A group of 16 Kalamazoo College students earned the Best Amateur Picture award last month in the Kazoo 48, a film festival that challenges entrants to take an assigned genre, prop, character quirk, location and line of dialogue, and create a short film in just 48 hours.
Motherboard Loves You follows Ether and Nettie as they try to escape an underground dystopia ruled by the mysterious Motherboard. Student members of the film team included Noah Webster ‘26, Ava Fischer ’24, Celia Hannan ’26, Davis Henderson ’25, Carolyn Ingram ’24, Maddie Lawson ’25, Adèle Loubières ’24, Lorelei Moxon ’26, Theo Niemann ’26, Eli Shavit ’24, Jadon Weber ’25, Andrés Marquez-Collins ’26, Josetta Checkett ’25, Lee Zwart ’27, Maria Tripodis ’24 and Rex Jasper ’27.
“I’m incredibly proud of what our team was able to accomplish in just 48 hours,” said Henderson, a co-director. “We have created something truly special, and I look forward to what we make in the future. I hope everyone on the team can view this win as inspiration to create even bigger and cooler projects.”
The Motherboard Loves You team was one of two student groups to earn accolades at the Kazoo 48. A second team that included Grace Cancro ’25, Ian Burr ’24, Ryan Muschler ’25, Audrey Schulz ’25, James Hauke ’26, Aidan Baas ’23, Michael Robertson ’25, Abby Nelson ’24, Jakob Hubert ’25 and Mabel Bowdle ’25 competed in the professional category against film-production companies. Their film, about a man—played by Robertson—who got high and thought he was on a fantasy quest to build a stop sign, earned Best Use of Character for Hubert’s role as a character who gave advice in rhyme.
Motherboard Loves You will be screened Thursday, May 30, at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts during an event that will feature all of the Kazoo 48 award winners. It will also be screened at the Sunflower Film and Music Festival in Paw Paw from Friday, June 14 –Sunday, June 16, and can be viewed anytime on YouTube.
Fellow co-director Moxon and Henderson both noted the film only was possible thanks to their team. They also wanted to extend special thanks to contacts and K connections Christopher North, Sophie Decker ’25, Daniel Flores ’24, Helen Stoy ’26, Siona Wilson ’25, Max Wright ’26, Sedona Coleman ’23, Visiting Instructor of Art Daniel Kim, Media Producer and Studio Instructor Jaakan Page-Wood and Professor of Theatre Arts Lanny Potts for their contributions.
“I would like to say that the Kazoo 48-Hour Film Festival is a fantastic opportunity to get out there and make something,” Henderson said. “Consider registering for next year on its website, kazoo48.com. There is a huge amount of talent on this campus and I hope that our passion and efforts can allow the film and media studies department to grow and offer new classes, and maybe even become a major or minor.”
