WATERVILLE — “The Perfect Picture,” by Jonathan Gilbert, was aptly named.

The six-minute production, Gilbert’s first, was named Best Picture at the 2011 Film Chowdah: The Maine College Film Festival.

The film, which follows a young boy who copes with abuse by snapping pictures with an old camera, also collected Best Experimental, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Actor awards.

“The Perfect Picture” is one of nine films that will be screened during the Maine International Film Festival’s Maine Shorts Showcase at 6:15 p.m. Saturday at Railroad Square Cinema.

Gilbert, 23, entered the movie into the 2011 Maine College Film Festival when he was taking a lighting class at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport.

The 2006 Jay High School graduate, who earned an associate degree in video and audio production from Southern Maine Community College, said he became enamored with film-making while helping his sister in high school.

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The school’s video equipment was broken when the class of 2004 was trying to make its senior class movie, so Gilbert pitched in and got the job done.

That experience, said Gilbert, focused his career goals.

“I don’t know what God has in store for my future, but this is what I want to do,” he said.

Gilbert said he hopes the film raises awareness that some children are abused on a daily basis.

“Son Rise,” a 10-minute film in which an “unexpected phone call forces a man to deal with a devastating event,” was runner-up at the 2011 Film Chowdah.

The entry by David Miller, a Southern Maine Community College student, won for Best Narrative and Best Director at the festival.

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Dr. Ben Lounsbury, a Lewiston surgeon who specializes in otorhinolaryngology — ears, nose and throat — also specializes in “laugh and learn health videos.”

Lounsbury said it took him and his crew about 800 hours to make “Icky Tooth,” a six-minute film that features a dying tooth pleading for better oral care.

At 17 minutes, “The Cure,” by Ryan Cook is the longest film that will be shown Saturday.

Cook, who graduated in 2005 from Waterville Senior High School, has two films playing at the 10-day festival.

Last Saturday, Cook and fellow Emerson College graduate Derek Desmond attended the world premiere of their documentary “Finding Donn Fendler: Lost on a Mountain in Maine 72 Years Later.” The documentary will show again at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Colby College’s Given Auditorium.

According to the festival guide, “The Cure” is about a “former MIT professor and scientist Jean Cartier (who) works to cure the loss of his coma-ridden wife.” The film stars Marie Cormier of Oakland and Greg Chabot, formerly of Waterville.

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Five other shorts with Maine connections are “Bummer,” “Lobster,” “Rootbound,” “On Closer Inspection” and “Outside It Is Snowing.”

“Bummer,” by Mo Twine, Philip drives cabs for a struggling company owned by his mother. Philip’s girlfriend runs a marketing company and wants to help promote the company, but Philip’s mother is against the girlfriend’s costly scheme.

In “Lobster,” by Jessica Caldwell and Charlotte Glynn, “Molly spends her last day in Maine with a local lobsterman who shows Molly a side of her hometown that she has never seen before.”

The festival guide calls “Rootbound,” a film by Shawn Harmon, in which “man and nature converge in a tight space.”

In “On Closer Inspection” director Joslyn Richardson delves into “the mysterious qualities of the microscopic and the hidden dynamism of changing scales.”

Graham Reeder’s video “Outside It Is Snowing” was shot in Bar Harbor. In it, according to the festival guide, “a girl explores the ways in which she navigates her surroundings — from the warmth indoors to the snow outside.”

The Maine Shorts Showcase at 6:15 p.m. Saturday is at Railroad Square Cinema in screening room two. It seats 90 people.

Beth Staples — 861-9252

bstaples@centralmaine.com


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