News Release

SYRACUSE — Syracuse’s Pickwick Theater was buzzing with excitement Saturday morning, Aug. 5, where the third annual Chautauqua Family Fun Film Festival was held. The festival consisted of phone videos submitted by local residents capturing fun on the water, fun with friends, fun with kids and fun with pets and animals.

“Everyone carries a video camera today,” Mark Knecht said, Chautauqua’s project coordinator. “Our concept is to create a community video that focuses on family fun and community spirit. The number of people submitting clips was a record number this year. People love seeing their videos on the big screen.”

Two of the four film winners at the Chautauqua Family Fun Film Festival in Kathleen Johnston, left, and Rosanne Markham standing in for Karen Wellington. Not pictured; Kay Kelly and Stephanie Lochbihler. Photo provided by Chautauqua Family Fun Film Festival.

The festival included personal phone videos organized into four categories: “Fun with Water” with videos of tubing, skiing, swimming; “Fun with Animals” included videos of pets, a piglet, fish and a frog; “Fun with Friends” included videos of parties, dancing and yard fun; “Fun with Friends” included trampoline, fishing, bowling and even golfing. More than 60 video clips were submitted, so competition to select the best was a challenge.

At the conclusion of the show, cash prizes were awarded in each of the four categories. Kay Kelly won the “Fun with Kids” award for her little guy overcoming his fear and jumping into the water for the first time. The award for “Fun with Animals” award went to Syracuse’s Kathleen Johnston for the little girl and dog on water slide/trampoline. Stephanie Lochbihler won the “Fun on the Water” award for her video of her brave attempt to tame a wild flamingo.

The film’s producers, Matthew Wuthrich and Ryan Snider, were introduced by Jeremy Van Lue who served as the master of ceremonies.

“This year, people seem to know what we’re looking for and were more creative. It made selecting the winners more difficult,” Wuthrich said,

The festival was free to attend, but attendance was surprisingly small.

“With the increase in videos submitted I expected record attendance,” Knecht said. “We had some schedule conflicts which we will work to eliminate next year. It’s free to submit a video, and free to attend the festival, and the Pickwick is a great partner”.

The link to submit videos for 2024’s Festival will be open soon.

The videos for 2021, 2022 and 2023 are available on YouTube by searching for Chautauqua-Wawasee.