[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Platt_Liss.jpg” caption=”Liss Platt”]Liss Platt, assistant professor for the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, has won the prize for best documentary at the United States Super 8mm Film + Digital Video Festival for her work entitled “You Can't Get There From Here.” The film is a coming of age story, rife with burgeoning desire, adolescent rebelliousness and family crisis.

This project was commissioned by the Pleasuredome collective in Toronto, for an exhibition on the theme of “Sweet Sixteen.” The festival is the largest and longest running juried Super 8mm film and digital video festival in North America. The festival encourages any genre (animation, documentary, personal, narrative, experimental, etc.) created on Super 8mm/8mm film, Hi 8mm/8mm,or Digital video.

Every year the festival draws large audiences to celebrate works created with these small-gauge media formats. Audience members come to see small-budget works created by passionate film/video makers which are often more imaginative and impressive than the big-budget works produced out of Hollywood. The 18th annual United States Super 8mm Film + Digital Video Festival was held on Feb.17 to 19, 2006 at Rutgers University.

All works were screened by a panel of 12 judges which consisted of media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. The panel included: Josh Appelbaum (Time Off, Princeton Packet Newspaper), Juan Arancibia, Nicholas Crowe, Jess Emili (film editor, Inside Beat), Christina Entcheva, Sarah Hughes, David Leiberfarb (Newark Star Ledger), Liz Nadybal, A.G. Nigrin, Doug Piccinnini, Paul Power (Museum of Modern Art, NYC), and Liz Zalarick. These judges selected the 19 finalists from over 170 works submitted by film and video makers from around the world.

Liss Platt is an internationally renowned multimedia artist. She is committed to an experimental approach which utilizes hybrid forms. Combining personal narrative, critical analysis, humor, and gender politics, her work explores the way various representations (popular, subcultural, artistic) inform our understanding of ourselves within the world. Drawing heavily on camp and parody, her work attempts to playfully unravel some of the intricacies of identification, representation, and subjectivity. Her use of humour is a conscious strategy intended to increase accessibility and reach an audience that may not be open to or interested in queer subjectivities.