Brie Williams, a cinema senior, enjoys watching bad films as much as good films. The fledgling screenwriter, inspired by both Oscar-caliber and straight-to-video b-movies, recently won second place in the Slamdance Screenplay Competition for her short script "Robert for Apples." The comedy is about a 9-year-old boy who "has more to worry about than being an LSD baby -- he can sense the impending apocalypse." Williams is "a writer of rare talent, comic brilliance and originality," said Joseph McBride, assistant professor of cinema. "I am sure she will go far as a writer."

Where do you consider your hometown?
I grew up in the woods on a mountain above a town. … I love it there. It's in south central Washington state. The closest town is called White Salmon, Wash. It's on the Columbia River gorge.

Why did you choose to attend SFSU?
I've wanted to go here since my sophomore year of high school. I wanted to check out a big city.

What are your passions?
I like bad movies -- the worse, the better. "Frankenhooker" is one of my favorites. … They're the least pretentious type of cinema. Cinema is a really pretentious field. Bad movies are an attempt to be anti-that. I do like good movies -- I just have more of a spot in my heart for the bad ones.

What inspires you?
I can't help but be influenced by everything around me. I can be inspired by fortune-cookie tabs or by something I overhear someone say on the bus. Mostly little things.

What is your favorite restaurant?
Probably the Video Café on 21st [Avenue] and Geary. It's a 24-hour diner that plays movies that it doesn't know are bad. It plays new movies like "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and stuff like that. So it's 24 hours, plays movies and it has pretty horrible food. But it's cheap.

What is your favorite food?
Fortune cookies.

What is the last album you bought or downloaded?
The last album I bought was Huey Lewis and the News, "Fore," on vinyl. I had it on tape since I was 8 years old, but the tape broke.

Other than what you're reading for school, what book is on your nightstand?
I have Jane Fonda's autobiography that just came out. Because I was named after her, I feel this connection with her. I was named after a character in "Klute," a prostitute, Bree Daniels. … She plays this prostitute being stalked by a psycho. So my mom saw that when she was pregnant with me and decided to name me after a prostitute.

I feel good about it. Jane Fonda's pretty cool. She's a kick-ass character in the film. I can relate; I own it. My grandma actually left it to me in her will.

What are some of your other hobbies?
I play the ukulele. I just came out with an album, EP. Five songs … about movies. I have a song about "Creature from the Black Lagoon." One from "Invaders from Outer Space." … One about a movie called "Beat Girl" and "A Girl in Trouble," which are propaganda films from the '50s.

What person, dead or living, would you most like to meet?
I would say Charlie Chaplin, because he was always my traditional [answer] when people ask me that question. But then on my 19th birthday I talked to him on an Ouija board, so I don't know if he's on my list anymore. … I was like, Mr. Chaplin, "Do you have any advice for an aspiring young filmmaker?" And there was a pause and then he moved the little thing to spell out, "I'm silent." Which is hilarious. The man is hilarious.

-- Matt Itelson