Insomnia Film Festival makes its long-anticipated return

Friday, Mar. 24 will mark the return of one of Geneseo’s most revered events, the Insomnia Film Festival. The festival, which takes place of 24 hours with the goal of creating an original short film, was a staple for nearly a decade before the pandemic; its founder, Geneseo’s senior instructional designer, Joe Dolce, eagerly anticipates the event’s return.

The premise of the event was based on one from Apple, which dealt with the same challenge of making a three-minute film in 24-hours, but ended in 2009: “When you work in [information technology,]” said Dolce, “you always get the, ‘We should be thinking outside the box’ comment… [and] there were no other colleges doing this.” 

The original Insomnia crew has long-since graduated and “Gone on to better things, hopefully,” Dolce said. Since most current students would not have been able to participate in the event during their time at Geneseo, given that it had to be postponed in 2019, Dolce’s focus right now is on recruiting students.

“We have three teams registered right now, which is by no means awesome, but every year at around this time I start to get nervous, because we only have three to five teams,” Dolce said. “I’m hoping that, towards the end of the semester, we’ll see an influx of teams.”

For Dolce, sticking to the script of the festival’s original design has been crucial to the post-lockdown transition: “I had originally started thinking, ‘How can I make this bigger, better?’ Technology has changed: [we’re] using Canvas now to upload videos, which I’m a little nervous about, but we’re sticking to our core principles,” he said. “I’ve been out of this for three years, and I just want to make sure that we can establish a base, make sure that everybody has a good time, and go from there.”

Dolce encourages students with all sorts of majors and interests to consider signing up for the festival. “One of the biggest stopping points we hear from people is, ‘I’ve never made a video before,’ [but] that shouldn’t be a limitation,” he said. “If you can operate the camera on your phone, and if you have even the slightest bit of technology savvy [like] how to use Google Drive, I can help.” He also bluntly noted: “We are not a film school. This is something that, generally speaking, is outside of most students’ wheelhouse, so pretty much everyone is on the same footing.”

Dolce also encourages students to shed themselves of the academic-induced pressure to create something “good.” “Art isn’t always good,” he said. “It’s the attempt that matters. As soon as we stop trying, that is when we stop progressing.”

As anticipation for the event ramps up, Dolce hopes to see the same excitement in the festival’s participants: “I’m hoping to see some of those Aha! Moments that we’ve seen in the past,” he said. “I’m hoping that, in a no-stakes environment where they only have things to gain and nothing to lose, there will be good times ahead; I miss students’ smile[s] and laughter, and [the] opportunity to see some students get that moment of ‘Oh man, I can’t believe this worked.’”

For those interested, Dolce’s advice is simple: just take the leap and register. “Put it on the calendar and make it a priority,” he said. “What often happens is that students don’t make [registering] a priority and get tied up with something else, and historically whatever they get tied up in isn’t nearly as fun as what we’re doing that night.”

Students must register by Mar. 21 at the very latest, as there will be a pre-event meeting on Mar. 22 between 4:30-6 p.m. Future insomniacs are encouraged to sign up before Mar. 12, though, to ensure that they receive a free t-shirt! Information about registration as well as the event itself can all be found on the event’s official site, geneseo.edu/insomnia. Students can also email Joe Dolce (dolce@geneseo.edu) with any and all questions.

“If anyone you know is even remotely interested in doing this,” Dolce said, “just sign up. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to win.”