Steubenville Film Festival shines light on local talent
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STEUBENVILLE -- Gus Kearns leads an interesting life.
He’s a circus performer who was born in Australia and moved with his family to the United Kingdom. He’s a filmmaker, and that has brought him to Steubenville.
“I was in a circus with my dad, who was a circus performer,” Kearns said while relaxing at a table inside the Steubenville Grocery Box during Thursday’s opening reception for the inaugural Steubenville International Film Festival. “At the age of 14, we all shifted over to the U.K. It was a bit more practical in performing arts terms, because everyone lives much closer together in terraces there, so it’s much easier to do kids parties and entertainment work.”
The London resident and puppet master has brought two films to the festival -- “St. George and the Dragon” and “Troll of London Bridge.” Both are being shown during Saturday’s 10 a.m. animated films for all ages block at the Sycamore Center.
Kearns said he has been involved with animation for the last 10 years. It’s a passion that has allowed him to draw on several of his life experiences.
“Animation kind of came as the fruition of performing in the circus with my dad, as well as my model making,” he explained. “I used to paint miniatures and am really into (J.R.R.) Tolkien and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and all of that -- the genealogies and histories and they all kind of merge together into the performance of puppets and the making of puppets, you know, like (Steven) Spielberg and ‘Jurassic Park.'”
His background with the circus, he explained, has played a big role in his films.
“Life in the circus is kind of like a family -- it can be manic and crazy, but extremely rewarding,” Kearns explained. “We’ve had experiences where we go into a town with our little caravan, all of the other performers in their little vans. It’s like a community -- everyone has their own unique still. We have the slack wire act, the unicycle, jugglers, clowns and the ringmaster, the person who owns the circus and runs it. It’s like a whole tree.
“I’ve had experiences going into little towns with populations of 200, and we were there for one night, and we’ll have the whole town, the butcher, the baker, teachers -- everyone there -- sitting around. We perform, and then we leave on that very same night. We pack up the tents and off we go,” he added.
“It’s a really amazing experience, and a lot of that’s through my dad and family,” Kearns added. “I’m just progressing that through my animation. I tried to show a bit of that performance and family spirit, especially in my St. George film. It’s all about a family of entertainers.”
A love of English history, a nod to Tolkien and a medieval family are part of "St. George and the Dragon." Those themes make it something that all viewers can appreciate.
“Everyone loves the tale of the knight and the dragon,” he explained. “It’s something that hits everybody, and doesn’t leave anybody out. I obviously love talking fantasy and the rest of it. Obviously, there’s a Catholic faith angle, but it hits the mythology angle as well as history. This hits all of the boxes for everyone, actually.”
In addition to his background with the circus, Kearns said his faith is important in his life and in his work. That, he says, offers an insight into who he is.
“I like to have people understand where I am coming from,” he said. “Sometimes, there’s a bit of conflict with people and they might not understand the core of what I am saying, what I find with something in a film that is uplifting. It also gets to the core of what I am about and what they might not understand.
“It puts it out there so I don’t have to have a long conversation with them about what I think,” he added. “They can go off, watch my film, a little, short three-minute format film, they can meet me and they got me. They understand what I’m doing, and it’s a quick way to cut through all of the small talk and everything.”
Kearns said he discovered the Steubenville event after meeting Kate Stapleton, the Pittsburgh-based director of the festival, during a London screening of her film “The Inner Sea.” After talking, the two discovered they had many shared beliefs, and she invited him to submit some of his works. While this is his first trip to Steubenville, he said he was familiar with the city through the work of Matt Fradd, a prominent Catholic author, speaker and podcast host who also is originally from Australia, and the Franciscan University of Steubenville.
A significant number of out-of-town guests were expected for the festival, which includes 58 films. It’s the type of event where visitors learn what the community has to offer, and led Mayor Ralph Petrella to say it is “awesome to have such an important event in Steubenville.”
Bobbyjon Bauman, executive director of the Sycamore Center, was instrumental in the festival's creation, having met Stapleton at a reception. He credits her and husband, Casey, with bringing the idea to life.
“The is a really ground-breaking event,” Bauman said. “I think this really puts Steubenville on the map. I really credit Kate and Casey for all of the time and effort that they put into researching how to do an event like this with professionalism and excellence. I’m hoping this will be something we can carry on for decades. This is something that is great.”
The two-day festival opened Friday with a coffee and conversation with filmmakers at Leonardo’s Coffeehouse before a day of screenings. Saturday’s schedule will open at 8:30 a.m. with a screenwriting workshop at Leonardo’s. Screenings start at 10 a.m. at the Sycamore Center and run through the day, with an after party set for the Spot Bar beginning around 10 p.m.
For information or to obtain tickets, visit steubenvilleintlfilmfest.com
Sponsors include UPMC Trinity, Nelson’s, the Downtown Steubenville Business Association, StoutPGH, Youth Bee Works, Pastaio Trattoria Italiana, Malta’s Pizza, the Spot Bar, Leonardo’s Coffeehouse, Fourth Street Standard, Bookmarx, Spyridon Studio, the Sycamore Center, Garloch, Bayberry House Bed and Breakfast and the River Network.