(Cole Memorial Auditorium, Edinboro, PA – May 8, 2025) 

Some 400 people attended last week’s 2025 Dave Weinkauf Film Festival.  Its three-hour program tested the patience and comfort of the seventy-five or so folks who stood in the rear and along the walls of the Multi-Purpose Room, largest meeting space in the Frank G. Pogue Student Center.

Adding to the considerable draw of student work inside the MPR, a gallery corridor of departmental club tables offered ceramics, illustration, photography, and jewelry, for sale before the show began.  Meanwhile, event photographers snapped student filmmakers on the festival’s red carpet while the Moving Pictures Guild served popcorn and theater candy.

In the wake of overwhelming attendance, festival organizers are contemplating a change of venue for future end-of-term media nights.  Kari Althof, PennWest’s Associate Director of Event Services, suggested the 750-seat Louis C. Cole Auditorium.

Called Memorial Auditorium when completed in 1941, the structure was named in honor of those who served the country in war.  It was renamed in 2001 to acknowledge 1965 alumnus Louis C. Cole.  At $1 million, the Edinboro graduate’s unrestricted gift is the largest in the school’s history.  The building is a showcase for a ceiling mural by Alfred James Tulk.  The painting depicts the development of knowledge through the ages.

Funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the tune of $2.8 million, Cole was recently renovated.  After submitting their final grades for the semester, Professors Pattullo, Kravchenko, and Fuller test-screened student films to audition the auditorium’s upgraded projection and sound system.

“I think we agree the configuration of speakers is well-suited to film soundtracks,” said Professor Fuller, who teaches Digital Audio for the Moving Image.  “If we have a concern, it’s that maybe an audience of 400 will be swallowed in a space as big as Cole.  But we sure can’t stay where we are.  We’re victims of our own success.”