(Allentown, PA; New York, NY; Ely, MN and Calcutta, India – December 22, 2022)
Barely two weeks after its Edinboro premiere, a student documentary has earned a place in the roster of films that will be shown early next year in India at the Calcutta International Cult Film Festival. Organizers have recognized the film with four awards: Best Editing (Levi Lewis); Outstanding Achievement, Directing (Ethan Johnson); and Outstanding Achievement, International Short film; Outstanding Achievement, Documentary Film
Closer to home, the movie was named Best Film Under Five Minutes by New York’s Oniros Film Awards, also conferring an Honorable Mention in the Grand Jury Award category.
The film’s impressive collection of laurels also includes selection for screening in the Allentown Film Festival (PA) and the End of the Road Film Festival (MN).
The Pump-King profiles Anthony Pater, an accomplished sculptor of pumpkins and other gourds. Pater, a PennWest Animation student, employs the precision tools of woodworkers, sculptors, and ceramicists, to transform pumpkins into detailed, whimsical faces. “People expect jack-o-lanterns,” says Pater, but “I see my ultimate function as artist to defy expectations.”
Collaborating with editor Lewis and producer-director Johnson, student filmmakers Noah Kelley, Reggie Taylor, and Makayla King, completed the film in partial fulfillment of requirements for Professor Brian Fuller’s Non-Fiction Filmmaking course. Since Fuller’s arrival at Edinboro in 2018, class content has centered on the history and creation of short-form documentaries. The Pump-King joins Crafting in COVID, Good Curling, Roll Out, and Detecting Deception, in a list of the course’s student-produced films which have gone on to win festival accolades.