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It may go unnoticed, but every day we all engage in folklore.

Michael Owen Jones, a world arts and cultures professor and faculty adviser for the upcoming UCLA Folklore Society’s Vitas Film Festival, defines folklore as “expressive forms, processes and behaviors that people learn and utilize in their everyday lives.” So when you call your significant other “honey,” eat your grandma’s famous pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, or help sing “Happy Birthday” at a friend’s party, you’re participating in folklore.

“(Folklore is) everything we do, the process involved in being human beings,” said Joann Staten, president of the UCLA Folklore Society and graduate student in cultural studies and performance.

Folklore has existed as long as humans have, but in the last century, the invention of film has helped bring its diverse customs to a new, global audience.

The annual UCLA Folklore Society Film Festival was created in 1986 by then-graduate student Arthur Gribben. But the festival was suspended in 1999 with the closing of the Folklore and Mythology department.

This year’s organizers see the 2004 festival as the new incarnation of what they hope will be an ongoing tradition, blending the talents of many different organizations. The bulk of the funding came from the Center for Student Programming and the world arts and cultures department, with some extra support from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Though the logistics have changed, the purpose of the festival has remained the same, according to Jones.

“(We want) to screen and thus honor outstanding visual productions that document, present and interpret the kinds of behaviors found in all societies and that therefore define us as members of a common species,” he said.

Although folklore is found in all social classes, the “folk” aspect means it has traditionally been associated with lower income classes. Some might find it strange that folklore has found its way into film, a medium traditionally open only to those with a lot of money. The rise of inexpensive video equipment has made it easier for people who might not otherwise have connections to the film industry to tell their stories.

“Video has democratized the recording of traditional behaviors and events,” Jones said.

Open to the public, this year’s competition contains works from around the world, with contributions from both professional and student filmmakers. Because of the lack of strict guidelines, there is no running theme across the submissions, according to Staten.

“We just wanted to see what people would send in,” she said.

Even professors are showing their works. Interested in how folklore can adapt while keeping its traditions intact, world arts and cultures professor and faculty adviser John Bishop has two films being screened: “In the Wilderness of a Troubled Genre” and “O What a Blow that Phantom Gave Me.”

“Even though (folklore) appears to change on the surface, the core values don’t change,” he said.

According to Bishop, film has proved an ideal form of preserving traditions that might otherwise be lost to history. This year’s festival hopes to fight the perception that folklore is only in the past.

“We’re not looking to the past anymore,” Staten said. “We’re looking to the present.”

For more information, visit www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/folklore.